Holy Crap! That's about all I could say when I finished The Strangers last night. But I'll get there eventually.

First off I have to say I was already scared as I sat down to watch the movie. I'd been waiting quite a while to see this one and I'd worked it up in my head as just about the scariest thing ever. Well it may not have been the scariest thing ever it did have me on the edge of my seat, yelling at the screen, and jumping at ever noise in the house. (All houses make noise but why, oh why did mine have to pop right by the front door just as someone banged on the front door in the movie?!?!)

And I have to admit it apparently shook me up more than I'd realized as I slept horribly last night, tossing and turning and constantly looking up to see if there were any masked faces in my bedroom. Clearly the movie had the desired effect: it scared me, a lot.

The movie begins with an ominous warning that it is inspired by actually events (something I'll get to later) and begins by showing us the aftermath of the evening, a bloody knife, blood on a wall, cars with large holes in the window, and lets us know that the exact nature of what went on is still unknown. Then we cut back to the previous evening.

James (Scott Speedman) and Kristen (Liv Tyler giving an award winning performance*) are returning to his families summer home from a wedding and a disastrous proposal attempt. As the couple tries to figure out how to act around each other following their fight we get a sense of the house and the open area around it. Writer/Director Bryan Bertino gives us plenty of time to get to know James and Kristen as we ratchets up the suspense and it works wonderfully making you care for the characters, unlike most horror movies. Once the couple answer a knock at the door the movie becomes a study in suspense and terror that does not relent.

Normally I'd go into lots of details about the movie, but to be honest its one that needs to be entered into without much information. Most of what you need to know can be found elsewhere on this blog or in the trailers but I'll do a quick recap. Before long James and Kristen are terrorized by three strangers, a man and two women, wearing masks that are honestly creepy as hell. The girls wear porcelain masks that look like dolls, while the man, clearly the leader wears only a burlap sack with eye holes in it.

I will say that the most terrifying moment in the film can be glimpsed in the trailer it's the moment, seen above in the poster, when the man enters the house while Kristen is there alone. For what seems like forever, but was probably less than 2 or 3 minutes we see him simply standing in the back staring at Kristen with her not having a clue that he's there, or that anything is wrong. It is a truly unnerving scene and left me curled up on the couch.

Included on the DVD is a short making of and I liked what one of the crew said. He described the movie not as a horror film but as a terror film. It's job is not to scare you with clever jump scenes, but instead to terrify you throughout the entire film. In this sense I felt it succeeded.

Now I would be remiss if I did not mention the fantastic score and sound editing for this film. These guys should win an Academy Award, not be nominated but win. Without the score and all of the sound this movie would not be a tenth as scary as it is. But the movie makes great use of the sound to play with your feelings, scare you, and keep you on edge. The numerous sound people did not miss a single beat in this film and the movie is seriously rewarded because of it. If you do not leave the movie haunted by the sound then something is seriously wrong with you.

Now about this "Inspired by True Events" warning: Some feel it's placed there to scare people more, and maybe it is. But, Bertino wrote the movie because of an incident in his life. Now nothing like what happened in the movie actually happened, but Bertino says that one night when he was younger he was home alone and someone knocked on the door asking for a person who didn't live there. The next morning he found out his neighbors house had been broken into. From there it seems he spun off this terrifying tale. And that's the extent of the "True Events"

I'd recommend this one to anyone who likes to be scared, but you might not want to watch it alone.

*She won the Spike Scream Award for best Actress in a Horror Movie

Labels: Halloween '09, The Strangers

Holy Crap! That's about all I could say when I finished The Strangers last night. But I'll get there eventually.

First off I have to say I was already scared as I sat down to watch the movie. I'd been waiting quite a while to see this one and I'd worked it up in my head as just about the scariest thing ever. Well it may not have been the scariest thing ever it did have me on the edge of my seat, yelling at the screen, and jumping at ever noise in the house. (All houses make noise but why, oh why did mine have to pop right by the front door just as someone banged on the front door in the movie?!?!)

And I have to admit it apparently shook me up more than I'd realized as I slept horribly last night, tossing and turning and constantly looking up to see if there were any masked faces in my bedroom. Clearly the movie had the desired effect: it scared me, a lot.

The movie begins with an ominous warning that it is inspired by actually events (something I'll get to later) and begins by showing us the aftermath of the evening, a bloody knife, blood on a wall, cars with large holes in the window, and lets us know that the exact nature of what went on is still unknown. Then we cut back to the previous evening.

James (Scott Speedman) and Kristen (Liv Tyler giving an award winning performance*) are returning to his families summer home from a wedding and a disastrous proposal attempt. As the couple tries to figure out how to act around each other following their fight we get a sense of the house and the open area around it. Writer/Director Bryan Bertino gives us plenty of time to get to know James and Kristen as we ratchets up the suspense and it works wonderfully making you care for the characters, unlike most horror movies. Once the couple answer a knock at the door the movie becomes a study in suspense and terror that does not relent.

Normally I'd go into lots of details about the movie, but to be honest its one that needs to be entered into without much information. Most of what you need to know can be found elsewhere on this blog or in the trailers but I'll do a quick recap. Before long James and Kristen are terrorized by three strangers, a man and two women, wearing masks that are honestly creepy as hell. The girls wear porcelain masks that look like dolls, while the man, clearly the leader wears only a burlap sack with eye holes in it.

I will say that the most terrifying moment in the film can be glimpsed in the trailer it's the moment, seen above in the poster, when the man enters the house while Kristen is there alone. For what seems like forever, but was probably less than 2 or 3 minutes we see him simply standing in the back staring at Kristen with her not having a clue that he's there, or that anything is wrong. It is a truly unnerving scene and left me curled up on the couch.

Included on the DVD is a short making of and I liked what one of the crew said. He described the movie not as a horror film but as a terror film. It's job is not to scare you with clever jump scenes, but instead to terrify you throughout the entire film. In this sense I felt it succeeded.

Now I would be remiss if I did not mention the fantastic score and sound editing for this film. These guys should win an Academy Award, not be nominated but win. Without the score and all of the sound this movie would not be a tenth as scary as it is. But the movie makes great use of the sound to play with your feelings, scare you, and keep you on edge. The numerous sound people did not miss a single beat in this film and the movie is seriously rewarded because of it. If you do not leave the movie haunted by the sound then something is seriously wrong with you.

Now about this "Inspired by True Events" warning: Some feel it's placed there to scare people more, and maybe it is. But, Bertino wrote the movie because of an incident in his life. Now nothing like what happened in the movie actually happened, but Bertino says that one night when he was younger he was home alone and someone knocked on the door asking for a person who didn't live there. The next morning he found out his neighbors house had been broken into. From there it seems he spun off this terrifying tale. And that's the extent of the "True Events"

I'd recommend this one to anyone who likes to be scared, but you might not want to watch it alone.

*She won the Spike Scream Award for best Actress in a Horror Movie

Labels: Halloween, The Strangers, Things I'm Watching This Halloween

Yesterday I started a new column for the next couple of weeks "Things I'm Watching This Halloween," and this is item #2. Today's entry is a movie I have never seen but which has been on my radar since last summer when I saw a panel for it at Comic Con. The director and stars were there and showed a couple of uber-scary clips and I was hooked. Then I kind of forgot about it until I saw the preview for it back in April. You can see my review of that trailer here. So without further adieu today's entry is:


The Strangers is "inspired by True Events" which means it's basically made up, but that makes it scarier. From what I know it's about a couple of are staying at a friends house following a wedding and get terrorized by three strangers. The scariest part is that the strangers seem to have no motivation or reason except that they can. And so the couple must fight for their lives or die trying.

And that's about all I know. As I said I've been looking forward to this for awhile and when it finally came out I did have the chance to see it one night. But I'll admit I was too scared. I had just moved into my new house, and my wife and son were gone for the weekend. So as much as I wanted to see it I was too scared to come home to an empty house I didn't really know and freak myself out.

But now I'm ready, I got it in the mail today from Netflix and I'm hoping to sit down and watch it tonight. I know it looks scary as hell and that I can't wait to see it. I'll get back to you on whether or not it's actual as scary as I've made it up to be in my head.

Labels: Halloween, The Strangers, Things I'm Watching This Halloween

Friday night I finally made it back to a movie theater to see "Prom Night" and while I actually enjoyed it quite a bit (a review will come later on) the scariest part of the night was the trailer for The Strangers.

The Strangers tells the story of a couple, Kristen and James (Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman), who come home one night after a wedding and are slowly terrorized by 3 masked strangers. From the preview it looks like the couple are celebrating a recent engagement (or are about to become engaged) as there are rose petals laid out on the bed and candles and champagne set out on the table. But their celebration is interrupted by some strange noises outside.

Then comes the scariest part of the trailer, Kristen standing in her dining room/kitchen area as a man in a mask, made from what looks like a burlap sack, walks into the frame behind her. The man doesn't do anything but stand still and watch her. But the most unnerving part is how long the scene plays. Most trailers cut from scene to scene as quickly as possible, but here it stay on this creepy image for what seems like an eternity, but is really only a few seconds.

Then we see the other 2 masked strangers, who look to be women as they appear and then are gone when the couple turns to look for something. When the couple hears a record playing and go to investigate they see James' cell phone melting in the fire place. They hear more noises and find the word hello written on the inside of one of their windows.

Then an ax crashes through the front door as James stands inches from it, and the trailer kicks into high gear. We see quick cuts of the 3 strangers as they terrorize the couple, chasing them, and finally standing in front of the couple as they sit on the couch (another terrifying scene).

And in the end we get possibly the worst part of the entire trailer. We hear Kristen cry out "Why are you doing this?" and then comes the reply in a female voice "Because you were home" It's terrifying to find out there is no reason to it. Something like this could happen to anyone and for no reason other than because you were home when they stopped by.

If the movie is half as terrifying as the trailer it will be an amazingly frightening movie. I'm hoping to get a chance to see this when it comes out, preferably on opening night with a packed house. And the main reason I'll be going to see it: it's a scary movie that's not torture porn. I love being scared in movies, but the new string of torture porn makes it hard to see any good scary, suspenseful film, because all they're about it grossing people out not scaring you.

Let me know what you think, the trailer is below:

Labels: The Strangers, Trailer Review, Trailers