Review: The Stangers

Masking Fears

Today, audiences just can't get enough of the horror franchises out there. Unfortunately, I do think it is in a rather sad and pitiful state as audiences expect to be thrilled with senseless violence and gore, particularly flooding in from the Saw enteries and Eli Roth's grotesquely horrible Hostel films. To be honest, the thought of a low key thriller like The Strangers, that doesn't rely on a heavy dose of blood on the left and shameless nudity on the right sounds like an intriguing gesture to the American public to invite them into something new and creative. However, you have to put your ear up closely to the door, and you'll hear what that idea ends up being: just noise.

Writer-director Bryan Bertino's first feature film moves slowly in its first act to unravel the tale of a couple, James (Scott Speedman) and Kristen (Liv Tyler) whose plans for a romantic evening have gone sour, very sour, and are forced into James's old cottage to spend the night there. Soon, a young woman knocks on the door and asks for someone that isn't there. She leaves, but we all know that it doesn't stop there. No, she returns in a mask along with two other companions as they begin their barrage of terror on the innocent couple.

Being a first time director, there are times when I was impressed with Bertino's craft of this film. His unconventional first act of slowing the pace to allow for character development is an interesting hand, and there are also moments when he lets the film's own atmosphere create the suspense instead of relying on the cheap tricks of the trade (scary music, cheap pop ups). However, for every step forward Bertino takes to create something better, he takes about three steps back with something else. In those first few introductory moments, the camera has the unsettling jarring motion as if presented in one of those overused "docudrama" formats. Bertino would have us believe that these moments are to let us get to know the characters so we can care about them later, but his approach is like the friend who tries to pay a compliment who is smiling all the way through it. You can't trust what they're saying, and we can't trust Bertino's method as well, especially when he also uses heavy shadow lighting from his cinematographer Peter Savo. And despite some good acting from Speedman and, in particular, Liv Tyler, they are working with material that doesn't work with them back.

There's one moment when a frightened Tyler is hiding out in a barn and she hears noises of her tormentors closing in. After a while, I thought to myself, "They're just making noise out there; they aren't doing anything!" Truthfully, that describes the entire film. The whole thing just makes noises without any real threat behind it. Some moments do grab us, but they quickly recede into familiar horror movie territory. Still, I put faith in Bertino and think that a future attempt at a film will go better. Until then, make yourself a stranger to this picture. ** / ****; GRADE: C