Wow! Could this be anymore lame?

The screenwriters were surely the most lazy fuckers on the planet. Sheesh! The match-up wasn't even interesting. Anonymous super psycho killers with nothing to lose vs. super disorganized, incompetent, emotionally vulnerable victims.

There was nothin' here but two or three gratuitous jump scares, and the one minor unearned plot twist with the friend.

This is the worst kind of horror movie.

0 out of 5.


(PS: It is especially trite, and gallingly so, since it was released in the same year as the US version of Funny Games. The Strangers had the exact same premise, except without the insight and humor, let alone the horror. This is an out and out shameful production. Liv Tyler should know better... though luckily they didn't waste a real actor in the lead male role.)

I actually thought the acting was top notch though as was the production, the atmosphere was certainly there, but execution got sloppier as the movie moved on to average levels despite the solid ending.

My girlfriend dragged me to see this tonight. What a piece of crap. I was laughing most of the time. I'm not giving an F simply because I loved the scene at the end with the Manson family and the little Christian boys.

Plot "twist"? I saw that scene coming a mile away (well, as soon as the friend showed up, really).

This film would of been over when Michael comes, gets something thrown through his window, hers loud music, sees a truck smashed up, sees his friend's Volvo smashed up, hears loud music, friends cell is not working, sees signs of struggle, and then BEFORE ENTERING HOUSE CALLS 911. Such a stupid lazy fucking film.

I tend to agree with baumer a lot, and bradley when he's being serious (which is most of the time nowadays)... so yeah, my expectations just dropped a lot.

Sorry, I don't want to ruin it for you, but it just did nothing for me. Many people liked it though. So igve it a chance and make up your own mind. But just be warned.

I do agree with that. It was very obvious.


THE STRANGERS - 7/10 ( B )

I wish I could have loved "The Strangers," as it's technically very well-done. The atmosphere is great, and so is the set-up. I loved the use of the record player, noises, shadows, etc. There are some really great things here, and I wish more horror movies would follow suit and actually try to be scary instead of just trying to top the previous popular horror film by being gorier/more brutal (Though I have no problem with gore, and it can be pretty cool when mixed with suspense, like in the recent French slasher "Inside"). Was I scared? No. But I never am, so I wasn't surprised this didn't get to me. But it was pretty creepy and I appreciated its old-school horror ways. Where does it go wrong? Well, on one hand I loved its straight-forward approach, but on the other I eventually found myself wishing there was more to it. There was no depth to the story, and I like some depth in more serious horror films. I think around the time she went to the barn was when I got a little bored with things.

Liv Tyler was very likeable and my favorite stuff was with her alone at the house when he went to get cigarettes. It was a great build-up. And unlike some people I didn't have a problem with the very ending. Since I cared about the characters, mostly her since I spent some time being suspicious of him, I was glad to be left with a glimmer of hope that her character might make it. I don't see how anyone can say that that little part ruined the movie.

For most of the movie my rating was around a B+, but the last 20 minutes or so I thought it went downhill. The direction is pretty masterful at times and the film excels in creepiness, but as much as I admired it for that and really did like the movie, it just wasn't "great" as a whole.

It's a stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, cheap scare that the movie doesn't need. And what's worse, it's not even scary. You know exactly what's going to happen simply by the way the camera is moving.

I enjoyed it. I'd give it a B/B+, nothing truly amazing but it provided some very good effective scares, which is increasingly rare nowadays.

People are upset that "there was no point"? Seriously? That is like, why it was so fucking creepy. I call bullshit on that. The shot of the killers driving away scot-free in their Ford was especially chilling.

I couldn't agree with you more.

I couldn't agree with you less.

It's not that there is no point to the killngs. There is often no point to people killing other people. The problem is that there is no point for them to run around like ninjas, kill them in the end, instead of when they were in the house in the beginning of the film. This could of been over in 5 minutes.

I think it's obvious that the killers' whole game plan was to terrorize whoever was home for an extended amount of time before doing them in. Cutting the phone line, shutting off the power then turning it back on, making the random noises outside, etc. was all designed to psychologically put the fear of God into them, thus giving them some sort of power which they obviously got off on.

It's like a cat playing with a mouse. It will pretend to let it go, make it think it has a chance, and then snatch it right back up. If they were that messed up in the first place to kill for no reason whatsoever, it makes sense that they would want to psychologically torture their victims first.

Wow, I always knew cats were messed up. That sounds like a great movie - - when does it come out?

Well-said! It's rather obvious that they are toying with them. If they really wanted to kill them right away, they could, but it's more "fun" (for them) if they don't.

Well, that is about the stupidest reason I've ever heard, and it's not like they were quiet about it. They should of been reported when the first shotgun blast ws heard, the fire broke out, the cars banging togther....such a lame ass film.

Holy shit. I don't really know what else to say after watching this film. It was such an atrocious film that I really truly do wonder if the filmmakers set you to make a comedy. There were so many laughable moments in this film. Liv and Scott both give just brutal brutal brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrutal performances. The characters act with no logic what so ever. My favorite line was when after it has already been shown that the killers can get into the house, Scott looks at Liv and says, "I'm going outside, go hide in the house." Yeah hiding in the fucking house works just great. Honestly is there any film this year that has treated their audience any dumber. Fuck this film.

F.

It was an above average movie of it's kind (although that doesn't say a lot). A bit of a let down from the awesome trailer and promos, though.

I liked the sequence at the end (save for the horrendous last shot), but some of it was stretched thin through the middle. And I wish they had chosen different masks for the killers, since it was kind of cliché and had the opposite effect that the director intended (the audience laughed). Regular black snowmobile masks would have been much more effective and realistic, imo.

B-

After the first 30/45 minute, it started to get boring and more boring afterward. Many scenes were really dragged for nothing or whatsoever point to serve. They were just dragged, so the whole thing can run into an 80-minute long film. Remember the usual cliche in horror movie? When the character decides to do something really stupid? Well, found here as well. But worse, the cliche led to nothing. They just added those up to make sure this will be long enough for 80 minutes. And that is, indeed, the laziness of the screenwriters of this movie. Pity, since the atmosphere was really creepy and both leading were, while nothing good, at least ok. A disappointment.

C+

Lazy ass movie with no logic at all as others have already mentioned. Movies like this make me mad as hell especially when the innocents don't even nick the psyco's. This joins the ranks of Wolf Creek, Hills have eyes 2, and Wrong turn 2 as the worst horror movies i've seen. F

I really enjoyed it largely because it made me crap a new blanket. The scene with him watching her from the shadows was terrifying.
The whole thing was genuinely scary actually.

I agree it lacked logic and good scripting sometimes, but what horror film doesnt? I think even The Ring is full of questionable character actions.


B+

This was the scariest movie I have ever seen. It freaked me the fuck out. But I had a real problem with the ending.
C

Well in reality, its not really a "true" story as most of us were lead to believe. Just loosely based on one event in the directors life.

Still I liked it. Very creepy. Grade: B

*****SPOILERS******

I really loved the movie. I don't mind a horror movie being as simple as possible. I'd take that over some overexplained mess, like it tends to be. The premise was simple and we all knew that when we went to the theater to see this. Why elaborate on something when there's no need? This is a horror movie about the terror of unexplained home invasion. It happens every single day in real life. Do you think someone who breaks in into your home will give you a detailed list of why he/she is doing it? These people were crazy, wanted to mess with this innocent couple, they did, end of story. That's all I need to know. The film plays during its entire running time of what you see/know and what you don't see/know. It really worked for me. The first part when one of the masked killers enters the house is one of the most disturbing scenes in recent years. Add to that plenty more of solid scares and creepy moments and you have a winner in my book. The directorial debut here was more than good and the actors all did a terrific job. Sure, it is predictable at times (like the scene with the best friend) but I don't demand 100% surprise factor/originality. It was a fresh enough take on an already bastardized genre. Again, I loved the movie and I had a great time seeing it. As for the ending, I see it as one last cheap scare. I didn't see it as "Oh, she's alive!" I thought it was imposed that she did not make it alive. Plus, it was revealed that it was only added after test audiences reacted the wrong way with the original ending of the killers driving away. So, we should only blame ourselves for the cheap ending.

8/10 (B+)