Pseudo Review: The Strangers

If you’ve seen the trailers, you know what The Strangers is about. Young couple, secluded house, three masked psychopaths. There aren’t a lot of surprises here at all, but there aren’t meant to be. This movie is about anticipation and dread. You know bad things are going to happen. The opening scene actually takes place the morning after the majority of the film. We see the aftermath, the horror is how we get there.

There are so many quiet, creepy moments in The Strangers. Some of them will seem familiar, like a knock on the door way too late at night. Others won’t be familiar based on experience, but rather the fact that we see a lot of our worst fears on the screen. I know a Zombie outbreak is pretty unlikely and the full moon probably won’t cause a Werewolf attack. But some nutjob(s) attacking my family? Now that could happen. Thats scary, and that’s why The Strangers works. I’m not sure the film needs the whole “based on a true story” angle (it really isn’t by the way). The film is terrifying not because it has happened, but rather because it can happen. 

 There aren’t a lot of special effects here. No flash cuts or MTV style editing. There’s blood, but not by the bucket full. No, the biggest effect here is the use of sound, and to a greater extent, silence. Director Bryan Bertino seems to know a thing or two about atmosphere, and he infuses The Strangers with the terrifying kind. Terrifying atmosphere, in a modern horror movie? Who woulda  thunk it?  

If you’re a fan of horror, you owe it to yourself to see this film. Why? Mainly ’cause its damn good. The other reason is that I want to see more movies like this, and less (i.e zero) like the Prom Night remake. Horror is not dead, there are filmmakers capable of making scary films. We just have to pay a few bucks to see them and hope studios allow more to be made. 

The Strangers gave me exactly what I wanted. Atmospheric horror that scared me. The next time my girlfriend and I stay at my parents summer cottage alone, I’ll be thinking about this movie… and making sure she answers any late night door knocking.