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The Strangers (2008)
320 out of 451 people found the following comment useful :-
One of the best suspense movies ever, 16 November 2007
Author: dannyg4 from United States
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
Saw the screening for this film and it was truly terrifying. The whole audience was screaming at parts and there are several scenes that make you jump. The tension buildup during the movie is incredible. Some of the scenes are disturbing but not overly gory. Liv Tyler does a convincing job of making you feel the fright and a lot of the acting is non-verbal. Scott Speedman also does an excellent and believable job. With todays crazy headlines, this is the kind of movie that you can actually imagine happening somewhere in this country in real life. Trust me, at the end of this movie you will be double checking the locks on your doors and windows.
66 out of 97 people found the following comment useful :-
What a waste of time, 29 May 2008
Author: Jason Kiff from United States
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
*** Warning *** Spoilers *** For such a short film, this managed to cram in every senseless cliché of the so-called horror genre. '...Girl runs from bad guys, girl trips, girls falls and hurts herself, girl whimpers, duh...' No character development, no depth, no sympathy for the characters. '... bad guys are harassing your house and threatening you, so OF COURSE you get hysterical, cry, and seek out every spooky noise...' So bad guys are hacking at your front door with an ax, you've got a loaded shotgun in your hand, but you don't shoot, you throw a chair at the door, Oh Wait, I've got a gun! But by the time you think to shoot the bad guys are gone. So your under attack from bad guys and it's just you, your girlfriend, and a loaded shotgun, so instead of hunkering down and letting them come to you to get shot, you leave your girlfriend alone in the un-secured house while you wander off to the tool shed to find and old ham radio. Sure, makes sense. So you go visit your friends and someone shoots out your windshield, do you: A- drive off fast and call 911, B- call 911 then run in the house to check on your friends, or C- dust yourself off, sneak into the house quietly, without ever bothering to wonder why your friend's car is wrecked, who's pickup truck that is, why the house is trashed, don't bother turning off the loud stereo, or calling out your friends' names, in fact don't even bother to look behind you to see if maybe the people who shot out your windshield are still around. That's right - C !?!Everyone who died in this movie deserved to die for being such mindless, spineless, insipid, whimpering idiots. Maybe if you've never seen a movie before, ever, or if you've had recent head trauma, or maybe if you're Amish this movie might scare you. Maybe. Don't waste your time or money.
REVISION::: it's now Sunday 6/1. I originally posted the above comment after an advance screening of this movie late-night on thursday 5/29 (because I work at a movie theater I get to see all the movies before they're released.) So I've noticed something peculiar... there are, as of now, about 8 pages of comments on this film. About 3 pages of comments before mine (meaning before the movie came out) all gave The Strangers 9 or 10 stars, glowing reviews, and taglines like "best horror movie ever," "scariest film ever," and "awesome." But then, if you look at the dates of submission, 95% of all the comments posted after the movie was released say it's lackluster at best, anticlimactic, boring, lame, and not worth watching. So, I wonder, is that a coincidence, or maybe, just maybe, were all those people who posted great comments prior to the movie's release doing it for some other reason? Were they being paid to hype the film? Do they work for the production company? Or is it all just a big coincidence? Hmmm....
87 out of 142 people found the following comment useful :-
This might be just as scary as Halloween and The Shining., 22 May 2008
Author: jmjhora from United States
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
I caught a special preview of this movie only one week ago, and let me tell you something. The Strangers (2008) tells the story of a soon-to-be married couple going on vacation out in the country, and renting a house for the weekend. As the night goes on and the romance begins to flourish, the couple is interrupted by continuous knocking on the doors, and banging on the windows. Suddenly, three beings dressed with masks over their faces begins to terrorize, stalk, and tries to murder the victims inside of the house.
I will not tell you everything about this movie, because I do not want to spoil anything for you. I will tell you this, though. Halloween (1978) and The Shining (1980) were probably labeled the best horror films ever to be made. The Strangers might even beat them out. Packed with a good background story, horrifying scenes, excellent acting, a well mapped out script and enough intensity to keep you on the edge of your seat until the end, The Strangers is the scariest horror film yet to be made by the clutches of Hollywood directors and screenplay writers.
10 / 10.
Congratulations.
65 out of 100 people found the following comment useful :-
Who knew they still made movies like this?, 30 May 2008
Author: Wolf30x from Cincinnati, OH
The Strangers is a movie that delivers everything it promises it would. It scares you. Simple as that. Instead of relying on buckets of gore and an over-contrived premise, it keeps things simple and thats what makes it work. For an hour and a half, the viewer is subjected to a slowly mounting sense of dread that just keeps building without ever pulling back. The story never falls victim to the usual horror movie clichés, but at the same time , it doesn't make any ridiculous attempts to go against them. Perhaps the best thing that the movie has going for it is it's believability. There isn't really any thing to distract the viewer from buying into the premise wholeheartedly. Considering that this is the director's first ever movie, it's a feat that's even more impressive. This is the kind of movie you shouldn't watch at home alone in the dark.
75 out of 125 people found the following comment useful :-
Like 'em scary ? You'll enjoy THE STRANGERS, 28 May 2008
Author: Kelt Smith from Baltimore, MD
If you like scary movies, you'll enjoy THE STRANGERS. Young couple (LIV TYLER & SCOTT SPEEDMAN) go to his parents isolated vacation home for the night. Arriving late at night, they're not in the house for long before the 'strangers' begin to slowly toy with the two. Strange sounds, moved objects, a young girl at the front door at 4 am looking for an unknown.
I won't say anything more about the plot because I don't want to spoil it for you. I will say that the movie pulls you in from the beginning. It is fast paced and well done. Additionally the main characters in the film are sensible with the situation for the most part; unlike so many horror movies where the would be victims are constantly doing stupid things making it easier for the perpetrator(s). The film has all of the ingredients for a good scary movie and it delivers !
77 out of 132 people found the following comment useful :-
Stranger Danger, 27 May 2008
Author: Sophie King from United States
I was lucky enough to catch an early screening of this over the weekend, and all I can say is WOW. This movie grabbed my attention not as quickly as I would have liked, but when it did get me, it held on tight. This movie is terrifying, maybe not in the way you would expect it to be, but this movie is just about as disturbing as it comes. While I don't see it becoming an instant classic right away, I can definitely see this as a legendary horror film in a few years. While the story wasn't exactly "one of a kind" (I've seen the original, and the french version "Ils"), it is one that never stops scaring. The acting was great from the whole cast, and you could literally feel the tension and the fear. In some points I even felt my heart skip a beat or two. Personally, don't believe any of the VERY FEW poor reviews this movie has received, you will definitely be scared and shocked at this movie, and you will definitely want to sleep with the lights on....
47 out of 79 people found the following comment useful :-
Lock Your Door, Pretend You're Safe...and Watch, "The Strangers"!!!, 31 May 2008
Author: Welcome_to_Dogville from United States
"The Strangers" was an intense ride.
"Inspired by true events", and setting the tone from the first second, The Strangers grips you instantly and doesn't let you go until the credits role.
The movie was NOT scary in the sense of, say, Saw. It wasn't scary in the sense of The Eye or One Missed Call....it was SCARY. Never have I been more frightened of a movie than I was for "The Strangers".
Liv Tyler gives a completely believable, unfaltering performance. The tension is built in a smart way...a more sophisticated style of horror with only one or two cheap scary movie cop outs.
If you loved the movie (as I did) read up on the events their inspired by...they're f#@$%^g MESSED UP.
27 out of 42 people found the following comment useful :-
Review of The Strangers - CONTAINS SPOILERS, 1 June 2008
Author: louhazosc from United States
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
I have used IMDb for years but have never registered to submit a review. However, after reading positive reviews on The Strangers and actually having it compared to "The Shining" and possibly being the best horror movie ever I HAD to comment.
First off, one of my favorite horror movies for scary and suspense is The Ring and horror movies I love are classics such as The Shining, The Exorcist, and comedic as Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness, The Saw series has also impressed me MOST of the time (3 was a dud). If you consider my choices terrible then stop reading, this review will not cater to you anyway.
Movies such as the Shining were incredible based on imagery and superb acting. Nightmares were brought onto the screen and it was not necessary to jump out and scare you. The twin sisters at the end of the hall just sucked! Images from the Ring - need I say more. Again there were the jump scenes but the images still scare me when I work alone at night in the office. Oh and the suspense just seeing water leaking into the room knowing that she was coming.
This DOES NOT happen at all in The Strangers. In 2008 horror has escalated to a point where it is difficult to cause a scare without the jump out and scare you. So The Strangers went the route of "The Sick and Twisted Family" who you see every single scene of in the previews. Guy in the burlap mask stands ominously in the kitchen without Liv seeing him....oooooo scary. The girl stands in the woods 100 yards away....oooo terrifying. The other girl is on the swing...oooo not that. They banged on the door and window a few times to really increase the tension though. Two times the girl even asked "Is Tara home?" is that "I am so stoned" voice
That was it!!! I promise you. Oh wait, the guy in the mask jumped onto the window once when Liv was looking out. OK, you got me, I jumped. Every line that the Strangers say in the previews is their complete dialog - "You're gonna die" and "Because you were home" THAT WAS IT. Well, a couple more at the very end. You want a sick twisted family?? Rob Zombie hit the peak on that one, sorry. What's in the killer's head is far more scary than a mask...Hannibal maybe?
So eventually The Strangers make their way in. Oh, disturbing images and massive bloodshed that made this rated R? Are you serious? You ready? Liv cuts her hand really really really bad, a shotgun blow to the head where the impact isn't show but the body is on the ground for a while and some head is missing, then the grand finale? Our main characters are tied up and a butcher's knife is slowly inserted by each Stranger into the victims, 2 in the guy, one in Liv - no blood...
Movie over. You like it?
46 out of 80 people found the following comment useful :-
A Decent Horror Flick - Nothing More or Less, 28 May 2008
Author: Der_Schnibbler from Germany
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
A couple drives out to the house in the country which belonged to the guy's father in order to spend a quiet night together, until strange people who wear doll masks show up and terrorize them. There's the plot. Like the recent "Vacancy," a horror film does not need much more than that.
The film builds a lot of tension and, for the most part, avoids jump-in-your-seat scare tactics. If you are expecting torture and gore in the line of "Hostel," you won't really find it. Are the silent, mask-wearing villains sinister? Yes, at times they are. But what actually gives the film its effect is not so much its goings on as its conclusion, which is depressing, hopeless, and contains no redeeming value.
What I mean by no redeeming value is that the kind of final "tie in" most of us have come to expect by the end of a movie ("Ah, so that was the villain's motivation") never comes. All the horror visited upon the hapless couple is unexplained, as if it came from a dark void in the human character. What I dislike about this is that it implies this darkness is somehow inherent, and merely to be accepted at face value. Save for the cases of a few highly disturbed individuals capable of something like that (i.e. Ted Bundy), I do not think most people will find this assumption realistic.
But hey, it's only a horror film, right? We watch it to laugh at the "plot holes" (don't you know pointing out a horror film's logical "inconsistencies" makes you a genius?!) and shake our heads in obnoxious smugness when a character runs in the "wrong" direction. Better yet, let us simply laugh out loud at the most harrowing displays of human suffering because we are too immature to enjoy the film for what it is--to let it do its job without interfering because we're too busy trying to bolster a non-existent American ego at the expense of a film.
People at my theatre laughed as well, but that had more to do with the general character of the audience than with the movie itself. The movie is, indeed, frightening, albeit leaves one distraught and unsatisfied. But is it frightening enough to be a masterpiece? I would hesitate to compare it to the likes of certain other classics.
"The Strangers" is a good horror film, done in classic style (no moron teenagers, alternarock soundtracks or contrived plot twists) which, save for its depressing conclusion about human nature, works well. Viewers who enjoy this will also enjoy "Vacancy," "Cabin Fever," and the "Hostel" films.
Now on we go to the hordes of intellectual giants who will point out why this movie was either a) "funny," b) irrational or c) "the best, sickest, coolest movie ever."
23 out of 36 people found the following comment useful :-
FINALLY, something a step above trash like The Eye and One Missed Call, 2 June 2008
Author: Awakening124 from United States
I love a good suspense/horror movie, but the problem is that so few horror movies are actually GOOD these days. I blame Lionsgate for the most part, since they're the main company churning out horrible movies and calling them "horror." The Strangers is a nice breath of fresh suspense. It takes a simple premise (instead of over-complicating things with super natural B.S. like the movies mentioned in this review's title) and makes it truly frightening. I thrives on simple moments, but those moments are full of intensity and fear. The acting is on point, the script is very real, and it all feels very fresh. The only thing that's even remotely negative is the thing with the Mormon kids, but it's not too huge of a deal. If you're a fan of SUSPENSE, go see The Strangers.
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