“The Strangers”

Rogue Pictures

Directed by Bryan Bertino

Starring Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, Gemma Ward, Kip Weeks

Rated R

2 Stars        

"The Strangers" will never be included among the great horror films of our time, but while this home-invasion fright-fest doesn't impress my critical sensibilities, I must admit that I checked the locks on my doors after arriving home from the cinema. So I'll give the film begrudging thumbs up, because when a horror film manages to get its creepy hooks into your skin, it at least deserves some faint praise for psychological effectiveness.

This is a typical horror survival story of a young couple trying to survive a night of attacks by some psychotic killers. You’ve seen this all before. We start out by meeting our lovebirds just as they are going through a rocky patch in their relationship. James (Scott Speedman) has just asked Kristen (Liv Tyler) to marry him. She said no, and now their romantic cabin retreat has turned into a night filled with awkward silence.

Of course, there are worse things than silence, such as a knock on the door at 4am, followed by a night of terror as a trio of masked thugs break in and terrorize the young couple.

Why? Because they were home.

"The Strangers" works as an unsettling exercise in random violence, but the story falls flat on its face. James and Kristen are predictably terrorized, so they run and hide in a futile game of cat and mouse. There are brief moments of hope, but this is one of those movies where the bad guys are given all the wildcards. Even a loaded shotgun doesn't offer much help to the photogenic couple as they face off against a guy with a bag on his head and two girls wearing doll masks.

Okay, so I'm not impressed by the villains, but once again, kudos to the director and his cinematographer for taking a silly concept and creating some genuinely scary moments. The masks are dumb if you stop to think about them, but you'll scream when they suddenly pop out of the darkness. The same holds true for those cheesy audio blasts that startle, never really frighten, but certainly manage to amp up the film’s tension.

"The Strangers" is a very short film, and that's probably for the best as there just isn't enough material here to effectively fill anything more than an hour and a half. Noting of note happens the film, but there is nevertheless enough creepy ambiance to make “The Strangers” into an appealing diversion for audiences looking for some quick thrills.

 

Movie reviews by Sean, “The Movie Guy,” are published Wednesdays and Fridays in “The Port Arthur News.” He can be found weekly on KAVU-TV, KFDM-TV, and KVIC Radio. Additional reviews can be found at www.rottentomatoes.com, www.panews.com or at www.myvictoriaonline.com. Sean welcomes your comments via email at smcbride@kavutv.com.