A Terrorizing Look At “The Strangers”

Posted on

November 5, 2008

Written and directed by Brian Bertino, The Strangers is a horror film unlike most. In fact, it’s not really a horror film at all. It’s more of a “terror film” – a film that makes you feel like you are the characters and the events that are happening on the screen are really happening to you.

The film starts with a narrator who proclaims, “What you are about to see is inspired by true events. According to the F.B.I. there are an estimated 1.4 million violent crimes in United States of America each year. On the night of February 11, 2005 Kristen McKay and James Hoyt went to a friend’s wedding reception and then returned to the Hoyt family’s summer home. The brutal events that took place there are still not entirely known.”

In a bad mood over some kind of fight held during the wedding reception they attended earlier in the day, our main characters, James Hoyt (Scott Speedman) and Kristen McKay (Liv Tyler) return to an isolated vacation home and shortly thereafter receive a knock at the door in the middle of the night. What ensues afterward is both frightening and realistic.

What makes The Strangers stand out from other horror films is threefold.

For one, it consists of an all-star cast. Liv Tyler’s performance is remarkably fear-provoking and Scott Speedman performs well as the Tyler’s love interest.

Secondly, the events that take place in the film are entirely plausible – unlike many other horror pictures. As you watch the film, you feel like the event that are happening to Speedman and Tyler could happen to you at that same moment… or any time after. It’s these sensations that make the film stick with you long after you’ve finished viewing it. Like most things in life, the things that happen in real life are a lot scarier than anything that could ever be made up in the Hollywood studios.

Not only did the Speedman’s and Tyler’s performances have me hiding behind my couch and making me think I was seeing black figures move around in my living room, but the sound design and music for the film was really quite impressive. Sound is often times an element that is overlooked in horror films (and in most films for that matter), but the sound design in The Strangers was obviously something that a great deal of thought was put into before production began. Sharp piercing alarms, loud blaring music, and dead quiet moments where all you can hear is the beating of your own heart make the sound design of The Strangers one of the best I’ve seen this year.

If you’re looking for a film that not only scares you, but also gets you thinking, then The Strangers is a film you just must experience for yourself.