The Strangers

I must admit, I don't have a lot of experience critiquing teen slasher films or the horror genre in general but I will outline my criteria in a horror/slasher film so that you can decide whether you will agree or disagree with the following analysis of The Strangers.

1) The scare factor must be there. I think that the longer I am caught thinking about the movie afterward, the more the movie was able to do its job. I can forget a drama quite quickly and still have respect for it, but a horror film must stay with me.

2) There must be blood. If it's a film with murders and violence, don't butter it up for me: show me the reality of the situation. I want to see a guy in a bathtub lathering up with a bloody piece of brain. Anything less that realistic is patronizing the audience. HOWEVER, that being said anything more than what is realistic can get gratuitous, outrageous and lets face it just silly (none of us want to see Rambo 4 again).

3) Characters. We need motives, secrets, twisted back stories, development and most importantly in a horror film when there is a small amount of relatability to the killer it makes it that much more creepy/thrilling. Think about it, none of us (I should hope) are capable of murder, but when there's that tiny pinch of a killer where in the back of your head you think "I know how that feels" or "I know someone just like this guy," you feel a chill up your spine as if to say "I think I know this guy." Case in point: American Psycho, we know the yuppie culture and we see guys like Patrick Bateman in the media, even walking in the streets. Which is what makes films like American Psycho more than simple slasher or horror films, they are dramas.

Which brings me to The Strangers. This film had all the thrills of a teenage horror film, jumpy scenes when you open the curtains, classic injured legged victim crawling away from the slowly walking murderer, on and on thematic tricks that we've seen before. I swear, the formula for directing a slasher film is so common now that Hollywood must have them available to order in value meals now. Unfortunately, there was no super-sizing here. The film starts where it ends (which is part of the problem) in a cabin in the middle of nowhere. The location is just as appropriate as the plot, which is also in the middle of nowhere. The premise is simple, a couple having relationship troubles come together and have a fatalistic cry for eachother's love (sooo cliche) when in the end are moments away from being stabbed quite literally and metaphorically in the heart.

The film manages to spike your scared senses for the first hour, but it manages to carry on for another 20 minutes. When a friend of the couple comes to visit and ends up fooling them into thinking he's the actual murderer, he turns the corner where the couple is waiting with a shotgun to kill whoever comes into the room...he gets his brains splattered on the wall like a spaghetti food fight. It is clear at this point that The Strangers had run out of gas. Before this point however it really managed to tickle the spine and keep me scared.

As far as my 3 criteria goes, number one: it managed to scare me and keep me jumping but it was quite forgettable (I barely remembered I watched it to write this review); number two: It had a decent amount of blood at a realistic rate, bravo! Finally three: I was so detached from the characters that I wanted them to die. I was cheering for the strangers. Liv Tyler (who I saw in person at Jimmy Kimmel) and Scott Speedman (great in Felicity) do a fine job though I must say with a typical script.

In conclusion, for those who have seen the film I would like to dispel the apparent Hollywood tag that the movie was "based on true events." The True Story Behind the New Movie "The Strangers" is a mixture of three stories.

The killers, a principle male assailant and female accomplices, is based upon Charles Manson and the Manson killings.

The frantic "there's blood everywhere" 911 phone call and "bounding to a chair and stabbing" was based on the killings in Cabin 28.

The basic story of a couple being terrorized by a group of people was based on the famous killing in the Czech Republic, which was also made into a French Film titled Ils, translated to mean "Them."

In the Czech Republic murders, an Austrian couple are terrorized in their vacation home by three teenagers and are later killed in the forest when they try to escape. BUT, a concrete source for this alleged crime has yet to be found other than countless blog postings, leading most people to believe that the story was engineered much like the Blair Witch Project, to give Directors a legal excuse to claim that it was based on a "True Story."

In the Cabin 28 murders, the daughter of a woman walks into a cabin where her mother, brother, and brother's female friend were staying only to find them stabbed and hammered to death. She calls 911 frantically repeating "there's blood everywhere," which there was although no one heard anything all night.

This took a few hours to finally piece together, but I noticed that no one else had figured it out and wanted to be the first to say, "I cracked the story."

The Strangers True Story claim is definitely true, but a combination of several stories to appeal to general audiences. That's Hollywood, but, as scary as it may be, also real life.

CONSENSUS:

Rotten Tomatoes give this move a 43% rating

Zoom In Analysis will DISAGREE with this rating and give it a benefit of the doubt rating at 5 out of 10

Although it is worth showing to a group of school girls, even pansy assed boys at a sleepover, it didn't do it for me. I wanted to to have nightmares, instead I laugh when I think of someone wearing what looks like a paper bag over their head to hide thier face. Although, if you are looking for a movie to give you a little scare and some decent thrills while cuddling on the couch, without a "zoom-in" type of analysis (an over-analysis) and are attracted to the teen slasher genre I think you will enjoy this film.