The Strangers(2008)d/Bryan Bertino

Every once in a while,a refreshingly original horror movie floats to the surface in a sea of direct-to-dvd dreck and rotten remakes.Writer/director Bryan Bertino's freshman effort,The Strangers,is just such a flick.He has proven that sometimes,when dealing with terror onscreen,less is more.With a small cast headed by Liv "LOTR" Tyler,and a small story with sparse gore,he's packed an hour and a half worth of film stock with ample atmosphere,tension-laden suspense,and several solid scares.Gone are most of the conventional slasher staples;the group of forgettable sex-starved bodycount teens have been replaced by a sympathetic couple-on-the-rocks,the cookie cutter violence and gore have been chucked out the nearest window and in their place,genuine suspense and terror that borrows from classic fare like Halloween(1978)and Texas Chainsaw Massacre(1974)if anything.I went into this one with low expectations,and came out with unexpected hope for the genre afterall.I look forward to seeing more from Bertino,he may just have some more up his sleeve.With the lights out,screening this alone on your couch late at night,you may feel compelled to put your spotlight on outside,and check.Just for the hell of it.

Kristen and James'(Tyler and Speedman)relationship is over.And that ain't all.
James(Scott Speedman)planned a romantic post-wedding reception evening for he and his girlfriend Kristen(Liv Tyler)at an out-of-the-way summer home,after popping the question on her at the party,but things go from disappointing to not fucking good at all for the disintegrating couple as the night progresses.By the time they arrive at the seventies-tastic digs he's decorated in rose petals beforehand,his girlfriend has already returned his engagement ring,leaving the pair to spend an awkward platonic evening in the country instead.To add to the thickening fog of weirdness,just as Kristen breaks down at the sight of her bummed out beau and offers him some consolation-panties,they are interrupted by a late night caller knocking on the door.James finds a young blonde girl standing just out of the light when he answers the door,looking for Tamra,who obviously isn't there.He drives off in search of cigarettes for his ex(I wouldn't smash extra condiment packets into her face if she was starving after what she pulled,but hey,that's just me)when the knocking begins again,leaving the lone beau-dumping beauty to realize this mysterious young girl is not alone out there in the darkness.

Call me paranoid,but someone's behind Mike(Glenn Howerton),I just know it.
Repeatedly the hysterical girl's emotions are played with as she is terrorized by a trio of twisted trespassers,all wearing masks.When James returns,he finds her huddled in a bedroom,desperately clutching a knife and sobbing uncontrollably.While he hears the harrowing details of her time alone,someone trashes his car outside,smashing the windows and slashing the tires.Realizing her story is true,he tears the house apart looking for a gun to defend themselves from the unseen attackers as they draw the word "hello" all over windows in lipstick,pound the door,and run from shadow to shadow,just out of sight.When Mike,James's drunken friend from the wedding,shows up to rescue his jilted chum from the awkward evening,he is repaid with a mug full of searing hot buckshot,when James accidentally shoots half his face off.The strangers begin to draw their net around the horrifed couple tighter,finally capturing them both despite their best efforts to escape.The next morning Kristen awakes to find the three masked assailants observing she and James,as they are roped together in the middle of the living room.She desperately pleads for their collective lives and asks the younger girl why they were doing such dastardly misdeeds to them,when the girl matter-of-factly replies,"Because you were home." They remove their masks and take turns stabbing the young couple.Later on,a creepy pair of door-to-door Mormon kiddies pass the trio in their pickup truck on the road.The young girl takes a pamphlet from them and returns to the truck as they drive off.The young religious zealots arrive at the summer home,drawn in by the smoldering car outside and trashed surroundings.As they wade through the gory aftermath and dead bodies,one reaches out to touch Kristen's motionless form.She springs up,grabbing the boy and screaming bloody murder.Cuz afterall,that's what it was,eh?

Shotgun-1,Mike's grillpiece-1/2.
75 million clams later,it's safe to deduct this gritty little ditty turned a profit that weren't too shitty.The soundtrack,which was employed marvelously,includes stand out tracks by Waylon Jennings,Joanna Newsom,and Gillian Welch.A sequel is scheduled for production, to naturally mash a good idea straight into potatoes,as the industry big wigs oftimes do.Personally I'd like to see more new horror directors channel the emotion this film's producers captured onscreen for their own work,instead of blindly copying it down to the last frame,and turning it into the latest hot trend.You're bound to enjoy this sleeper once you sit down to it.As well as ranking it one of my underrated films of the year for '08,I'll also bestow upon it a rating of:

Hey little Mormon kids,Kristen probably doesn't want a pamphlet.