The DVD of The Strangers

The Strangers is a low budget slasher movie (based supposedly on a true incident) about a young couple who are murdered after attending a wedding reception. The young couple (played magnificently by both Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman) are staying at the vacation house of the guy's father. They're also having some serious relationship problems because Speedman's character attempted to give his girlfriend an engagement ring, but she refused to take it, saying that she just wasn't ready to get married. While in the mist of having some wonderful make-up sex, there comes a knocking at the front door of the house. The knocking won't stop until the door is finally answered. Once the couple answer the door, they discover a young girl who says that she's looking for her friend, Tamara. Of course, the couple have no idea who she's talking about, but are polite in telling the girl that they haven't seen her friend. The couple closes the door, thinking that was a really weird encounter, but it's only starting. While the guy makes a quick trip to the local convenience store to get some cigarettes for his girlfriend, the knocking starts again, but this time it's really loud. Liv Tyler refuses to open the door, telling the girl outside to go away. As she's being distracted, we see the shape of man behind her as he's walking through the house. We never see his face, but him and his two female accomplices start to play cat-and-mouth with Tyler and then Speedman, once he gets back. The couple's car is destroyed so that they can't get away, and a friend, who comes to help them is killed. At the end, the young couple are brutally murdered by the trio of killers after being told that the reason this is happening is because they were the only ones who answered their door.

Now, I hate these types of movies, but my roommate's daughter talked us into watching it; and, even knowing what was going to happen, I got caught up in the plot and found myself shouting at the TV, thinking that the two lead characters (Liv Tyler & Scott Speedman)could actually hear my warnings to them. I never do that when I watch a movie, but this film played on suspense and anticipation, rather than outright violence, except at the end, and totally hooked me. It also worked on my innate fears, playing them like a maestro would a violin, causing me to think about buying a .44 Magnum just encase someone starts knocking on my door in the middle of the night. I think the small group of actors did one-hell-of-a-great job for this low-budget film, with Liv Tyler carrying a large part of the film on her very skilled shoulders. She and Scott Speedman certainly did a marvelous job at the beginning of the movie in setting up their relationship with each other. These were people I liked and cared about, not wanting to see them hurt. I also liked the fact that you never really see the faces of the killers (except for the girl who was knocking on the front door) though they take off their masks at the end, before doing the dirty deed so that the victims can see who they are.

The writer/director, Bryan Bertino, definitely has talent as a film maker, and I can see a bright career ahead of him in the Hollywood movie industry. He knows how to reel in the audience and keep them constantly guessing as to the outcome. The director did a fantastic job with very little money and using only the setting of the house for the film's location.

I have to say that for me, The Strangers was one of those unexpected surprises in film making that don't come along very often. I look forward to seeing Bertino's next movie!