Dec 20 2008
THE STRANGERS
Sometimes you just shouldn’t stay in a remote cabin…
THE PLOT
Kristen (Live Tyler) and James (Scott Speedman) travel from a friend’s wedding to a remote cabin belonging to his father. There’s some tension between the two and we learn that James proposed and Kristen turned him down. Though they were supposed to take a road trip together, James just wants to end everything completely. A woman appears on their doorstep asking for someone who doesn’t live there. James then leaves to take a drive and clear his mind while also picking up cigarettes for Kristen. The strange woman appears again and Kristen starts hearing noises outside. Things only get worse when James returns and the couple finds themselves terrorized by people outside the house.
FUN TRIVIA
The Strangers sat on the shelves for over six months, but still made enough money at the box office to warrant a sequel, which is currently in development.
A lot of people seem to think the movie was based on a real unsolved murder case called Cabin 28 or the Keddie Murders. If you know anything about that case though, you’ll see that they really don’t have much in common. The Keddie Murders would make a great film though.
THOUGHTS/OPINIONS
There were times in this movie where I thought I was losing my mind. Is that a guy standing in the shadows or do I have another blurry spot on my contact lens? Turns out it was a guy, but I had those moments a few times. The horror and suspense in this movie is very subtle at times and if you stop paying attention, you might miss something.
My only question is why the hell didn’t he get her out of there? Even if she didn’t see anything, she was clearly hysterical and a smart man would have said, gee lets run up the street to Motel 6. Not James though, he thought the smart thing to so was to stay there. Up until a point he could have done that, but by the time he realized that was the right choice, it was too late.
I will say that it was hard to feel sympathetic for Kristen. He proposes, buys her a gorgeous outfit, sprinkles rose petals all over the house and even has a bottle of champagne waiting. All she can do is say “I’m sorry” and point out that she’s out of cigarettes. It took quite awhile for me to warm up to the character and I’m not entirely sure I ever did. On the other hand I do have the same shirt as her and hell, I wouldn’t mind finding a guy that thought I looked sexy in boy shorts and a tank top!
I’d say this movie borrowed heavily from the French film Them (ils) about a couple terrorized by a group of schoolchildren. The throwing of mud on the windows for example was used in that movie though it worked better in that movie. I think had I seen this before seeing the other movie, I’d be able to appreciate it more.
Scott Speedman was better here than he has been in the past and apparently he even has more than one facial expression; who knew? Tyler’s pretty much the same as she always is in movies, though the more I see her, the more I think she’d make a good Wonder Woman.
There are a couple of good scares or jump scenes in the movie and the filmmakers did a good job by not telling/showing the audience who the people were. Sometimes bad things happen for no reason and sometimes you just have to fear the strangers surrounding you.
