On the night she declines his marriage proposal, Kristen McKay (Liv Tyler) and James Hoyt (Scott Speedman) return to his parents’ secluded summer home in hopes of salvaging what’s left of their relationship. Sometime in the middle of the night a young woman knocks on the door, claiming to be looking for a friend. She leaves, but returns a short time later, this time accompanied by masked companions. The strangers invade the house, stalking, tormenting, and torturing Kristen and James.

CRITIQUE

The previews I saw for first-time writer/director Bryan Bertino’s The Strangers led me to dismiss the movie as just another worthless entry in the torture porn fad. That was a mistake on my part. Surprisingly restrained for this sort of flick, The Strangers owes more to Straw Dogs and Halloween than it does Saw and Hostel (or any of their bastard offspring). It’s by no means as good or noteworthy as either of the former, but it’s also by no means as crass or worthless as either of the latter (although much like those movies, there doesn’t seem to be much of a point to this one).

Bertino originally penned the script (which the producers would have us believe is based on true events, but is actually based on true events in much the same way Fargo was) as an entry into a screenwriting competition, only moving into the director’s chair after a couple of established directors were approached but ultimately cast aside (reportedly for requesting budgets and shooting schedules the producers viewed as extravagant).

Given that Bertino is a far better director than he is a writer, that strikes me as a bit odd. The script certainly isn’t terrible (especially as these things go), but it never moves out of the middle of the road. It’s Bertino’s approach to filming the material that makes the movie work and helps it rise slightly above the norm. More often than not he has a tendency to play with the edges of the frame, never centering the audience’s attention on the terror, but allowing it to drift in and out of shots.

I was particularly impressed with the manner in which he and cinematographer Peter Sova (hiring Sova was one of Bertino’s smartest decisions) shoot the strangers, softening the focus and turning them into something akin to amorphous shapes (sound familiar?), which serves to make them seem even more inhuman and also makes it hard to determine exactly how many of them there are.

And Bertino is extremely skilled when it comes to playing with the geography of his setting; not only does he clearly establish the layout of any particular room, he goes so far as to turn the house (the interior of which is the setting for all but a handful of scenes) into a character in its own right. (If that reported Hellraiser remake ever comes to fruition, someone needs to see if Bertino is interested.)

Eventually, though, the movie starts spinning its wheels, and atmosphere gives over to the necessities of dealing with the plot and catering to the perceived needs of the audience. Bertino does his best in the final act, but the movie slowly begins to lose it way. Everything begins falling into place pretty much as you’d expect, and the script resorts to cliché exactly when you expect it to.

The extended shots of Tyler running around screaming start to pile up, and there’s a lengthy sequence of her crawling around the backyard that serves no purpose whatsoever. And as my interest waned, I began to notice problems with the story, problems I had been willing to dismiss when the movie was working (the strangers started coming off as just a bit too clever, and I really began to wonder why Speedman kept leaving Tyler by herself every ten minutes or so).

The last three scenes are extremely problematic (perhaps not coincidentally, this is when the sun comes up); Bertino opts for the easy way out, presents a penultimate scene that raises a lot of questions (worse yet, it also answers some questions about the strangers, questions that didn’t need answering), and slaps on a final shot you certainly don’t have to be Nostradamus to see coming. (If you watch the movie, imagine how better the final scenes would play sans dialogue.) It’s too bad, really. If Bertino the writer were as inventive as Bertino the director (or perhaps if he’d realized how much of a killer short a pared-down version of this story could have made) this could have been a keeper.

Given that The Strangers earned five times what it cost to produce, it was inevitable that a sequel be put into motion. I only hope Bertino is wise enough to move on to greener pastures. He has too much genuine talent to spend the rest of his days running this idea into the ground.

THE VIDEO

The 2.35:1/1080p transfer is a near-great effort, marred only by deficiencies in the original photography. There’s an appropriately grainy, gritty, borderline grimy look to much of the movie, which (intentionally, I’m sure) evokes memories of such fare as the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Colors are either subdued or heavily desaturated, with grays and earth tones dominating. The decision to make the lighting as realistic--yet still stylistic--as possible causes some problems. Black levels fluctuate, wavering between rich and inky to crushed and murky. Image depth also wavers, as does detail, and spiking grain levels can be a distraction.

Seamless branching allows both the theatrical and unrated cuts to be included here, so there’s no difference in quality between the two. Just for the record, the extended version adds a pair of brief scenes and lengthens the running time by two minutes. This added material has no real impact on the story.

THE AUDIO

Most of this movie’s modest budget must have gone into the sound design, because The Strangers features one of the most meticulous, effective mixes I’ve heard in quite some time. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 included here handles the mix fantastically.

A completely believable sense of place is established right at the beginning, making you actually believe you’re in an isolated, empty house in the middle of the night. This solitude is shattered by a knock on the door that signals the arrival of the strangers, a knock that sounds like a howitzer being fired directly behind your head. Strange sounds emanate from the surrounds with eerie precision, and Tyler’s screams fill the entire soundstage.

The low end, both in the score and the effects, is thunderous. The only flaw can be found in the dialogue, some of which has been mixed so low as to be unintelligible at times. Overall, though, this is a simply dynamite track. French and Spanish DTS 5.1 dubs are available for the theatrical version. Subtitles are available in English SDH, French, and Spanish.

THE EXTRAS

The Elements of Terror (9 minutes) is behind-the-scenes featurette that concentrates primarily on the movie’s production design and production sound. This may seem odd at first glance, but if you see the movie you’ll realize it makes perfect sense. 

Two deleted scenes (9 minutes), one of which is actually an extended/alternate scene, help flesh out the relationship between Kristen and James (both occur before the strangers arrive), although neither is so critical it should have been left in.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Marginally effective and marginally involving, and just as marginally disposable, The Strangers makes for a not-bad diversion. Now someone find Bertino a decent script.