After returning from a wedding reception, a couple staying in an isolated vacation house receive a knock on the door in the mid-hours of the night. What ensues is a violent invasion by three strangers, their faces hidden behind masks. The couple find themselves in a violent struggle, in which they go beyond what either of them thought capable in order to survive.
Genre(s): Drama, Horror, Thriller
Runtime: 86 minutes
Rating: 6.1/10 (30,028 votes)
Release Date: 29 May 2008
Country: USA
Languages: English
Company: Rogue Pictures
Sound: Dolby Digital, DTS
MPAA: Rated R for violence/terror and language.
Director(s): Bryan Bertino
Producer(s):
Thomas J. Busch – co-producer
Doug Davison – producer
Joseph Drake – executive producer
Marc D. Evans – executive producer
Nathan Kahane – producer
Kelli Konop – executive producer
Roy Lee – producer
Trevor Macy – executive producer
Sonny Mallhi – executive producer
Writer(s):
Bryan Bertino – (written by)
Cast:
Liv Tyler – Kristen McKay
Scott Speedman – James Hoyt
Glenn Howerton – Mike
Gemma Ward – Dollface
Kip Weeks – Man in the Mask
Laura Margolis – Pin-Up Girl
Alex Fisher – Mormon Boy #1
Peter Clayton-Luce – Mormon Boy #2
Jordan Del Spina – Jordan – 911 caller (voice) (uncredited)
Music: tomandandy
Tagline: Lock the door. Pretend you're safe.
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Very boring and useless movie, totally stranger movie… the end wasthe climax of the movie.. oh my god we were shocked .. the killers justhave some fun .. and then they just disappeared like nothing … themovie ends… i did not understand what strangers wanted to do,..either killing them or just harming.. if it was like that why they tookso much time.. they should have done it within no time.. and went tonext couple as strangers… Thank you for reading our comments.. pleaseplease don't watch this movie.. it is a blunder..
I don't want to say any thing,but to submit my review m copying someoneelse's comment… so don't read after this… thank you
The Strangers is a movie that delivers everything it promises it would.It scares you. Simple as that. Instead of relying on buckets of goreand an over-contrived premise, it keeps things simple and thats whatmakes it work. For an hour and a half, the viewer is subjected to aslowly mounting sense of dread that just keeps building without everpulling back. The story never falls victim to the usual horror movieclichés, but at the same time , it doesn't make any ridiculous attemptsto go against them. Perhaps the best thing that the movie has going forit is it's believability. There isn't really any thing to distract theviewer from buying into the premise wholeheartedly. Considering thatthis is the director's first ever movie, it's a feat that's even moreimpressive. This is the kind of movie you shouldn't watch at home alonein the dark.
Unless the director was trying to prove how not to make a horror thenthis movie is a complete and utter failure.
If I was any of the actors involved and I cared about my career and notjust the pay check, then I'd be ashamed, very ashamed to be associatedwith this movie.
Any director that thinks an audience will buy that a man armed with ashotgun and be over powered by three unarmed people, two of which areseemingly children needs to question if he is in the right line ofwork.
Seriously.
Go work at Burger King, you'll make more people happy.
I don't agree at all with most of the reviewers of this film. I am notreally a horror fan but I find this film frightening and disturbing,which I suppose was the aim of it -and a lot better than any otherhorror film I have seen in recent years. Most of them are neither scarynor shocking, but just gory and silly.
Liv Tyler raised this film above the average-she is a brilliant actressand has the right kind of expressive face for the genre. Theperpetrators were suitably wrapped in mystery and gave a chilling aurato the whole thing. I was disappointed at the ending though, but Iwon't say much more! As I say I am not a horror fan really and cameacross this film whilst surfing the channels on TV -but the fact thatit held me until the end says a lot!
When Bryan Bertino's directorial debut first hit the cinema screens, Iwas intent on taking a look at it. Of course I was work in a cinema,such good intentions tend to take a backseat when you find yourselfworking a ten hour shift.
So time and tide tend to pass and the next thing you know, the movie'sgone but the memory lingers still. So when the movie encored on DVD Ididn't hesitate to buy it, such impulsions have carried me through manya movie purchase and to this day I still carry the scars.
Whilst this movie should never be viewed as something you should wantto watch with you loved one, I never the less managed to persuade mywife to watch the movie with me, such good intentions on my partbackfire when my wife begins to grip my arm ever so tightly.
She leans into me and whispers 'Have you locked the door?' upon suchwords I kindly reassured her and we carried on regardless, of courseabout a half hour into the movie I suddenly hear the gentle sounds ofmy wife softly sleeping by my side, so needless to say, any tensionthat she might have felt suddenly gave way to a deep slumber! So thereI was, watching the movie, and I start thinking about that Sidney Lumetmovie 'Network' and I remembered that line of dialogue the characterHoward Beale shouted aloud 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to takethis anymore'! Now normally my concentration would never begin to wainso early into a movie, especially one such as this, considering theearly promise shown from the outset, so with such words still ringingin my mind, I drifted further back in my mind to consider just why itis that I always put myself through the same old torture! Now you mightthink at this point, enough is enough, turn the damned thing off! Sucha thought never entered my mind. The writer director Bryan Bertino hasconcocted an intriguing premise, he has managed to fill the screen withjust the right amount of menace and tension, the casting of ScottSpeedman & Liv Tyler was spot on, so you might think to yourself,wherein lies the problem? How many times in movies such as this, do thecharacters go around in circles,for a perfect example Speedman'scharacter wishing to exert his macho charisma forever tells Liv Tyler'scharacter to wait in the house! Such an idea is beyond suchcomprehension, as we all know that the masked perpetrators will alwaysgain easy access to the house.
With such a simplistic idea, Bertino, to my mind dig's himself a verybig hole, granted you never quite know just how the movie is going tofinish, with that being said, when we do reach the finale, and bothSpeedman & Tyler have been put through some serious hell, Tyler quiterightly feels the need to ask them why they did what they did, to whichthe young girl replies 'Because you were in!'.
When the girl spoke those words, my mind much like Howard Beale'scrackled with such fury, from whence I then spoke aloud 'Is that it? Soif only this young couple had just ignored the knocking on the door atfour in the morning, we much the titular characters would all be safeand sound asleep in our comfortable beds.
If only such thoughts were that simple, the other main kick to thecinematic gutt was when the three as yet still masked villains decidedto unmask themselves, at this point I was gearing up for some crumb ofcomfort, but what do you know, the director has decided to keep theirfaces out of frame! The ending much like the movie itself primarilypresented us with a germ of a good idea, however my thoughts tend tomake think that the director or maybe even the producers had theircollective eye on the prize that is the sequel or to be more precise, aprequel! Yes indeed we all have money to burn and time to waste, will Ilearn from such an exercise? I doubt it, I like watching movies, andfor every stinker you will always find your rose.
I've lost count of the amount of stinker's I've watched, but the rosethat is my wife, will always be my constant.
My rating is 4, this is based on the performances of the lead actorsand the costumes worn by the killers.
i saw the posters for this when it was being advertised around theunderground, and to be fair, i fancied going to see it. thankfully ididn't, and waited until now to watch it for free on sky.
possibly the worst film I've seen, it actually made me annoyed to thepoint i actually registered to vent my frustrations to a wideraudience! things i hated about this movie: 1 – start scene ispointless, really what difference does a 911 call make at the start? weall know its going to contain a bit of killing. 2 – dear god the actorsare bad, so i hated both characters. she is as quiet as a mouse withzero personality, and he is the saddest (literally thought he wouldstart crying) leading man I've ever seen! not often you start rootingfor the bad guys before they are even introduced! 3 – who's still awakeat 4am? go to sleep! why is he tucking into a gigantic tub of icecream? and ahem, i assume drink driving is the norm in the u.s? 4 – thekillers, what is the point of them? where is their motivation!!!randomly stalking an empty house (which clearly it was until the couplerocked up) until the owners get home is a bit far fetched, especiallyas all they want to do is scare them a bit and wear totally randommasks which they then take off before stabbing them in the morning! whywait until the sun came up, if your gonna kill them, flippin well killthem!! 5 – the friend who came to the rescue. what a waste of time (mytime). 6 – no use of mobile phones – 3 chances to call for help (4 ifyou include the landline). 7 – all of the hype calling the moviebelievable. it is very much not believable.
there was a lot more i didn't like (when did they have time to write onthe walls? do they have superpowers making them transport themselves toanywhere they liked? how did they get in the house to start with?!!)but you get my drift by now! I've not got a problem with watching a badfilm, but only when either it knows itll be bad, i know itll be bad,and/or they don't try to be realistic and pawn it of as such. this isutter nonsense and in keeping with most modern day 'horror' films. afew cheap frights doesn't make a scary film.
on the plus side, i feel much better. thanks for listening.