In the spirit of Halloween and after much persuasion from a specific source, I not only watched, but purchased the movie The Strangers this weekend. A few people had made mention of it being a good terror film and felt I would likely love it.
I waited to tuck the kiddos to bed Sunday night before settling down on the sofa. I was eager to be scared out of my wits. The movie began with FBI statistics on violent crime and a disclaimer that the story was based on actual events. Ooh goodie! True life horror, right? Nope.
It was inspired by actual events, alright, (we will get to those details in a moment) but any allusion to horror was an exaggeration. There was not one moment where I found myself scared, paranoid, or nervous. It was like a middle school project slasher film- only for the slasher part to come at the very tail end with minimal gore. Parts of it were creepy, yes. I will give credit to that.
The 3 ’strangers’ were definitely creepy. Two girls in doll masks and one man who wore a brown sack over his head with the face cut out. Very Scarecrow from Batman Begins. He would quietly present himself in the background of a given scene unbeknownst to the person in the room. All 3 Strangers would fade in and out of the picture at random moments. Over and over we went. It did not take long before what little creeps they stirred within me turned into monotony.
Here is he is. The first appearance of Mr. Scarecrow Copycat in the background which gave me a little cold chill. It was at this point I still had hope for a great scare.
.
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Stranger girl #1. I wonder if she’s gonna do something or just stand there? Oh-just stand there for now. Ok.
Hope fades.
.
.
Stranger girl #2 following an injured Liv Tyler. Surely she’ll take advantage of the situation and at least inflict a wound or two.
No, of course not. After a moment she disappears. I’m ready for bed.
.
.
.
The movie proceeds in this same manner for entirely too long. The first bit of gory action comes when Liv’s boyfriend (actor Scott Speedman, hubba hubba) accidentally blows the face off of his buddy with a shotgun. Good job there, buck-o.
After the movie ended and I came to grips with the fact that I had just wasted a perfectly good evening, I became curious as to the supposed true life events that inspired the movie. Sure, this made for a boring film but had it happened to me in real life I would have been scared to death!
I did a little online research (thank you Wiki) and found that the background story was just as lame as the movie!! When writer Brian Bertino was a child, a stranger came to his front door asking for someone who was not there. He had later found out that empty houses in his neighborhood had been broken into the same night. Thus inspiring the poor excuse for terror that he so graciously contributed to the world of cinema in May of 2008.
One thing that I did enjoy was the soundtrack. An old record player provided the background music from a few great singer-songwriters as well as Merle Haggard. TomandAndy did an excellent job on the film score. The soundtrack is just under $20 at Amazon.
In my opinion, this would have been a much better pre-teen Goosebumps book. It isn’t the most horrible and apalling thing I’ve ever seen. Even THAT would’ve been more exciting than this. I do not recommend watching it unless you are really really really really really really bored. Even then, it would be a decision you are likely to regret.
