The Strangers (2008)

Acting:		Partying:		Girls:
Blood:		Language:		Gore:
Violence:		Humor:		Sexuality:
Torture:		Predictability:		Overall:

These days, it's a rarity to see films like Bryan Bertino's, The Strangers, make such a large showing in theaters. Usually, at least these days, blockbuster horror films tend to dish out a lot more than just cheap thrills to keep its audience members returning to the cinema: hot chicks, fresh scripts, and tidbits of pop culture are all elements used to rake in the dough. While production companies try to appeal to the widest possible audience demographic, films like, The Strangers, come out of nowhere and tend to become a bigger hit than any teen remake of any classic Japanese horror flick. You'd think that would be enough of a realization for production companies to put a halt to this unfortunate era of remakes, but no dice.

Sadly enough, praise cannot be given for many elements of Mr. Bertino's debut film. He manages to construct a script that gives a fantastic humanistic approach to his two main characters; although, he has completely missed the mark on entangling them within any sort of plot of whatsoever. It really is the bare bones here. A lovely couple has just returned from a friend's wedding and during the time of the reception party, the man asks his girlfriend for her hand in marriage. She refuses! Eeehhh! And the couple then returns to a relative's house to where they will be staying for a single night, just the two of them. Late into the night, and after several quiet hours of awkwardness do to the refusal, the couple is violently stalked by three random strangers who are hell-bent on breaking into the house to capture, and then kill, the quite but still happy couple.

That's about it for the plot. No reasoning, no twists.

So what are we left with? Lucky, we're left with the type of suspense that is more common from a director like John Carpenter. In fact, about two thirds of the film nearly mimics the ...

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