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Trailer here. (http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=1128)
Release Date: TBA 2008
Starring: Liv Tyler, Gemma Ward, Scott Speedman
Directed by: Bryan Bertino
Premise: Three mysterious strangers terrorize a young couple in a remote house after they return from a wedding.
aw I thought the movie was about sitting on your hand.
Scared the bujeezuz out of me... However... I was alone and in the dark. A bad episode of CSI might have scared me too.
Fine, I admit it, I totally had nightmares. Anyone seen this??
Saw it in the theatre. Had just had 4 teeth out and was high on painkillers at the time. Was better than most stuff I've seen this year.
One word: Chilling. This was a very smart thriller. Remember that scene in Silence Of The Lambs where Buffalo Bill has his night-vision goggles on and is toying with Clarice by almost touching her? This movie is like that scene for 80+ minutes. The movie builds up a massive amount of tenseness and suspense by telling you exactly where the faceless torturers are, by both showing them or using the great sound design. It's not a movie that relies on scares that jump out at you; though there are a few of those, but they are earned and come off as tension relievers. I guess if one wanted a straight, tongue-out-of-cheek version of Funny Games, this would be it. Recommended.
alright i'll get it on demand right now.
I saw this in theaters... thought I'd commented on it...
Anyway, some vague spoilers:
I really enjoyed this and pretty much echo Mac's sentiment, albeit with one complaint. The tone of the entire film is incongruous with it's conclusion. Everything leading up to the finale id a perfect mix of genuine tension and stylized scares. It's easy to suspend disbelief in some of the more superhuman moments their tormentors exhibit because everything is so fucking scary. (ex: shotguns are fired within inches of an attacker's face, only to have him avoid the shot unharmed. Their entire physicality, for the most part, is closer to some sort of ghost ninja... disappearing and reappearing anywhere they please - including the middle of a wide open fucking field.)
So, after all of that, the ending tries to instill a sort of grim realism into what had been a pretty fantastically scary ride. It didn't fit. Like two films jammed together.
But it's easy to forgive because everything until then is done so damn well.
Yeah, I saw this back when it first came out and loved it. So beautifully shot, too.
turns out i somehow confused this with a movie called Shutter on demand. DO NOT make this mistake, everyone.
Well, I guess this time I disagree completely with the xixax crowd, I HATED this film mainly for the reasons in the below quote:
Quote from: john on October 21, 2008, 10:13:11 PM
(ex: shotguns are fired within inches of an attacker's face, only to have him avoid the shot unharmed. Their entire physicality, for the most part, is closer to some sort of ghost ninja... disappearing and reappearing anywhere they please - including the middle of a wide open fucking field.)
I don't care if the sound design was great or that it was very well filmed, the above took me out of the film completely, I even went to the bathroom and wasted time looking at some posters. Plus at no time I felt scared, in fact I thought the scares were way too obvious.
you sure you didn't accidentally watch Shutter?
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The Strangers
As a thriller it was definitely effective. But as a film a few things bothered me. As usual the most tension occurs between the beginning of the film and when the intruders first appear, then it dissipates a bit. But mostly, don't tell me it was inspired by true events if the true event is the Manson murders and also a stranger knocked at your door when you were a kid! That's pretty cheap. I also watched the Theatrical cut and not the Extended one so I'm not sure if the attackers had more dialogue or if there was anything else I missed. I also would've hoped after all the tension mounting it would've gone a little further in the finale but at least it was short. Whatevs.
It's not good. Did its admirers not watch Vacancy last year? Because if it's Hollywood folderol you crave that one is better. And if it's suspenseful-violent-mysterious intruding you crave there's Them, which is better. And if you like that scene with the Joanna Newsom song playing, like I did, there's a Joanna Newsom cd you can buy. Ys is very good.
You know if I hadn't seen Them recently maybe I'd think this was good, but this movie's chemistry is Them + Hollywood manifesting emotions for the feeling impaired + masks (mmkay but I don't ALWAYS need masks, honestly, and it doesn't enhance shit to keep the villains faceless because I read about 'actors' (an actor is someone who is hired to play a character in a film who the actor is not necessarily in real life and almost definitely not in this instance), and if Liv Tyler is there I know it's actors behind the masks so fuck you).
I'm being hard on it, probably. It's all contrived atmosphere + 1 Joanna Newsom song and nothing else.
But it's filmed really well!
I wouldn't say it's good, but it's certainly not bad. It could have gone corny, but it doesn't. It should gain points for not SAWing it up. The ambience is awkward. They should have made the house creepier. Decent halloween flick. I don't feel like my time was wasted, and when I'm on the fence, that's ultimately how I decide if it was worth it or not.
Quote from: Stefen on October 28, 2008, 10:10:21 PM
I wouldn't say it's good, but it's certainly not bad.
Yeah... I'm with Stefen on this one.
I would have enjoyed it a lot more if there hadn't been an entire volleyball team comprised of thirteen year old girls and thier coach in the theater. They screamed at the wrong times and talked during the rest of the movie.
Still, it was enoyable enough, but nothing new or amazing.
Oh, and Vacancy sucked much worse than this.
Spoiler...
What was the point of replaying the death scenes? Liv Tyler gets stabbed, then it shows the outside of the house, then the trees, then a swing swinging from a tree branch. Then it shows it all over again. Not anything different unless I missed it. Just the same visual montage again. Was it just to make you re-watch the brutal death scenes?
Quote from: Stefen on October 29, 2008, 12:21:40 PM
Spoiler...
What was the point of replaying the death scenes? Liv Tyler gets stabbed, then it shows the outside of the house, then the trees, then a swing swinging from a tree branch. Then it shows it all over again. Not anything different unless I missed it. Just the same visual montage again. Was it just to make you re-watch the brutal death scenes?
That's another problem with the film, being that a lot of the dread and anticipation is derived through the structure of the film rather than the perspective of the character. I'm thinking also of when the SPOILERS STILL bad guy is in the kitchen behind Tyler (the first time we see him) but she doesn't notice him and when she turns around he's gone. That's stupid shit. Or when Michael arrives and the narrative switches over to him for a short period - that could have been done better. You could have introduced Michael in a more organic sense, rather than chopping inside the narrative, and it would have heightened the tension the filmmakers were trying to heighten, instead it feels bloated and unnecessary during one of the film's most agonizing moments (the shot gun barricade). Now they we're talking about it, this is the same problem I have with the villains remaining faceless.
*SPOILERS*
Quote from: w/o horse on October 29, 2008, 12:35:24 PMThat's another problem with the film, being that a lot of the dread and anticipation is derived through the structure of the film rather than the perspective of the character. I'm thinking also of when the SPOILERS STILL bad guy is in the kitchen behind Tyler (the first time we see him) but she doesn't notice him and when she turns around he's gone. That's stupid shit.
No, that's building suspense. Now you know that he's in the house and don't know what he's going to do. Stupid shit is she turns around and sees him, the music gets loud and she screams. That's surprise; not scare.
spoilers.
Yeah, I actually thought one of the creepiest things about it was the fact that the strangers were in the house, I also dug the whole mask bit.
I didn't like how there didn't seem to be any motive or resolve at the end. I can appreciate an ending like that just as much as anyone here, but this one just felt sloppy.
Quote from: MacGuffin on October 29, 2008, 01:08:34 PM
*SPOILERS*
Quote from: w/o horse on October 29, 2008, 12:35:24 PMThat's another problem with the film, being that a lot of the dread and anticipation is derived through the structure of the film rather than the perspective of the character. I'm thinking also of when the SPOILERS STILL bad guy is in the kitchen behind Tyler (the first time we see him) but she doesn't notice him and when she turns around he's gone. That's stupid shit.
No, that's building suspense. Now you know that he's in the house and don't know what he's going to do. Stupid shit is she turns around and sees him, the music gets loud and she screams. That's surprise; not scare.
Okay that's not building suspense, it's dropping it down in the middle of the fucking room. It actually is a scare, it's a gasping moment that quickly dissipates, the situation is the suspense, and the betrayal of that suspense is the manipulation of that situation by this cheap thrill (seeing the guy, the guy disappearing). And how hackneyed is this technique? How unoriginal is it? Completely.
It's a joke this point would be debated.
This is one hellofava creepy film. The atmosphere is palpable and I was anticipating something that when it happened it scared the hell out of me and I usually-almost never-get scared. I was happy I saw a cast member of 'It's always sunny in philadelphia' in here. I don't know why, maybe its because of the stark images and the production design but I've been having nightmares for the past couple of days since I watched it a couple of nights ago. Nothing has really frightened me since I saw 'the shining' and 'eraserhead' for the first time.
fuck! i was scared shitless during this movie. particularly the first half, I would say it's close to perfect.
SPOILERS
The turning point and when I was able to relax because they started to make it to movieish, was when the boyfriend leaves the house to find the radio. It just felt stupid that someone would do that, leave the other person alone. But the way I reacted with such anger at this decision it's a testament of how involved I really was in the whole thing.
I would say the ending did felt like a letdown. I'm not saying the film was very respectful of the "idead" of being based on true events, but that final scream was just idiotic. As I said, it starts amazingly and slowly and gradually it loses momentum because it abandons the believable build up and goes all crazy and implausible on us. However by that point you're hooked. And I felt it was very well established the broken up relationship between the leads, and both actors were very good at conveying the pain of two people in love for whom the thing is not working anymore, or that are going through a really bad moment. It was almost moving. And shit, Liv Tyler can do horror acting like the very best. In fact this may be my favorite Liv Tyler performance so far. She should work with the big directors more often, I get the feeling we're missing a lot of great performances from her.
Liv Tyler is underrated. Her and Anna Faris need should be working with quality filmmakers.
Quote from: Stefen on March 28, 2009, 01:36:58 PM
Liv Tyler is underrated. Her and Anna Faris need should be working with quality filmmakers.
Need should?
'Strangers' returning
Sequel set to begin shooting this fall
Source: Variety
A sequel to "The Strangers" is set to begin shooting this fall.
"Strangers 2" will be produced by Relativity topper Ryan Kavanaugh, Roy Lee and Doug Davison from Vertigo, and Nathan Kahane from Mandate. Exec producers include Tucker Tooley from Relativity, Joe Drake from Mandate, Sonny Mahli from Vertigo and Marc Evans and Trevor Macy from Intrepid.
Producers have tapped French helmer Laurent Briet to direct. Briet's a commercial and musicvideo director who also worked on visual effects for "The Ring."
Bryan Bertino, who wrote and directed the first film, wrote the sequel. Story is being kept under wraps.
"The Strangers," starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman and shot for $9 million, grossed $80 million worldwide last year. That film centered on a couple terrorized by masked assailants at their remote summer house.
The sequel will be distributed by Rogue, which is wholly owned by Relativity.