Wednesday, July 14, 2010

1371 - The Strangers


I must have zipped this film back when Ryan and I first started writing our horror comedy Nubile Teen Revenge Squad (no, I'm not joking - that's the title, bitches!). This is the kind of psychological horror that taps into primal stuff. Everyone has been home alone, heard a noise and then checked every room in the house. Following our break in I know I kept thinking, 'What if we were home?'... but it just an exercise in making yourself insane...
So from an exercise in tension and patience, bringing the audience to the edge of their seat and then pulling back, there is a lot to like here. There's a lot "don't do this, don't do that" moments - it's manipulative, but that's why you watch something like that. I guess the thing that bothers me the most about films of this type are just the nihilism of it. Killers killing for no good reason. I know that makes it creepier and scarier, but alas...
Not a film I ever need to see again, but I would recommend it under the right circumstances. Definitely some style things to be taken from this flick.

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