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Created Jun 17, 2008 05:28AM PST • Edited Jun 17, 2008 05:28AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Pretty Bad 1.5

   The Strangers showed so much promise…

   The movie starts out slow, and I mean that in a good way. It takes its time introducing James and Kristen, a young couple having some personal problems after attending a wedding reception. They make their way back to a secluded vacation home in awkward silence. They talk calmly of their situation, eating ice cream and drinking champagne. They are well-written and likable, and you begin to care for them. Tensions flare. Passions rise. THEN: a knock at the door…

   At this point, things take a turn. The girl at the door turns out to be the envoy of a group of evildoers hellbent on terrorizing their targets for all they’re worth. The movie does offer some genuinely frightening moments, mainly due to impeccably timed staccato violins. The most effective scene, however was incredibly subtle, and served in complete silence. Unfortunately, this scene was also in the trailer… as were most of the important parts of the movie, including the ONLY vocal interaction between the predators and their prey. This is problem number one: I saw the trailer, and the trailer was basically the movie. I like the idea that a person could watch this movie uninitiated, thinking for the first 20 minutes that they were watching a melancholic drama about a troubled relationship, only to have the tables fully turned on them. Perhaps that would have been effective, but I was not so lucky.

   Problem number two was that despite its convincing and engrossing introduction, once the horror part of the movie begins, the writer decides to dial back the decimal point on all the character’s IQs… The victims run around like headless chickens, and the masked ones (whom I personally dubbed Wheezy, Bashful and Clyde) flow in and out of frame for no particular reason other than to frighten OUR perspective… It just seems like the most inane, convoluted way to murder someone.

   In the end, you’re kinda glad when the couple is finally caught, leading to a climax that is as brutal as it is inevitable. When the “twist” comes, you no longer care, sad at the promise gone unfulfilled.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Despite my feelings about the writing, both Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman turn in excellent performances. You fully believe their terror and desperation, right until the bloody end. The killers were completely wooden, but maybe that was the point.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Good 3.0

11. Direction Good 3.0

12. Play Good 3.0

13. Music Good 3.0

14. Visuals Good 3.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 2.6

17. Sex Titillating 2.3

    No actual nudity, but some sexy stuff

18. Violence Savage 3.8

    Brutal and bloody in an extremely realistic way.

19. Rudeness Salty 1.8

21. Reality

    Surreal 2.7

    While the violence was very realistic, the characters’ actions were unacceptably imbecilic, detaching me from the entire movie.

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.7

23. Biological Surreal 2.7

24. Physical Surreal 2.7