Review of The Strangers (1998) by Sherry L — 22 Jan 2011

I don't know anything more frustrating than watching a movie that so obviously have a great potential but ends up flat, and that was the case with The Strangers.

Liz Tyler and Scott Speedman play a couple that are about to spend the night in a cabin. What was to be a romantic evening with candles, roses and champagne, had already been spoiled when the couple attended to the cabin, since the girlfriend had said no to The big question. Devestated and sad the boyfriend leaves in the middle of the night to buy cigaretts (and to reflect a bit). Alone in the cabin, in the middle of nowhere, the girlfriend gets disturbed by a seemingly confused young girl's knockings on the door.

The beginning was perfect. Believe me, the beginning would have made even Alfred Hitchcock to drop his jaw.

The director of this movie have complied the golden rule when it comes to horror movies; less is more.

It creeps forward really slowly, and you don't know what will come next, except that the main characters will end up dead. (hey, this is no spoiler! You'll be informed in the prelude that it's based on a true story and the police recieved phone calls from the cabin, and later found the bodies. Speculations are still going on what actually happened...).

The ending ruined the whole thing though.

It's funny how the filmmakers succeded on what is the most difficult when making horror movies, and failed on what's the easiest; deciding which line to go. It's feels like they couldn't make their minds up whether they wanted to do a slasher movie or a horror movie with a supernatural theme. So the result became a mix of both, which wasn't a very successful combination.