The Strangers

Somehow I always end up watching horror films, whether I was planning on it or not. I’m not particularly fond of them, scare easily and keep that feeling with me for days. As was the case with The Ring, the American version. I was scared of noise patterns on tvs for two weeks after seeing that at the theater. And I wasn’t even impressed by it at all. Quite predictable, some cheap and easy scares, but the visuals and sound design got me. I was literally haunted by the image of that dark-haired girl eerily creeping out of tv sets. Shudder.

The Strangers is not very original. Nothing we haven’t seen before. While watching the film I thought it would end up taking another turn later on than it actually did. Throughout the film, up until the last fifteen minutes, the three strangers never actually harm their victims, played by Liv Tyler and Scott Speedsman. Everything inflicted upon them is their own doing. It goes as far as THEM shooting their friend, who was called earlier in the film. The three strangers only destroy property, hacking at doors and pianos. Never actually hurting anyone. I thought they were trying to make them do things, harm themselves etc without actually laying hands on them. Don’t know why, but that thought sounded more appealing to me than watching the usual slasher film unfold. Unfortunately my theory got shot in the foot in the last few minutes as all that changed and our couple bit the not very pleasant dust.

Mediocre horror film that scared the crap out of me in the first half before it succumbed to the usual grind of horror films. Worth renting on DVD, especially if you want to get the girlfriend real close to you. Just don’t expect a cinematic masterpiece or any kind of extraordinary greatness. Mediocre is the word. Solid mediocre, but mediocre nonetheless.