The Strangers

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The Strangers
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Bryan Bertino
Produced by	Nathan Kahane Doug Davison Roy Lee
Written by	Bryan Bertino
Starring	Liv Tyler Scott Speedman Gemma Ward Kip Weeks Laura Margolis Glenn Howerton
Cinematography	Peter Sova
Editing by	Kevin Greutert
Distributed by	Rogue Pictures
Release date(s)	May 30, 2008 August 29, 2008 November 20, 2008
Running time	Original cut 85 min. Unrated cut 87 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$9,000,000
Gross revenue	$81,634,395

The Strangers is a 2008 American suspense-horror film written and directed by Bryan Bertino, and starring Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, Gemma Ward, Laura Margolis, Kip Weeks, and Glenn Howerton. The film revolves around a young couple who are terrorized by three masked assailants, who break into their remote summer house and damage all means of escape. The Strangers was made on a budget of $9,000,000, and after two postponements, the film was eventually released on May 30, 2008 in North America. The film was marketed as being inspired by a "true story", and grossed $81.6 million at the box office worldwide. Critical reaction to the film was mixed.^[1]

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Cast 3 Production 3.1 Inspiration 3.2 Marketing and promotion 3.3 Theatrical release 4 Critical reception 5 Home media 6 Sequel 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Plot summary

Kristen McKay (Liv Tyler) and James Hoyt (Scott Speedman) return to their remote summer vacation home in the mid-hours of the night following a friend's wedding reception. After a stint between the couple after Kristen turns down a marriage proposal from James, they receive a knock at the front door from a blonde woman. "Is Tamara home?", she asks. "No, I think you have the wrong house", they tell her. The mysterious woman then walks off into the night. James leaves the house to go buy cigarettes and get his mind off of things. Meanwhile, Kristen stays at the house alone. The blonde woman returns, asking for Tamara, but this time Kristen does not open the door; "You already came by here." she tells the woman, who responds with "Are you sure?". The smoke alarm goes off soon after, due to the fireplace being blocked, and Kristen pulls the alarm off the ceiling and it clatters to the floor. Kristen, a little unnerved at the entire situation, locks the doors in the house, and calls James asking him to hurry back, when the phone line goes dead. Kristen plugs her cell phone in to charge it, changes into jeans and a flannel shirt, and then picks up a half-smoked cigarette. As she stands in the living room of the house, a man wearing a sack mask emerges from the hallway behind her, and watches her as she gets a glass of water. He then disappears.

Another barrage of knocks come from the front door, and Kristen sees the smoke alarm, which was previously lying on the floor, sitting neatly on the center of a dining room chair. She hurries to grab her cell phone, but it has been taken off the charger and is nowhere in sight. A screeching noise comes from the back patio, and she slowly, armed with a kitchen knife, walks toward the sliding glass door. She pulls the curtain back, and the man in the mask is standing there, and he slams his hand on the window. She screams in terror, and bumps into the phonograph in the living room, scratching the vinyl album on it, which begins repeating the same phrase from a country song. Suddenly, the front door opens slightly, and Kristen approaches it. In between the crack of the door, the blonde woman from earlier, now wearing a doll-like mask, peeks her head through. Kristen slams the door shut, locks it, and hides in the bedroom, yelling for the strangers to go away. Suddenly, the vinyl album stops skipping, and footsteps come down the hall - fortunately, it is only James, who is entirely unaware of what is going on.

The couple search the house, but find nobody, and James initially believes Kristen to be letting her imagination get to her. The couple see the blonde woman, Dollface, standing in the back yard, staring at the house. James then goes outside to the car to retrieve his cell phone, only to find the car entirely vandalized, and his cell phone stolen. Dollface touches the back of his neck as he is crouched down in the car, and runs off, only to reappear a few feet from the car. He tells her to go away, and Kristen pokes her head outside in concern. James turns to Kristen, and when he turns back around, Dollface has vanished. James returns to the house, and he and Kristen find his cell phone sitting on the piano with its battery removed. James decides it's time to leave.

They go outside and attempt to drive away in the car, even with its tires slashed, but a truck pulls up behind them, driven by different unidentified woman, dressed in a pin up outfit and mask. The Man in the Mask appears in front of the car, and the Pin Up Girl rear-ends the car, as James and Kristen scramble back into the house. They find a shotgun and gun shells in the bedroom, along with the word "hello" written all over the bedroom window in red paint by the villains. They approach the front door with the gun, and the Man in the Mask begins to break down the door with an axe. They block the door with the piano, and James attempts to shoot him, but misses. They then hide in a room down the hallway, armed with the gun toward the open doorway.

James' friend, Mike (Glenn Howerton), whom he called earlier, arrives at the house, and has a rock thrown through his windshield. He approaches the house, and hears country music playing loudly on the record player. He enters through the back glass door, just as Dollface emerges from the shadows behind him. He sees the house is a complete disaster, and he walks down the hallway as the music continues playing. The Man in the Mask appears behind him, holding up his axe. Just as the music stops, Mike steps in the doorway, and James fires the gun, striking Mike right in the head. He dies instantly, and after a few seconds James and Kristen realize they shot the wrong person. The villains paint "KILLER" on the back door to taunt James, and he heads to the barn outside to use a ham radio for help. He spots Pin Up Girl emerging from barn, and attempts to shoot at her from down on the ground, but the Man in the Mask runs up behind him at full speed. Kristen soon follows, after she senses the presence of the Man in the Mask in the house. She falls, twists her ankle, and is unknowingly stalked through the front lawn by Pin Up Girl. Once she gets to the barn, she fiddles with the radio, but it is then destroyed by Pin Up Girl.

Kristen crawls back to the house, as Dollface sits on the swing set in the backyard and Pin Up Girl stands in front of the barn. Once inside, Kristen cannot find James, and the power goes out. The Man in the Mask then enters the front door, and Kristen hides in a pantry as he lurks around the living room. He leaves, and just as Kristen is about to slip out of the pantry, Dollface appears in the door's slit shutters, and smashes it through. She then pauses, and notices the engagement ring, and Kristen emerges from the pantry, while Dollface taunts her by spinning a butcher knife around on the counter. The Man in the Mask then enters the house, holding a defeated James by his shirt collar. Kristen runs to the bedroom, but the window does not open. The lights come back on, and she creeps back toward the hallway, where she is grabbed by the Man in the Mask and thrown onto the floor. He drags her down the hall, and the screen fades to black as she screams.

It is then daylight, and each of the strangers loom over Kristen and James, who are now tied to chairs in the living room; Kristen has been dressed back into her white gown. Each villain removes their mask, but the camera does not show their faces. Kristen cries, and asks "Why are you doing this to us?", to which Dollface emotionlessly replies, "Because you were home". The three strangers then take turns stabbing James and Kristen, and then leave in their truck. As they drive down the road, they stop to talk to two Mormon boys delivering pamphlets. Dollface gets out of the truck and asks for one, to which one of the boys asks, "Are you a sinner?". "Sometimes", she says, and when the children are out of ear shot, Pin Up Girl says quietly, "It'll be easier next time." The strangers then drive off.

The two boys approach the house, and enter to find a bloody and disastrous scene. James lies on the floor, dead, and Kristen in the hallway, her white gown saturated in blood. One of the boys approaches Kristen's body, and just as he is about to reach toward her, she grabs his arm and screams in terror.

[edit] Cast

• Kristen McKay - Liv Tyler
• James Hoyt - Scott Speedman
• Dollface - Gemma Ward
• Man in the Mask - Kip Weeks
• Pin-Up Girl - Laura Margolis
• Mike - Glenn Howerton
• Mormon #1 - Alex Fisher
• Mormon #2 - Peter Clayton-Luce

[edit] Production

Director Bryan Bertino's original script for the film was titled The Faces, but was later changed.^[2] Filming for The Strangers began on October 10, 2006 and finished in early 2007 - the movie was filmed on location in Florence, South Carolina. During production, it was reported that star Liv Tyler came down with tonsillitis due to screaming so much^[3]. The film's budget was around $9,000,000. The release of the film was postponed twice. The producers originally intended to release the film in the summer of 2007, but due to complications, the date was pushed back to November 2007. The release was then pushed back yet again with its final release date being May 30, 2008 in the United States. It was released later that summer in the UK on August 29, 2008.^[4]

[edit] Inspiration

According to production notes,^[5] the film was inspired by true events from director Bryan Bertino's childhood: a stranger came to his home asking for someone who was not there, and Bertino later found out that empty homes in the neighborhood had been broken into that night.^[6] In interviews, Bertino stated he was "very impressed" with some of the theories circulating on the Internet about the "true events" the movie is allegedly based on, but said his main inspiration was from the true crime book Helter Skelter ^[7][8]. There was also speculation that the film was based on The Keddie Murders, a triple murder that took place in Keddie, California in April 1981, but this was never confirmed.

[edit] Marketing and promotion

A short teaser trailer for the film was released on the internet in August 2007, and can be found on YouTube^[9]. It was not until March 2008 that a full-length trailer for the film was released, which can be found on Apple's Quicktime site.^[10]. The trailer originally began running in theaters attached to Rogue Pictures' sci-fi film Doomsday in March 2008. Television advertisements began airing on networks in early-mid April 2008 to promote the film's May release.

Two one-sheet posters for the film were released in August 2007, one showing the three masked Strangers,^[11] and the other displaying a wounded Liv Tyler. ^[12] In April 2008, roughly two months before the film's official theatrical debut, the final, official one-sheet for the film was released.^[13]

[edit] Theatrical release

After its release being postponed twice, The Strangers opened in the United States and Canada on May 30, 2008 and in its opening weekend the film grossed $20,997,985 in 2,467 theaters, ranking #3 at the box office and averaging $8,514 per theater.^[14] As of June 23, 2008 the film has grossed $52,597,610 in the U.S. alone exceeding industry estimates,^[15] and is considered a large box office success considering the production budget was a mere $9 million. The film opened in the United Kingdom later that summer on August 29, 2008, and as of September 21, 2008, had grossed £4,025,916.^[16] The overall box office return was highly successful for a horror film earning an outstanding $81.6 million at the box office worldwide.

[edit] Critical reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics. It holds a rating of 44% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 110 reviews, and a rating of 55% based on the reviews from low critics.^[1] Metacritic reported an average score of 47 out of 100, based on 27 reviews.^[17] Among the positive reviews, Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times said The Strangers is "suspenseful," "highly effective," and "smartly maintain[s] its commitment to tingling creepiness over bludgeoning horror."^[18] Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter called the film a "creepily atmospheric psychological thriller with a death grip on the psychological aspect."^[19] James Berardinelli of ReelViews said, "This is one of those rare horror movies that concentrates on suspense and terror rather than on gore and a high body count."^[20] Scott Tobias of The Onion's A.V. Club said that "as an exercise in controlled mayhem, horror movies don't get much scarier."^[21]

Among the moderate to negative reviews, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said, "The movie deserves more stars for its bottom-line craft, but all the craft in the world can't redeem its story."^[22] Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News said that "Bertino does an excellent job building dread" and that the film is "more frightening than the graphic torture scenes in movies like Hostel and Saw," but criticized the "undeveloped protagonists" for being "colossally stupid and frustratingly passive."^[23] Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post panned the film, calling it "a fraud from start to finish."^[24] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle, said the film "uses cinema to ends that are objectionable and vile," but admitted that "it does it well, with more than usual skill."^[25]

Additional positive feedback for the film came from Joblo.com reviewer Berge Garabedian, who praised director Bertino for "building the tension nicely, with lots of silences, creepy voices, jump scares, use of songs and a sharp eye behind the camera, as well as plenty of steady-cam work to give it all more of a voyeuristic feel."^[26] Empire Magazine remarked the film's retro-style, saying "Like much recent horror, from the homages of the Grindhouse gang through flat multiplex remakes of drive-in classics, The Strangers looks to the ’70s.", and ultimately branded the film as "an effective, scary emotional work-out."^[27] Slant Magazine's Nick Schager listed The Strangers as the 9th best film of 2008^[28], and the Seattle Film Examiner placed it in their category of "The Most Underappreciated Movies" of the year.^[29]

[edit] Home media

The Strangers was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States on October 21, 2008. Both the Blu-ray and DVD feature rated and unrated versions of the film, with the unrated edition running approximately two minutes longer. Bonus materials include two deleted scenes and a making-of the film featurette. The DVD was released in the UK on December 26, 2008. The film is available on Universal VOD (Video on Demand) from November 19, 2008 through March 31, 2009^[30]

The film was produced with two different endings, both of which are included in the unrated version of the film on the DVD release. The mainstream version released in theaters ran for 85 minutes, while the unrated version ran for two minutes longer. The unrated version included a scene with the James character searching through the villains' truck, and a scene at the end of the film that showed the Kristen character crawling down the hallway of the house in an attempt to reach a cell phone to call for help.

[edit] Sequel

Rogue Pictures' producers confirmed to Variety that a sequel is in the works, due for filming in early 2009.^[31] The film will be written by Brian Bertino and directed by Laurent Briet.^[32]

[edit] See also

• The Strangers (soundtrack)
• Them (2006 film) - a 2006 French film with a similar premise.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official site
• The Strangers at the Internet Movie Database
• The Strangers at Allmovie
• The Strangers at Box Office Mojo
• The Strangers at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Strangers at Metacritic
• The Strangers at the Open Directory Project