The Strangers (2008 film)

For other uses, see The Stranger.

The Strangers
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Bryan Bertino
Written by	Bryan Bertino
Produced by	Nathan Kahane Doug Davison Roy Lee
Starring	Liv Tyler Scott Speedman Gemma Ward Glenn Howerton
Cinematography	Peter Sova
Edited by	Kevin Greutert
Distributed by	Rogue Pictures USA Universal AUS
Release dates	United States: May 30, 2008 Australia: August 14, 2008 United Kingdom: August 29, 2008
Running time	90 minutes
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$9,000,000

The Strangers is a horror film released in the United States on May 30, 2008. The film was written and directed by Bryan Bertino, and stars Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman. The film's score was composed by the New York-based musical ensemble Tomandandy.

Plot

The film opens with the following narration:

"What you are about to see is inspired by true events. According to the F.B.I. there are an estimated 1.4 million violent crimes in America each year. On the night of February 11, 2005 Kristen McKay and James Hoyt went to a friend's wedding reception and then returned to the Hoyt family's summer home. The brutal events that took place there are still not entirely known."

A frantic call plays on the soundtrack as two young boys enter the house through the open front door.

The narrative then shifts to the before, with Kristen McKay and James Hoyt (Tyler and Speedman) arriving at the Hoyt family's isolated summer home. There is obvious tension between the two, and flashbacks reveal that Kristen had rejected James' marriage proposal earlier in the evening. They share an awkward conversation, about how Kristen is just not ready to get married. She tries to console him, and they end up starting to kiss and fool around... but it is interrupted by a loud knocking at the front door.

File:Thestrangersscreenshot.JPG

Kristen being stalked by "the masked man" while James is gone.

James opens the door to find a young woman with blond hair who asks if "Tamra" is home. They tell the girl that no one by that name lives there, she asks if they are sure. They look obviously weirded out, say yes and then she walks away, saying "See you later" over her shoulder. The awkwardness comes back. Kristen looks at her pack of smokes, and realizes she's out. She tells James and he leaves the house to buy Kristen a pack of cigarettes, saying he wants to go for a drive anyway. He starts a fire for her before he leaves.

While Kristen is alone in the house, the young woman returns, once again knocking loudly on the front door and asking for Tamra. Without opening the door, Kristen tells her that she has already visited their house and that Tamara is not there. The fire starts filling the house with smoke. Kristen runs over and tries to open the flue. Then the smoke detector goes off. She grabs a chair and pulls it off, leaving it lying on the floor. All of a sudden, there are knocks all over the windows. Kristen gets very freaked out. She tries to call James, but her mobile phone battery is dead, and she sets it by the fireplace to charge. She goes into the bedroom and calls James from the land line, but when she asks him to stay on the phone until he gets back, the line is cut.The audience then sees the masked man standing INSIDE behind her. She finds a knife and runs into the bedroom, as the masked man disappears before she could see him.She leaves the bedroom, and sees that the smoke detector is now sitting on a chair, and her cell phone is missing. Kristen peers out a window where she sees a man with a sack over his head staring in at her. Scared, she runs into the kitchen and starts searching for a knife. She finds a knife and runs into the bedroom. James arrives home a few minutes later and finds Kristen cowering in the bedroom. She tells him what is happening but he doesn't believe her at first. He goes out to his car to get his cell phone, and sees that his windshield has been bashed in and the phone is missing. He starts to believe Kristen. He goes to get her and they both get in the car in an attempt to leave, but a woman in a white mask smashes their car, ramming it repeatedly with a large pickup truck. They go back inside and James finds a shotgun. They hide in a room, under a desk, pointing the shotgun at the door. James' friend Mike comes to pick him up, and notices that the house has been vandalized. He walks in, looking for his friend and you see the man with the mask on walking behind him with an axe. Mike gets close to James and Kristens hiding place and is accidentally shot and killed by James, who mistakenly believes him to be one of the intruders.

After discussing their options, James leaves Kristen and goes outside to try and reach the barn, where his father keeps an old CB radio. But he's accosted by two of the masked strangers as he tries to make his way across the lawn. Kristen runs outside to escape after hearing a gunshot. She trips and then can barely walk. She starts to stumble into the barn, only to have one of the masked women smash the radio with an axe before she can use it to call for help. Kristen struggles with the woman and runs outside, where she sees the man with the sack over his head walking into the house and the other two masked strangers staring at her. She then runs into the house and hides in the kitchen closet. The masked man walks by her several times, but never sees her. All of a sudden, one of the masked girls is staring right in at her. Kristen screams, and the masked woman starts breaking through the slats of the door. When she stops, Kristen comes out of the pantry and gets a small knife from a drawer. They have a show down with their knives. Then, James comes crawling in the front door, with the masked man in tow with the shot gun. James yells for Kristen to run. She runs into the bedroom, and tries to get someone's attention by screaming and pounding on the window. Then, the door opens slowly. She goes to peek out and gets tackled by the man with the mask and is pretty much knocked out. She makes a few futile attempts to grab on to the walls or doorways while she is being dragged down the hallway by the man.

The next morning, Kristen and James wake up tied to chairs. Kristen asks the strangers why they are doing this, and one of the women replies simply, "Because you were home." The three killers take off their masks (though their faces remain off-screen). Kristen grabs James' hand, and you see that the engagement ring she earlier denied is on her finger. They both nod and start crying, and professing their love for each other, knowing they will not live much longer. The masked man stabs James once. Kristen is crying and whispering to him. Then the masked man hands the knife to one of the masked girls. She then stabs James again. Then, they turn to Kristen.

Then, you see Kristen and James both lying on the floor. Mike's (James' friend) cell phone starts ringing. You see Kristen's eyes open, and she slowly pulls her bloody body across the floor towards Mike. She finally reaches the phone. Before she can dial a number, the masked (now unmasked) man is behind her. She screams and covers her face. He reaches down and takes the cell phone. Then he walks away.

As the strangers drive away some time later, they come across the two young boys from the opening scene, who are walking through the neighborhood handing out Christian Living pamphlets. They stop briefly, and the blonde girl gets out and asks for one of the pamphlets. One boy askes if she is a sinner. She says "Sometimes...". He hands her a pamphlet and she climbs back in the truck. You then hear her say "It will be easier next time."

The boys enter the house a few moments later, and see all the blood, etc. One of them finds Kristen and kneels down to touch her. Kristen's eyes open, and she grabs the boy's arm and screams.

Inspiration

According to production notes, the film was inspired by an event 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. 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 Helter Skelter, a true crime book about the 1969 Manson family murders.

In another interview, Liv Tyler revealed that in Bertino's original script, "You saw a lot more of the strangers. It was much more of a Manson-esque experience.". Others believe the film is a direct remake of the French movie "Ils" (English: Them) released in 2006, and features a very similar storyline.

Cast

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

Production

The Strangers was filmed in Florence, South Carolina, beginning on October 10, 2006 and finishing in early 2007. 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 Autumn. The release was then pushed back yet again to May 30, 2008 in the US and later released in the UK on August 29, 2008.

Marketing

File:Thestrangerspromo.jpg

Early promo poster for The Strangers

A short advertisement for the film was released on the internet in August 2007, and can be found on YouTube and Apple's Quicktime site. It was not until March 2008 that a full-length trailer for the film was released. The trailer originally began running in theaters attached to the film Doomsday.

Two one-sheet posters for the film were released in August 2007, one showing the three masked Strangers, and the other displaying a wounded Liv Tyler. In April 2008, the final, official one-sheet for the film was released.

Release and reception

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. As of June 23, 2008 the film has grossed $52,597,610 in the U.S. alone exceeding industry estimates and is considered a box office success considering the production budget was a mere $9 million. 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 Top Critics. Metacritic reported an average score of 47 out of 100, based on 27 reviews.

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." Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter called the film a "creepily atmospheric psychological thriller with a death grip on the psychological aspect." 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." Scott Tobias of The Onion's A.V. Club said that "as an exercise in controlled mayhem, horror movies don't get much scarier."

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." 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." 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." Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post panned the film, calling it "a fraud from start to finish."

Home video release

The Strangers was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States on October 21, 2008. The Blu-ray features both rated and unrated versions of the film, with the unrated edition running three minutes longer.

Soundtrack

In addition to the film's score by Tomandandy, "The Strangers" features the following songs:

• "Ariel Ramirez" - Richard Buckner
• "Hopeful" - Jennifer O'Connor
• "At My Window Sad and Lonely" - Billy Bragg and Wilco
• "Sprout and the Bean" - Joanna Newsom
• "My First Lover" - Gillian Welch
• "Mama Tried" - Merle Haggard

Sequel

Rogue Pictures' producers confirmed to Variety that a sequel is in the works, due for filming in 2009.

External links

• The Strangers at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Strangers at Metacritic
• The Strangers at Box Office Mojo
• The Strangers (2008 film) at Curlie