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
Release date	May 30, 2008
Running time	Original cut 85 min. Unrated cut 87 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$9,000,000
Box office	$75,338,134

The Strangers is a 2008 horror film written and directed by Bryan Bertino. The film stars Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman.

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.

The sound of an engine running plays over shots of houses in a rural neighborhood. The scene then cuts to the interior of a ravaged house, with crippled furniture and broken glass around, a bloody knife lying on a table, and blood smeared across the walls. A frantic 911 call plays as two young boys enter the house through the open front door.

The narrative then shifts to the night before, with Kristen McKay (Liv Tyler) and James Hoyt (Scott Speedman) arriving at the Hoyt family's isolated summer home. There is obvious tension between the two, and flashbacks reveal that James had proposed to Kristen earlier in the evening, and his proposal was rejected. While discussing their relationship, the couple is interrupted by loud knocking at the front door. James opens the door to find a young woman with blond hair who asks if "Tamara" is home. They tell the girl that no one by that name lives there and the girl leaves, so they close the door. James then leaves the house shortly after.

While Kristen is alone in the house, the young woman returns, once again knocking on the door and asking for Tamara. Without opening the door, Kristen tells her that she has already visited their house and that Tamara is not there. Moments later, she hears a barrage of loud knocks coming from all over the house. The fireplace sets off a fire alarm and Kristen breaks the alarm trying to turn it off and it falls to the floor. Kristen attempts to call James on her cell phone but the battery has died. She plugs the phone in to charge it and calls James on the land line to inform him the the blond girl has returned. A few minutes into the phone call, the main line goes dead. Kristen hangs up before spotting the fire alarm, now fixed, on a chair. Scared, she arms herself with a knife and finds that her mobile phone is now missing; the camera reveals it to be burning in the fireplace. While Kristen is looking through the window to the yard, a man in a sack mask suddenly steps into view. Kristen attempts to leave and finds a dark haired woman on the porch in a pin-up girl mask. As Kristen runs and hides in the bedroom, James arrives.

At first skeptical about Kristen's claims, he begins to believe her when they find blond girl, now wearing a doll mask, staring menacingly at the house on the front lawn. James goes outside to retrieve his own phone and find his car hot wired with the tires slashed and the windows all broken. After the couple try unsuccessfully to escape in the smashed car, James arms himself with a shotgun and they both hide in a closet. James' friend Mike comes around after receiving an earlier call from him, however, when he tries to enter the bedroom, James shoots him, believing him to be an intruder. After attempting to calm down, the two discuss their options.

Remembering that there is a radio in the barn outside, James leaves Kristen in an attempt to get help. However, while crossing the lawn to get to the barn, he is ambushed by Pin-Up Girl and the Man in the Mask. The Man in the Mask returns to the house and his heavy breathing is heard by Kristen who flees the house towards the barn and falls into a ditch, breaking a foot in the process. The Pin-Up Girl quietly stalks Kristen unnoticed who crawls into the barn and finds the old radio. Kristen manages to raise someone before the equipment is destroyed by the Pin-Up Girl. Kristen flees back into the house where she is eventually cornered and knocked out.

In the early morning, Kristen and James wake up, tied up next to each other in chairs. Kristen asks the attackers why they are doing this to which Dollface simply replies, "Because you were home." The three killers take off their masks and take turns repeatedly stabbing James. As the killers finish with James and begin stabbing Kristen, the camera shifts to shots around the outside of the house as numerous screams are heard. A wounded Kristen wakes up on the floor next to James' body to the sound of Mike's cell phone going off. Kristen drags herself to Mike's body and upon grabbing the phone, the Man with the Mask returns, takes the phone and calmly leaves the house, leaving Kristen to slump to the ground, apparently dead.

Finished, the three killers drive away from the bloody scene, stopping when the young boys with bicycles pass them on the road. Dollface stops and asks for one of their pamphlets about "Christian living". When asked if she was a sinner, Dollface responds, "sometimes." She takes the pamphlet and gets back into the car as the Pin-Up Girl says, "It'll be easier next time." The young boys are then seen passing the Hoyt house and upon noticing the damage to the vehicles outside, enter the building to find more destruction and various blood splatter. As they search the house, they find the bodies of James and Kristen. As one of them bends down to inspect Kristen, Kristen opens her eyes, grabs the boy's arm and screams.

Cast

• Liv Tyler as Kristen McKay
• Scott Speedman as James Hoyt
• Gemma Ward as Doll Face
• 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.

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."

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. Both feature rated and unrated versions of the film, with the unrated edition running approximately two minutes longer.

Soundtrack

The film's score was composed by the New York-based musical ensemble Tomandandy. In addition to the film's score by "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

• Official site
• The Strangers at IMDb
• The Strangers at AllMovie
• The Strangers at Box Office Mojo
• The Strangers at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Strangers at Metacritic
• The Strangers (2008 film) at Curlie