The Strangers (2008)

As I've gotten older the things I'm afraid of have obviously changed. In some ways I miss the old "there could be something under my bed" or "I'm pretty sure there's a clown in that drain pipe" days because they've now been replaced by thoughts of dying in a fiery plane crash or having my house invaded by psychotic mask-wearing killers who don't speak. It's this last fear that The Strangers tries to taps in to.

Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman (from Underworld fame… ick) star as jaded lovers arriving back at a summer home — in the woods, of course — after a wedding reception. The first 15 minutes is all about character development during which you will suffer through some of the worst dialog your ears will ever have to endure. Thankfully this is all filler leading up to the real show that starts with a simple knock at the door, after which dialog is kept to a minimum while characters run aimlessly from room to room in order to escape the "strangers" that have showed up.

Where the film partly succeeds is telling a story about people who are pointlessly terrorized. It's not so much about how they will die — you know from the first few minutes that they all do — as much as the extent to which they can be psychologically tortured. But it's for that same reason that it fails. After you've watched one scene of Liv Tyler run into a room only to be found and followed by her attackers, you've watched them all. At a certain point you stop being creeped out and start laughing at the ridiculous situations and decisions being made.

It's not that The Strangers is a terrible movie. It stays true to the heart of its genre, for good and bad, and it's worth one watch just to remind you to strategically place weapons in every room of your house… just in case. The problem is it feels like an attempt by a filmmaker straight out of film school to create something memorable that sadly ends up being mostly forgettable.