The Strangers DVD Review
What you are about to see is inspired by true events. According to the FBI, 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 left a friend’s wedding reception and returned to the Hoyt family’s summer home. The brutal events that took place there are still not entirely known.
Do you have the chills yet?
The Strangers just might be one of the most minimalist films in recent years to pack such a terrifying punch. The plot is simple, the dialogue is brief, and the cast is smallóbut donít mistake all that for a less-than-stellar film, because youíd be sorely mistaken.
The film is about James Hoyt (Scott Speedman) and Kristen McKay (Liv Tyler), who, as the narrator explains, just left a wedding reception. What is said (and not) speaks volumes, as apparently Kristen has just declined to say yes to Jamesís heartfelt marriage proposal. They are both angry, upset and exhausted, and they are planning to spend the night at Jamesís father’s isolated family home in the middle of the woods in the middle of nowhere.
Things are already tense, and then someone knocks at the door, a young woman, her face barely visible, and asks “Is Tamara home?” They reply ìnoî and that appears to be that.
Then, because Kristen wants to smoke but has no cigarettes, James heads out in search of a store, leaving her alone in the house, where she sees a masked stranger outside watching her. She also canít find her cell phone, and soon discovers the phone line to the home has been cut. When James returns, all hell breaks loose as three masked strangers play cat and mouse with the couple.
Newbie film director and writer Bryan Bertino keeps in short and simple with The Strangers, but the end result is a film that will stay with you for days to come. According to Bertino, the film was inspired partly by the Mason murders, and party by an incident he experienced as a child, when one evening a stranger came to his familyís door, asked for someone who wasn’t there, and left. Later, they found out that other homes in the neighborhood had been broken into that night.
Both Tyler (The Incredible Hulk, Reign Over Me, Lonesome Jim) and Speedman (Underworld, Dark Blue, ìFelicityî) are perfectly cast in their roles, as neither scream hero/heroine, yet neither are puchovers either. The film also stars Glenn Howerton (Must Love Dogs) as Mike; supermodel Gemma Ward as Dollface; Kip Weeks as Man in the mask; and Laura Margolis (“Dirty Sexy Money”) as Pin-Up Girl.
The Strangers is presented in anamorphic 2.35:1 aspect ratio, with audio in Dolby Digital 5.1 in English and French, and subtitles available in English, French and Spanish. Extras include two deleted scenes, as well as the behind-the-scenes short, “The Elements of Terror”, which is nine minutes and features Bertino, Tyler, Howerton, executive producer Sonny Mallhi, production sound mixer Jeffree Bloomer, stunt coordinator Cal Johnson, make-up/prosthetics man Vincent Schicchi and production designer John Kretschmer. The Strangers is rated R ìfor violence/terror and languageî, and runs a lean 85 minutes.
The fact that The Strangers is “inspired by true events” could be interpreted in a variety of ways, and a la The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Yes, there could have been wide liberties taken with the ìtrue eventsî translated to film, but who cares? The result is chilling either way.
I give The Strangers 4 stars out of 5 stars.