August 29, 2008 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] The film opens with two young boys distributing religious pamphlets, who stumble upon a secluded vacation house. A burnt car is parked in the driveway. Inside there is blood everywhere and signs of a struggle. Over this the boys are heard on the phone with a police receptionist who asks them what happened. The previous night, James Hoyt (Speedman) and his girlfriend Kristen McKay (Tyler) arrive at the vacation house owned by James' parents upon returning from a friend's wedding reception. It is shown through flashbacks that prior to their arrival James had proposed marriage to Kristen only to be rejected. Once James calls his best friend Mike to be picked up, he and Kristen feel that in the morning they will likely take some time apart. Later on they start to have sex only to be interrupted by a blonde haired woman at the door. Later in the evening, a young blonde woman comes to their front door asking for a woman named "Tamara", her face hidden in the dark because she put off the outside light. They tell her she must have the wrong house and she leaves. After James goes for a drive to get Kristen a pack of cigarettes, several bizarre events occur: Mysterious noises are heard outside, a smoke alarm goes off, and the blonde girl comes back asking for the same person. Kristen, whose cell phone is dead, calls James from the landline as her cell phone charges. He reassures her that everything is fine, and suddenly the phone dies. Then finally a Man in a Mask is seen inside of the house watching Kristen from the back hallway. He soon leaves, making his presence known by closing a bedroom door down the hall. Kristen is then disturbed by a barrage of knocks on the door, while discovering that the smoke alarm has been moved and her cell phone is gone. Investigating a noise at the patio, she pulls back the curtain to find the Man in the Mask staring at her. She also sees the girl from before, known as Dollface and now wearing a mask, in the front doorway. Frightened, she retreats into her bedroom as they begin to pound on the doors and windows outside. As the sounds stop, James returns but does not take her seriously. He goes out to the car, which is vandalized, to find his phone when he is then confronted by Dollface. After demanding her to get out of there, he goes back in when he realizes that she is not alone.When James finds his phone (with its battery removed) inside, he decides that they must leave. When they try to leave in the car, they are cornered by a third masked stranger, called Pin Up Girl, who crashes into their car with a pickup truck. They are forced back inside where they find James' father's shotgun and prepare to make a run for it. They are interrupted when the Man in the Mask begins hacking through the door with an axe. James shoots at him but finds the man has dodged the round and fled. The couple then huddle up in a room corner and wait for help, James preparing to shoot whoever tries to come in. In the living room the strangers are heard, and they turn on a record player so the two cannot hear what is going on outside. Nearby the house, James' best friend Mike arrives to pick up James. Stones are then thrown through his windshield. He proceeds to the house on foot and slowly walks through the house. The Man in the Mask follows behind him with an axe but disappears as Mike turns around and the music stops. Continuing further, Mike is soon shot and killed by James when he approaches the door. Having thought he was the Man in the Mask, James and Kristen are distraught. Outside they find the word "KILLER" written in blood, presumably Mike's. James decides to go outside alone to the barn to find his father's old radio to find help. He leaves Kristen alone and arrives at the barn to find Pin Up Girl already there. Before James is able to shoot her, he is ambushed by The Man in the Mask. Kristen waits in the house until she hears the Man in the Mask enter. She then tries to run away but sprains her ankle. She continues to crawl to the barn and gets into contact with somebody before Pin Up Girl smashes it. Kristen crawls back to the house, seeing Dollface and Pin Up Girl watch her. She finds that Mike's car has been set aflame. Upon limping into the house, Kristen witnesses the power shutting off. The Man in the Mask enters but apparently doesn't notice her. She hides in a pantry and sees him again as he sits down at the dinner table for a moment before leaving. Dollface then appears and starts breaking through the pantry door before stopping abruptly and turning to the wedding ring on the table. Kristen confronts her, telling her that James will kill them. James is thrown through a window. Afterwards, The Man in the Mask enters with the shotgun. Once inside, he drags James to another location inside the house. Dollface whispers "You're gonna die." James urges Kristen to run, but she is cornered in the bedroom. The power comes on again and the door to the bedroom opens. When Kristen walks out she is grabbed and knocked out by the Man in the Mask, who proceeds to drag her into the living room. In the morning, James and Kristen are both tied up in the living room as the three strangers stand over them. Kristen asks "Why are you doing this to us?", to which Dollface responds plainly "Because you were home." James and Kristen, now without hope, profess their love for each other. The strangers then remove their masks (though their faces are never seen) and stab them repeatedly. Later, the strangers are seen driving down the road in their pickup truck. They stop upon seeing the two boys from the beginning on the road. Dollface goes to ask them for a pamphlet they are handing out. They ask if she is a sinner. After a pause, she replies "Sometimes." After she obtains one, the three leave in the truck, with Pin Up Girl stating to Dollface that "It'll be easier next time." The scene from the beginning is shown again. The boys walk through the house and find the bodies of James, Kristen and Mike. When one of them reaches out to Kristen, she awakens and grabs his hand, screaming in horror, which ends the movie. 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, 2006and 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] A short teaser trailer for the film was released on the internet in August 2007, and can be found on YouTube[5]. 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.[6]. The trailer originally began running in theaters attached toRogue 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,[7] and the other displaying a wounded Liv Tyler. [8] In April 2008, roughly two months before the film's official theatrical debut, the final, official one-sheet for the film was released.[9] 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.[10] As of June 23, 2008 the film has grossed $52,597,610 in the U.S. alone exceeding industry estimates,[11] 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.[12] The overall box office return was highly successful for a horror film earning an outstanding $81.6 million at the box office worldwide. 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] Metacriticreported an average score of 47 out of 100, based on 27 reviews.[13] 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."[14] Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter called the film a "creepily atmospheric psychological thriller with a death grip on the psychological aspect."[15] 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."[16] Scott Tobias of The Onion's A.V. Club said that "as an exercise in controlled mayhem, horror movies don't get much scarier."[17] 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."[18] 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."[19] Stephen Hunter of the Washington Postpanned the film, calling it "a fraud from start to finish."[20] 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."[21] 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."[22] 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."[23] Slant Magazine's Nick Schager listed The Strangers as the 9th best film of 2008[24], and the Seattle Film Examiner placed it in their category of "The Most Underappreciated Movies" of the year.[25] 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[26] 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. Rogue Pictures' producers confirmed to Variety that a sequel is in the works, due for filming in early 2009.[27] The film will be written by Brian Bertino and directed by Laurent Briet.[28]The Strangers 
Theatrical release posterDirected by Bryan Bertino Produced by Nathan Kahane
Doug Davison
Roy LeeWritten by Bryan Bertino Starring Liv Tyler
Scott Speedman
Gemma Ward
Kip Weeks
Laura Margolis
Glenn HowertonCinematography Peter Sova Editing by Kevin Greutert Distributed by Rogue Pictures Release date(s) May 30, 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 Plot
[edit]Cast
[edit]Production
[edit]Inspiration
[edit]Marketing and promotion
[edit]Theatrical release
[edit]Critical reception
[edit]Home media
[edit]Sequel
[edit]See also
[edit]References
The Strangers
Monday, June 15, 2009
Posted by Didit Nurwantoro at 12:08 PM
Labels: indiecredible film
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