“The Strangers” (2008) raises the question of how simple is too simple of a premise for the film to still be good. Writer-director Bryan Bertino’s movie about a couple (Scott Speedman’s James and Liv Tyler’s Kristen) being harassed by a trio of masked home invaders is consistently gripping and scary, but it might set that bottom bar for complexity.
As we move further into an era when viewers want completely detailed and explored mythologies and backstories, “The Strangers” feels older than it really is. The “It’s what you don’t know that’s scary” aesthetic of 1999’s “The Blair Witch Project” was starting to be overtaken by prequels, sequels and remakes. We’re still in that era, and thus a new trilogy of “Strangers” films has launched, with the first chapter partially retelling the story in Bertino’s film.
Getting to know the couple
The O.G. “Strangers” is notably Hitchcockian out of the gates, as we’re immersed in the troubles of James and Kristen. He proposes to her at a wedding reception; she rejects him, saying she’s not ready; and they awkwardly return to his parents’ rural house.
“The Strangers” (2008)
Director: Bryan Bertino
Writer: Bryan Bertino
Stars: Scott Speedman, Liv Tyler, Glenn Howerton
In this way, the film is reminiscent of “Psycho.” We’re immersed in a storyline that ultimately won’t be the point. But still, we do get to know our two targets, and that’s better than them being generic, as is the case in a lot of slasher sequels in the “Halloween” and “Friday the 13th” franchises.
Indeed, when that first masked man appears in the shadows of a wide-angle living-room shot behind Kristen, we’re getting back to the oldest-school stylings of the “Halloween” franchise, which around this time had gotten into its “Let’s explore Michael Myers’ complete backstory in detail” phase.
Bertino also borrows from “Amityville” in that this house is somehow both isolated and in a neighborhood. The tension begins when a girl raps on their door at 4 a.m. and asks “Is Tamara home?” But later, they might as well be in the middle of nowhere, because apparently no one is around to hear the smashed windows and screams amid an otherwise quiet night.
Cinematographer Peter Sova keeps the grounds dark – almost too dark – to emphasize the (unearned?) isolation, and many shots find one of the three Strangers standing behind Kristen or James at a slight distance where we can see them but the target somehow can’t.
On first viewing, other possibilities
“The Strangers” intensely builds up for two-thirds of its runtime, then gets a little repetitive in the chase scenes. Plus, even though it’s forgivable that people would act dumb in this incredibly nerve-racking and bizarre situation, Kristen and James do take the cake when they unnecessarily split up.
The first viewing is the best one for “The Strangers,” because in Hitchcockian fashion, the straightforward story allows our minds to go down different paths without the movie explicitly asking us to do so. For example: We’ve just met these people, and although James seems like a good guy going through a bad night, could he perhaps be in cahoots with the attackers?
Still, this is a well-crafted, scary film that hits us with unadulterated, cheese-free “Halloween” vibes. And those masks are certainly a nod to that franchise, and also to “Friday the 13th” with the potato-sack mask. Another mask looks like actress Drew Barrymore, a parallel to how Michael Myers’ mask resembles William Shatner.
I have a couple of sacrilegious views: I think “Strangers 2: Prey at Night” (2018) is slightly superior, because I enjoy meeting a family of four instead of just two people. And I’m surprising myself with this opinion: If we are to go further into the saga, we should learn more about the Strangers.
Yes, in and of itself, the notion of psychopaths attacking a couple just because they are home is bone-chilling. But in exploring the “why” (even if there isn’t an answer to that), these new films might uncover another layer of chills.