Anyone seen The Strangers?

[Xican]

Just curious if anyone has caught this yet? I've heard wildly varying responses about the movie so far. I was planning to take a lady friend tomorrow. But if anyone can give me good reson not to, I'll ditch it and find something else somewhat date-friendly.

[Alluveal]

I heard it was good for a horror movie--not as cliche as the crap that's out there.

[Harlowe]

I still haven't seen it, but would like to.

[Harlowe]

Update - we saw it this afternoon.

It was a decent scare. The tension is just aaaargh sooo long, both of us felt like we were still kind "bracing" ourselves after we left and for a good while after. Just that sort of tense waiting for something else to happen feeling. It's like that most of the movie once it gets started, but I am sure you can kind of guess that from the previews.

So if you like your horror movies higher on tension and a bit lower on actual gore, this would be your movie. I'm not saying there isn't any, but it was more realistic than chainsawing off limbs etc.

[Xican]

I was not impressed. We ended up seeing it and while it made for a decent date movie (something both could tolerate) neither one of us was overly impressed. It definitely didn't impress me with stunning plot and well developed characters, either. Does it say anything that 'Mike' was my favourite character of the movie?

In other news, I got laid, so it wasn't all bad.

[Harlowe]

I never go into a horror movie expecting a stunning plot or character development, I just always hope for something better than Jason or Freddy movies. Also, you seldom ever get really great actors in slasher type films. At least I can't think of any.

I can't say we "enjoyed" the film or story, so I can't recommend it on that basis - but if you enjoy scary movies that make you tense the entire time waiting for shit to happen, I think it does the job.

Hidden Information!

Of course they make every stupid choice imaginable - we were both going, why the fuck wouldn't they just barricade themselves in a corner with the damn shotgun - they had like 50 shells. And it's really not based on true events. It's based on three things, something that happened to the guy when he was young (strangers coming door to door asking for someone that wasn't there, and it turned out they robbed the houses where no one was home), the Keddie Murders (mother who was a drug dealer and her children were killed in Keddie cabin #28) and the manson murders. So if you juxtapose the door to door thing and add the manson murders it might be loosely based on that. That's a far cry from inspired by actual events. Though I never buy that line anymore, it's always bullshit.

[Taxious]

bf and I are big horror fans and we both loved it. It definitely had something different compared to your average thrasher movie.

[Xican]

I don't know, Harlowe... I guess I just found it predictable. For example the friend showing up to me was brutal. Before he even got out of his truck everyone in the theatre knew what would happen. I just didn't find it that tense because none of it was particularly surprising. That's where they went wrong for me. They had these great opportunities to be scary because they would build the tension for several long moments, but the outcome of that tension was all too predictable.

The one thing I enjoyed the most was the visual work they did. The masks were definitely creepy as fuck. The way they would appear in the background and then disappear was well done, too. I thought that aspect was what saved the movie for me. Even then, it was just sorta 'meh'. I think I enjoyed the previews more than the actual movie itself. That Pacino/De Niro movie looked pretty slick.

[Harlowe]

The friend part was predictable, but there were so many moments of WAITING while the tension built. Whether the results were predictable or not, the build to everything was drawn out tension, sudden banging, those faces showing up. Creepy stuff.

So a decent horror movie in the scheme of horror flicks, but not like super enjoyable.

So I agree with Taxious that this was definitely different in production and quality than your average thrasher pic.

[Taxious]

I guess I just found it predictable. For example the friend showing up to me was brutal. Before he even got out of his truck everyone in the theatre knew what would happen. I just didn't find it that tense because none of it was particularly surprising. That's where they went wrong for me. They had these great opportunities to be scary because they would build the tension for several long moments, but the outcome of that tension was all too predictable.

We couldn't understand why the friend was even in the story. That part definitely was predictable but I didn't think too much of the rest was. For some reason I expected a different ending so that part caught me off guard. (Not the very very end, that was just retarded, but the last 15 minutes or so)

The one thing I enjoyed the most was the visual work they did. The way they would appear in the background and then disappear was well done, too.

It definitely freaked me out in that regard. Ugh...

Hidden Information!

I liked how they reversed things around a little too. The main guy character almost shooting Dollface with the shotgun, Weezy looking for Liv in the house. The hunted becomes the hunter, the hider becomes the searcher, etc...