Monday, October 25, 2010

HMP #7 - The Strangers

Horror Movie Project #7 - The Strangers
Rogue Pictures, 2008
directed by Bryan Bertino
written by Bryan Bertino

The seventh entry. Only six more left. What films still remain? Who knows. But today's entry is The Strangers. Never saw this when it came out, despite having a little bit of interest in it. I do remember it coming out in theaters around the same time as the remake of Funny Games, which seemed to have a similar premise (the original is on my Netflix instant queue, so it might end up being one of the remaining six).

Kristen and James, a young couple, are spending the night at James' family's summer home. A less than successful marriage proposal has left a heavy feeling in the air. The night goes from bad to horrifying when a trio of masked strangers begin terrorizing the couple. Much like the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the focus is more on the psychological drama of the situation, with very little attention paid to gore. In a cinematic era where torture porn dominates the horror scene, it was a nice change of pace. Suspense is scarier than blood splattered everywhere, and this movie does a great job at creating suspense. Definitely one of the better horror movies of the past decade, in my opinion.

3 comments:

  1. Oh, torture porn. That phrase makes me laugh. Any movie that features people being tortured is now labeled that, but a good portion of horror films, whether new or old, have people trapped in a situation where they are slowly mutilated whether they are binded down or on the run and stabbed and hurt over time. It is true that a good build up to a scary is great in a horror flick, but its a rarity in this day in age where we have seen everything. For someone who has watched too many horror films I live for the gore now. A good original kill is magnificent and just as rare as a scare.

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  2. I don't set out to randomly pick them. It's based on what's available, what format I feel like watching (Netflix streaming vs DVD, etc), and what I'm in the mood for. This one I was watching with friends and that's the movie they picked to watch.

    Yeah it's a pretty ridiculous phrase. I think Hostel was the first one officially called that, but I know it's been used retroactively.

    I agree that an original kill can be great, but then you get into a competition type of situation, where the movies just try to outdo each other instead of focusing on story. Sometimes that's fun, but for the most part it just gets boring to me.

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