Rent The Strangers on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Bryan Bertino
Directed by: Bryan Bertino
Starring: Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, Glenn Howerton
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
A couple's vacation at an isolated cabin is disrupted by three masked assailants.
Verdict
It's a nearly unadulterated psychological thriller. This provides the vaguest of stories to set up the protagonists with speculation about the relationship. Where this excels is in these moments we all experience, a noise in the house, a late night knock at the door. The movie provides plenty of time to ponder what we would do in these situations while also wondering why this couple is being attacked. The answers are infrequent, but the unnerving mood pervades. I wish the ending gave us more. I'm okay with the lack of answers, but what we get only generates more questions.
It depends.
Review
James and Kristen are driving back to their cabin, dressed up. It's obvious they've been fighting, and we get a flashback to James with a ring. We can surmise his proposal didn't go as planned. Will we find out why? The simple premise of a rejected marriage proposal leads to a lot of speculation about their relationship, but it's also all the characterization we need.
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| Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman play Kristen, James |
A knock at the door late at night surprises them both. A woman asks for someone that doesn't live there before eventually leaving. It's unnerving. James, still irritated with the prior situation, finds an excuse to leave. Kristen is now home alone and someone knocks on the door again
You have to go with this a bit, people knocking about outside the house yet not present when you open the door or look outside. People are making noise outside as Kristen tries to hide. The next instance James arrives, scaring her as she think it's the unseen strangers. Somehow he returned and saw nothing. There's no way he missed them as close as the sounds and his arrival were.
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| Scott Speedman, Liv Tyler play James, Kristen |
This excels in giving us plenty of time to not only wonder what's happening and fear what might happen next, we get time to imagine what we might do in the same situation. Would you go to the window and look for the source of the noise? Would you go to a bedroom and shut the door? We've all had these moments, a noise in the house you hesitantly check, peering around the corner. While we don't typically have people after us, it's always a fear that manages to attack our reasoning.
We don't know why James and Kristen are being attacked, but that's not the point. This wants to tap into this pervasive fear. What begins as sounds outside escalates to people in the house. While it's senseless but effective, the end takes this up a notch. It's gruesome and violent, no longer a psychological horror. What was frightening manifests into a physical attack. That's when imagining the various horrors that could happen ceases. Imagination almost always trumps what we can see. I'd much rather this leave it open ended. Once the victims and assailants meet this just loses it. Less would be more.
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