Movie Trick

The Stangers Poster

The Strangers

Directed by: Bryan Bertino
Produced by: Nathan Kahane, Doug Davison, Roy Lee
Written by: Bryan Bertino
Starring: Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, Gemma Ward
Cinematography: Peter Sova
Editing by: Kevin Greutert
Distributed by: Rogue Pictures
Release date: May 30, 2008 US,
Running time: 90 minutes
Country: USA
Language: English
Budget: $10,000,000

From Sam Peckinpah’s “Straw Dogs” to Michael Haneke’s “Funny Games,” the home-invasion thriller has proved adept at eliciting the fear and dislocation that accompany the violation of our most sacred space. “The Strangers” is no exception, raising the stakes with a bloody preview of the ending before flashing back to the horrors that precede it. But this is no splatter movie: spare, suspenseful and brilliantly invested in silence, Bryan Bertino’s debut feature unfolds in a slow crescendo of intimidation as a young couple (Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman, both terrific) arrive at a country getaway after a friend’s wedding. While navigating a tense crossroads in their relationship, the pair are interrupted by a sinister threesome whose identities and motivations are concealed. Alternately innocent and threatening, the intruders bang on the door and manifest as masked, blurred shapes behind the unwitting lovers. But even as the campaign of terror escalates, the movie remains levelheaded, smartly maintaining its commitment to tingling creepiness over bludgeoning horror. — Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Time

Synopsis:

The film starts off with a narrator voice stating:

“The film you are about to see is inspired by true events. According to the F.B.I. there are an estimated 1.4 million violent crimes in America each year. On the night of February 11, 2005 Kristen McKay and James Hoyt went to a friend’s wedding reception and returned to the Hoyt family’s summer home. The brutal events that took place there are still not entirely known.”

While staying at the isolated summer home, a young couple, Kristen McKay and James Hoyt, are terrorized and then later brutally stabbed by three masked individuals, presumably a family due to the structural appearance of the three individuals. Much of the film revolves around the strangers first cutting off their means of communication (such as destroying and stealing the phones in the house) and then lowering any other chances of escape (such as destroying James’ car and then setting Mike’s car on fire). After this is done, the strangers then continue to carry out their plan of murdering the couple, which is revealed when the younger doll-faced masked stranger says to Kristen, “You’re gonna die here”. The couple is soon overpowered by the sheer number and terrorizing antics of the strangers and then knocked unconscious and tied up. The shades are opened to show that morning has come, and the three strangers begin taking off their masks. Although their faces are never fully revealed to the audience, removing their masks shows that they will soon carry out their plans to kill the couple. The male stranger then picks up a butcher knife and begins stabbing James slowly and repeatedly, then hands the knife to another stranger who then stabs James until the third stranger takes the knife and begins stabbing Kristen. The three strangers are then seen driving away in a pick-up truck as one proclaims, “Next time, it will be easier.” Although it is presumed that they have been killed, the last scene shows the couple untied and James dead, while Kristen was also presumed dead until the Mormon boy tried touching her face and she begins screaming wildly.

It is not said if they survived their wounds or not, since in the beginning of the film it is the Mormon boy Jordan who is frantically screaming to the 911 operator.