Horror films are not my usual genre to dip in to. I find the category consumed with cheap thrills and unrealistic characters doing unrealistic things. Very few horror films make it into my top 50 films of all time...and The Strangers is definately not an exception. From the outset I found the film failed to engage me, which left me cold to the plight of the characters, and the lack of dialogue seemed more of a lack of effort than a stylistic choice.
The plot is of two lovers, James Hoyt and Kristen McKay, staying in a remote, isolated vacation home owned by the Hoyt family. When the pair return home from a night out, they are disturbed by a knock at the door by a girl looking for someone. After they send her off, the couple are terrorized by several masked unknowns, whose efforts to scare increase as the film develops. The motivation behind this attack is never explained, and the people behind it are never revealed, making the film completely random and somewhat pointless.
While I appreciate the techniques which have been employed, such as leaving aspects unexplained and not providing too much dialogue, these methods seem to be through a lack of trying. The set pieces are amatuerish, and the use of loud noises to frighten the audience seems lazy. You would think that having such a small cast, low number of locations, and few props that the producers would at least spend some money on some great stunts or effects, but they do not. There is one great scene where a record is skipping and things seem to get tense, but after that I kept looking at my watch.
The beginning of the film says that the story is inspired by real events, but that is just a ploy to make it seem scarier. Films about actual serial killers are often misleading, and the sensationalized plots end up detracting from the gritty realism which would have made a far superior story on screen.
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