The Strangers

[Adam Dayton]

Re: The Strangers

That film is in another stratosphere, though. We're talking a great concept and story that was relevant well-before it even hit the big screen.

The Strangers wasn't trying to be 30 Days of Night. It was trying to terrorize psychologically.

Right, but save perhaps for House of 1000 Corpses and Devil's Rejects (and maybe the first saw), I cannot think of any recent slasher horror films that have been anything more than horrible, so I used 30 Days of Night as the general horror film example since I had to stretch the genre a bit to reference a half decent film.

To counter, I can argue that all this movie had was its story. A couple at the end of their relationship stay at home and are terrorized by a group of Stranger's with masks. Everything else it did ranged from average to laughably bad. The acting, incoherent story sequencing, unintelligent scenes, jittery camera work and lukeworm character deveopment made the film bad. Cool concept, but the piss poor execution was par for the course with regard to the majority of horror/slasher films the past few decades.

[Jukeman]

Re: The Strangers

^agreed, IMO the preview was better than the whole film...wat a let down,but Ive saw worst movies with the same concept...vacancy, P2 etc...

House of 1000 corpse was the urine! Loved that movie!

[Double Eights]

Re: The Strangers

I thought this was a pretty bad movie. I was watching it last night, on PPV, and I literally turned it off and went to do something else. I went back and finished it, since it did cost me $5, but I wasn't happy that I had to sit through the rest of it.

I turned it off when,

Spoiler

James shot Mike.

I'll list a few other things that irritated me as well.

Spoiler

1. James leaving with the gun, leaving Kristen by herself and defenseless in the house.
2. The way both main actors whispered throughout the entire film, even before the strangers came by.
3. James shooting Mike without even waiting to see who it was.
4. Mike seeing the house destroyed, and instead of calling 911, just walks around silently. Didn't even bother to shout "James, are you here? James are you okay!"
5. Instead of going to face the strangers, when James even has a shotgun, they sit in the garage (was it a garage?) in the corner. You have a shotgun, go pump some rounds into the ****ers.
6. James leaving his cell phone in the car. How many people do you know who just leave their phone in the car? My phone is either in my pocket, charging, or sitting on my desk. I never leave it in my car, especially when my girlfriend/fiance calls and says people are screwing around with her.

I'm sure there are more, but I really wasn't paying all that close attention to the movie. It was just one of those movies I physically had to push myself to watch.

Just stupid things that no one in their right mind would ever do in real life. Overall, I was not a fan of this movie.

[Jukeman]

Re: The Strangers

I thought this was a pretty bad movie. I was watching it last night, on PPV, and I literally turned it off and went to do something else. I went back and finished it, since it did cost me $5, but I wasn't happy that I had to sit through the rest of it.

I turned it off when,

Spoiler

James shot Mike.

I'll list a few other things that irritated me as well.

Spoiler

1. James leaving with the gun, leaving Kristen by herself and defenseless in the house.
2. The way both main actors whispered throughout the entire film, even before the strangers came by.
3. James shooting Mike without even waiting to see who it was.
4. Mike seeing blood everywhere, the house destroyed, and instead of calling 911, just walks around silently. Didn't even bother to shout "James, are you here? James are you okay!"
5. Instead of going to face the strangers, when James even has a shotgun, they sit in the garage (was it a garage?) in the corner. You have a shotgun, go pump some rounds into the ****ers.
6. James leaving his cell phone in the car. How many people do you know who just leave their phone in the car? My phone is either in my pocket, charging, or sitting on my desk. I never leave it in my car, especially when my girlfriend/fiance calls and says people are screwing around with her.

I'm sure there are more, but I really wasn't paying all that close attention to the movie. It was just one of those movies I physically had to push myself to watch.

Just stupid things that no one in their right mind would ever do in real life. Overall, I was not a fan of this movie.

LOL exactly..if you took away the music and the suspense then add a few punch lines, this movie would easily pass as an spoof horror comedy flix

[Adam Dayton]

Re: The Strangers

LOL exactly..if you took away the music and the suspense then add a few punch lines, this movie would easily pass as an spoof horror comedy flix

most def.

[SidVish]

Re: The Strangers

I thought this was a pretty bad movie. I was watching it last night, on PPV, and I literally turned it off and went to do something else. I went back and finished it, since it did cost me $5, but I wasn't happy that I had to sit through the rest of it.

I turned it off when,

Spoiler

James shot Mike.

I'll list a few other things that irritated me as well.

Spoiler

1. James leaving with the gun, leaving Kristen by herself and defenseless in the house.
2. The way both main actors whispered throughout the entire film, even before the strangers came by.
3. James shooting Mike without even waiting to see who it was.
4. Mike seeing the house destroyed, and instead of calling 911, just walks around silently. Didn't even bother to shout "James, are you here? James are you okay!"
5. Instead of going to face the strangers, when James even has a shotgun, they sit in the garage (was it a garage?) in the corner. You have a shotgun, go pump some rounds into the ****ers.
6. James leaving his cell phone in the car. How many people do you know who just leave their phone in the car? My phone is either in my pocket, charging, or sitting on my desk. I never leave it in my car, especially when my girlfriend/fiance calls and says people are screwing around with her.

I'm sure there are more, but I really wasn't paying all that close attention to the movie. It was just one of those movies I physically had to push myself to watch.

Just stupid things that no one in their right mind would ever do in real life. Overall, I was not a fan of this movie.

LOL exactly..if you took away the music and the suspense then add a few punch lines, this movie would easily pass as an spoof horror comedy flix

I wasn't a fan of this movie either. I was hoping I wouldn't die from boredom waiting for something horrifying to happen. I also didn't like the goofy masks nor the country music. I found it predictable and boring.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: The Strangers

LOL @ 30 Days of Night - that movie was HORRIBLE.

[Adam Dayton]

Re: The Strangers

LOL @ 30 Days of Night - that movie was HORRIBLE.

It had a far fetched and semi cop out ending (final fight wasn't great) but the film was scary as ****, gut wrenching scene after scene, the best depiction of vampires I have ever seen (love the animalistic gutteral noises they make), decent acting, and a claustraphobic feel that is reminiscent of Zombie movies of yesteryear in addition to a kick *** plot. It is a good film. The Strangers however, was beyond horrible. There is really no comparison.

[Double Eights]

Re: The Strangers

I thought 30 Days of Night was an "okay" movie. It was decent for a one time viewing, but nothing to write home about. I didn't feel cheated after spending $5 on said movie, yet I kind of did after watching The Strangers.

I just felt the main characters made too many dumb mistakes throughout The Strangers, which you can see in my earlier post. I also felt the acting in 30 Days of Night was more believable, especially in terms of voice fluctuation, than that in The Strangers.

It is hard to compare the two, as they are two completely different films.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: The Strangers

I didn't think 30 Days of Night was scary at all - I was literally laughing through most of the movie. The only two actors I really enjoyed was Ben Foster and the main vampire - Josh Hartnett and his estranged wife were were completely miscast for their roles. I never felt anything for them - they just seemed like chick flick characters submerged into a world of vampires. I agree the vamps were cool, but everything else was lame and lacked intensity. It was a decent film to see once just for pure eye-candy or what have you, but compared to some other modern horror films, I just didn't think it was that good.

[Adam Dayton]

Re: The Strangers

I didn't think 30 Days of Night was scary at all - I was literally laughing through most of the movie. The only two actors I really enjoyed was Ben Foster and the main vampire - Josh Hartnett and his estranged wife were were completely miscast for their roles. I never felt anything for them - they just seemed like chick flick characters submerged into a world of vampires. I agree the vamps were cool, but everything else was lame and lacked intensity. It was a decent film to see once just for pure eye-candy or what have you, but compared to some other modern horror films, I just didn't think it was that good.

I feel that Josh Hartnett did a real good job with the role. Ben Foster, the actor who played the stranger in the beginning can act. The wife, yeah can't say her performance was anything noteworthy, but I would take her anyday over someone like mushmouth Liv Tyler.

Overall, I used the movie as an example of a horror film done right, essentially what The Strangers was not. I thought it was a stylistic movie that did the comic books justice and it was definitely scary.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: The Strangers

And I countered by saying 30 Days wasn't one done right - I felt both The Descent and 28 Days Later were far superior in that respect.

Ben Foster was the stranger at the beginning of the movie, not the younger brother.

Josh Hartnett looked too fair to young and "pretty" to be portraying a Sheriff of a town out in the middle of nowhere and the "cell-phone scene" at the beginning of the movie where they were trying to establish Hartnett's "wisdom" was more comical than anything else. I think the film could have been much better if they had gotten somebody a little bit more rugged and older to play Hartnett's role, but overall the acting wasn't that good which didn't help the writing at all.

[Jukeman]

Re: The Strangers

I actualy feel asleep on 30 days of night(DVD) and never got motivated to watch It again...Have anyone saw or heard of this movie called "Harms Way"? My girl was watching it when I came to her house and it seem like a pretty good horror flick...I didn't watch it yet tho...

[Adam Dayton]

Re: The Strangers

And I countered by saying 30 Days wasn't one done right - I felt both The Descent and 28 Days Later were far superior in that respect.

Ben Foster was the stranger at the beginning of the movie, not the younger brother.

Josh Hartnett looked too fair to young and "pretty" to be portraying a Sheriff of a town out in the middle of nowhere and the "cell-phone scene" at the beginning of the movie where they were trying to establish Hartnett's "wisdom" was more comical than anything else. I think the film could have been much better if they had gotten somebody a little bit more rugged and older to play Hartnett's role, but overall the acting wasn't that good which didn't help the writing at all.

Yeah I realized I mixed them up and edited the post. 30 Days of Night was done very right in my opinion, as it was scary, stylistic, and action packed while having the coolest vampires in recent memory. Def what one would want a horror film to be like. Josh Hartnett was far from "pretty" as he donned a scruffly beard and put on alot of weight to play the role. Plus I think it has been a decade since someone has actually seen his eyes, so I don't know how much I agree with those sentiments. Acting was good in my opinion, and like I said the vampires really sold the picture well. It in my opinion is the most recent example of a good horror/gory film, which is why I mentioned it in relation to The Strangers.

Haven't seen 28 Days Later, but if it had camera work even remotely resembling 28 Weeks Later than I don't feel like vomiting. Now there is a movie with cool zombies and a good plot absolutely ruined by the twitchy, horrible, Blair Witch 2.0 style cinematics.

[Blzer]

Re: The Strangers

It's sad that not too many people really liked this movie. I liked it for straying away from what horror movies have become. It was a modern day classic horror movie IMO. If you saw this in the 70s, I think you would have enjoyed it. That's just me, though.