Opening Today: The Strangers
Posted by Steve Biodrowski on 30 May 2008 at 08:54 am | Tagged as: Movies
Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman star in this thriller from writer-director Bryan Bertino. The story (allegedly “inspired by” real events) follows a couple who return to their isolated home after a friend’s wedding reception and are tormented by home invaders at 4:00am.
So far, the film has received a 44% rotten rating in a survey of 48 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes (21 fresh, 27 rotten).
Writes Jessica Reaves of Chicago Tribune:
Anchored by convincing performances from Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler, both of whom elevate their roles above the standard horror-movie caricature, this is an enormously unsettling movie.
Considerably less complimentary, MSNBC’s Alonso Duralde opines:
The Strangersis one of those inane fright fests that relies upon the victimizers being omniscient and omnipresent while the victims are complete morons.
My understanding that the “real events” this film is “based” on is that a stranger came to the writer’s door when he was a kid and that frightened him. He decided to speculate what would happen if the stranger or strangers had actually entered the house and terrorized his family. This seems to me to be a very loose interpretation of “based on real events” as the film itself is simply fictional.
You’re right about the so-called “real events.” The filmmakers are trying to justify this loose interpretation by insisting that the film is “inspired by” real events, not “based on” real events. A fine distinction indeed.