After learning that the forthcoming The Strangers: Chapter 1 was basically a remake of The Strangers, I thought long and hard as to whether I should see the original beforehand.  This decision was not as simple as I thought it would be, though.  Since most of the commentary I’d read about Chapter 1 described it as being an inferior remake of the original, I had a conundrum.  Would I be setting myself up for disappointment if I watched the original before seeing Chapter 1?  Or would I enjoy Chapter 1 more if I watched it in a vacuum?  I finally decided to see the original so that I’d have a basis of comparison between the two.  If the two movies are that similar, the viewing experience would present itself as a unique review assignment for myself.  This review will focus only on the 2008 movie.  The next one will be on Chapter 1 and will compare and contrast the two.  I hope you enjoy this little exercise!

In The Strangers (2008), Kristen (Liv Tyler) and James (Scott Speedman) find themselves terrorized by a masked, mostly nonverbal trio of home invaders.  Before that happens, the couple arrive home from a wedding reception with a cloud hanging over them.  A tear runs down Kristen’s face while James parks the car to angrily retrieve the mail.  It’s clear James is peeved about something, and flashbacks reveal that James proposed to Kristen, who presumably said No.  If you’re a fan of horror movies, you know that nothing sets up a horror movie better than bad decisions.  Sorry Kristen, this one’s on you babe.

To be fair, what happens afterwards would still have happened regardless if Kristen had agreed to marry James.  The movie is predicated on the notion that bad things just randomly happen and that there’s nothing you can do about it.  (I offer up some additional explanations as to what else the movie could be saying below.)  Naturally, things are tense between Kristen and James at their now unhappy home.  James had gone to all the trouble to place rose petals and candles everywhere, only for his efforts to be all for naught.  Despite the rejection of his lady love, James remains chivalrous and insists on letting Kirsten take the car in the morning.  He calls a buddy to come pick him up, and decides to drown his sorrows in champagne and ice cream.

After freshening up, Kristen makes an effort to soothe James’ hurt feelings.  Why Kristen turned him down is never explained.  However, since the two still have strong feelings for each other they eventually start to get cozy.  Then there’s a loud knock at the door.  James answers to find a young girl hidden in shadow.  “Is Tamara here?” she asks.  James says that there is no Tamara there, and after a long pause the girl replies, “See you later.”  Despite that odd encounter, James drives out to get Kristen cigarettes, leaving Kristen alone.  (This is a slasher movie.  Characters are supposed to make inexplicable decisions!)

Shortly after James leaves, there’s more knocking at the door.  Kristen can’t call for help because the line is dead and her flip phone needs to recharge.  After investigating every room in the house she is startled by a man standing in the house.  He’s wearing a mask that looks like it was made out of a potato sack.  After Kristen runs and hides, James returns and doesn’t believe her.  There’s nobody in the house, he declares confidently.  However, when he goes to retrieve his phone from his car, it’s been trashed.  Before long Kristen and James see three masked people lurking around the property: the aforementioned potato sack man, Dollface and Pin-Up Girl.  They seem to be everywhere and nowhere, and never say a word.  For the remainder of the night right up to the morning, Kristen and James do their best to try to evade The Strangers, who seem intent on killing them for no reason at all.  Well, The Strangers may have a reason.  They’re just not telling us what it is.

As far as slasher movies go, The Strangers is novel in how it never provides any explanation for what happens.  The Strangers simply appear and terrorize the innocent couple because, to paraphrase one of the masked home invaders, “they were home”.  The movie also provides minimal backstory for the victims and asks us to care about them because of the situation they find themselves in.  Writer-director Bryan Bertino has created The Strangers as a slasher movie reduced to its basics, where fearful victims try desperately to not be killed by maniacs.  Why Bertino took this approach is an interesting question.  In a sense, the resulting movie is a cinematic Rorschach test, where its intentional inscrutability invites the audience to apply their own reasoning to what they see.  As a result, Bertino has provided a unique twist on a very familiar genre by giving us less instead of more.

In addition to the movie’s interesting take on slasher movies, it features Liv Tyler in the final girl role.  I couldn’t help wondering what enticed her to take this role.  Perhaps she saw it as a change of pace.  Maybe there was a big paycheck involved.  Maybe it just looked like a fun role.  Or maybe it was all of the above.  Bertino must have been beside himself to have such a beautiful and well-known actress headline his movie.  His camera certainly adores her, at least until the story requires her to run around shoeless–with a bum ankle–and avoid getting stabbed and/or chopped.  Tyler is good here, much better than the material needs her to be.  Recommended.

Analysis

Given how capably Bertino directs the movie, I have to believe that his barebones approach to the story and its characters wasn’t made out of expediency.  He noticeably builds tension without relying on jump-scares.  Several shots in the movie are the stuff of nightmares.  Yes, the movie has Kirsten and James make dumb decisions, but that is nothing new for this genre.  Bertino intentionally omits so much of what I expect from a movie like this that I’m puzzled as to what he’s trying to say.  Below are my various hypotheses, of which all–or none–might be correct.

The Strangers is a meta commentary on the slasher genre itself.  Generally speaking, people watch these movies primarily for the chases and the kills.  In omitting the obligatory character backstories, Bertino is giving the audience exactly what they want.  It’s a “straight, no chaser” slasher movie, one that is either entirely practical or cynical depending on your point of view.

The movie has a decidedly pessimistic take on marriage.  Initially, we’re supposed to feel sad for Kristen and James and how the proposal put their relationship on thin ice.  This tragic turn in their relationship is mocked when the Strangers kill them in their wedding attire.  By taking the time to dress Kristen and James up before they are stabbed, The Strangers are saying that the institution of marriage is pointless.  Kristen and James were going to die anyway and being married (or not) wouldn’t have made a difference in the outcome.

The Strangers also creates an overt equivalency between marriage and death.  In an early scene, Kristen looks at growth notches on a door frame.  The implication being made is that Kristen turned James down because she didn’t want to have a family.  Did she fear losing her personal autonomy?  Possibly, because in the end Kristen and James are murdered by a family unit, the thing that Kristen wanted to avoid being a part of.

Another aspect of The Strangers that struck me was how nihilistic it is.  The movie never supplies a motive or reason for the actions of The Strangers, or bothers to tell us who they are or even what they look like.  In doing so, Bertino mocks our need to bring meaning to the meaningless acts of violence.  Knowing why The Strangers want to kill Kirsten and James wouldn’t make their deaths any less tragic or help their loved ones to cope with their loss.  Knowing why anything that happened to Kristen and James is pointless.  Ultimately, we all die, sometimes randomly and horrifically.  The Strangers tells us that searching for reasons is futile because sometimes there are none to be had.

For more details on The Strangers, check out https://istamarahome.net/