The Strangers

Up until maybe halfway through, I was really into this movie. It was just the right amount of creepy and disconcerting, and it relied mainly on the scare quotient of the relatively mundane. A heavy knock on the door at 4 in the morning ... a seemingly innocent question in a small voice from a person whose face is hidden by shadow ... just being alone in a house unfamiliar to you. And when the horror part of the movie started in, the couple reacted quite rationally and as you would expect most anyone would act in that situation. But then it lost me. The couple started doing things that just made no sense. And not in a was-that-a-blood-curdling-scream-coming-from-the-basement?-I’ll-just-go-check-it-out-in-my-silky-negligee kind of way. More like an I-just-ran-into-the-bedroom-I-think-I’ll-go-back-out-to-the-front-room-to-see-why-the-killer-didn’t-follow-me nonsense. And the killers started making no sense. Like not following people into bedrooms. Sure, maybe you’ll say because it’s more torturous for the couple that way, always wondering why and what next. But then why do the killers sneak up behind the couple, then disappear before the couple knew anyone was behind them? So the audience could be freaked out? Sure, it freaks us out. But the killers aren’t supposed to know an audience is watching right? So I renew my “why?” Verdict: Movie Rental if You Must