The Strangers Review

So how did my soon-to-be-15-year-old brother and I follow "The Chronicles of Narnia" sequel during a movie outing over the weekend? Well, we went to see "The Strangers", of course, which looked absolutely terrifying thanks to its very scary and effective marketing campaign.

Fortunately, my brother Joey is one of those kids these days that are mostly desensitized to gore and violence that would've had me hiding under the seat at his age. Unfortunately, the movie ended up being a bit of a letdown.

First-time writer/director Bryan Bertino's movie starts out promisingly enough. We get a "Texas Chainsaw Masscre"-esque message letting us know this was "inspired by true events" and we also get glimpses at the aftermath of the carnage we're about to see.

We soon meet James and Kristen (Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler doing nice work) a couple whose relationship is on the rocks that is spending the weekend at James' family's secluded summer home. The couple first receives a surprise and truly creepy visit from a disoriented young woman. Without giving too much away, things get pretty nightmarish from there on out.

The first third of his film is absolutely a success. Bertino establishes the tension in James and Kristen's relationship with little dialogue so that, when James seems irritated and skeptical of Kristen's fears, it makes more sense than in other horror movies. The director also displays a stylish flair for understatement, slowly letting the dread and fear build — the appearance of the first assailant in James and Kristen's house is a GREAT "jump out of your seat" moment!

Unfortunately, as the movie went on, I started to see some chinks in the movie's armor. The characters started making decisions which were as spectacularly stupid as those in other, lesser horror flicks. The three attackers (who wore creepy masks) also appeared to acquire supernatural abilities which allowed them to be in one place one moment and then be completely gone without making a sound.

As the 90-minute movie flew past the one-hour mark, I realized all we were watching was the opening sequence of "Scream" stretched out to feature length. Don't get me wrong — I LOVE the opening sequence of "Scream", but there's a reason it's only about 15 minutes long.

Some people aren't going to like the relentlessly dark and (arguably) sadistic movie, but I didn't have a huge problem with the subject matter. I work for a newspaper and, at least, a few times a week I shake my head at the horrible things people do to one another.

My main problem with this movie is that it started out very promisingly and impressively (I'm curious to see whether Bertino has something else up his sleeve) only to devolve into another standard horror flick.

Also, the film's final shot is an embarrassingly cheap, dumb trick and single-handedly made me drop it down half a letter grade.

The Strangers...C+