“Because you were home.”

Viewing The Strangers again this year, it struck me: we sure love siege films here at GAMbIT. For this column, I’ve covered Prince of Darkness, Hush, the Friday the 13th remake, both versions of Dawn of the Dead, Funny Games, 30 Days of Night, The Mist, The Evil Dead, Cujo, and we still have You’re Next in the lineup. What is it about siege films that work so well? It’s the sense of being trapped, of being isolated; it’s the idea that you are safe until some malevolent force decides you’re not. There’s a sense of hopelessness inherent in the premise, but also of ambiguity. Take a film like Panic Room: we know why the burglars need to get into the panic room, which makes it a suspense film. But with The Strangers, we have no idea why these masked intruders are so hell-bent on terrorizing the young couple. The only rationale we get is that quote at the top. That’s where the nihilism of this franchise comes into play. And that’s what makes it stand out.

James (Scott Speedman) and Kristen (Liv Tyler) are returning from a wedding. It’s late, and there’s an awkward tension between the two, made worse when Kristen sees that James has decorated the house with rose petals and wine glasses, in anticipation of a night that was supposed to go much differently. Director Bryan Bertino gives us glimpses at the night that went awry, but eschews any traditional flashback structure. It’s a tricky approach. You have to preserve the unity of the setting, but also establish emotional stakes without any hokey exposition dump. Bertino manages the task; we gather that Kristen has turned down James’s proposal. He’s going to sleep on the couch, and return home with his friend in the morning.

The premise, by now, is well-known, so I won’t indulge in too much recitation of the plot (I contend that the trailer is one of the best pieces of short-form horror available). Suffice it to say, Kristen is now alone, James having gone to get her cigarettes (we don’t see him again until he comes back, which helps with the claustrophobia of this sequence). There’s knocking at the door – loud, insistent knocking, no tentative raps. This happens multiple times – arguably too many – and the sheer volume is enough to get the heart racing. The best scare in the film is its first one. As Kristen drinks a glass of water, we see one of the intruders, the man in the sackcloth mask, silently enter the room behind her. (IMDb calls this character Man in Mask, but that’s cumbersome to type, so he’s Sackhead from now on.) It’s not a jump scare, which adds to its effectiveness. One moment he’s not there; the next moment he is. He just…watches. Later, Kristen finds that someone has moved the smoke detector from the floor to a table. It’s in moments like these that The Strangers works best. Sackhead’s mute intrusion and subsequent message are both scary moments, but also establish the tone of the film. These people are here, and they can come and go as they please.

The early parts of The Strangers (about the first hour) are the best in the film, because not only are they effective, you can sense Bertino having fun twisting the screws on the characters and the audience. Part of this is out of necessity – there are only two potential victims here, so the film has to take its time before racking up a body count. The direction here is slick and tactful. Bertino uses wide shots to not only show us just how isolated Kristen and James are, but as a way to mess with the viewer’s head, forcing us to scan the screen, looking for anyone wearing a mask. Some of the best shots are of Kristen looking into the seemingly empty woods; they work because we know something is out there.

Tyler excels here. She’s never been an actress I’ve been crazy about; I think she leans too heavily on the whispering delivery she used as Arwen in Lord of the Rings. Don’t get me wrong, that happens here too, but Tyler shows an impressive range of emotion. She allows herself to look scared, even when she’s forcing herself to be brave. She cries, and she begs, but she does her best. Speedman, by contrast, cannot seem to overcome his innate blandness. This is a problem with him in general; it’s not just confined to this movie. He’s a handsome enough guy, sure, but personality-wise, he doesn’t bring a lot to the table. Which is a problem from the get-go, but it’s compounded by the fact that he’s always cast opposite actors who are just blowing him out of the water, like Tyler here, or Kurt Russell in Dark Blue. It’s not enough to sink the movie, but James remains a cipher, leaving Tyler to carry the emotional heft of the movie. Luckily, she does so nicely.

The Strangers is lean and mean, clocking in at just 84 minutes. It’s too bad that it doesn’t quite stick the landing. Once it turns into an outright slasher film, it can’t help but lose some of what made it work in the first place. After all we’ve seen, it’s a bit of a let-down that Kristen and James are just…tied up and stabbed. That’s it? One would imagine the intruders would use more creativity in their methodology, but I suppose it makes sense that the thrill is in the hunt, not the kill. I get it, but it’s still underwhelming.

To the film’s credit, the stabbing scene is pretty great visually. One of the intruders, Pinup, opens the curtains, revealing that the sun is out. One by one, they all take off their masks; they land on the carpet with a grim finality. Now that you’ve seen our faces, you have to die. The real tragedy is that Bertino chooses to end the film with a jump scare, Kristen screaming into the face of one of the boys who discover the aftermath of the killing. To go loud after so much eerie quiet is a mistake.

I’ve seen this movie so many times that I originally planned to just have it on in the background. But, to my surprise, I got sucked in. The Strangers holds up. It’s not perfect, but when it works, it really works. It gets under your skin, and in a strange way, it’s a gutsy movie. It doesn’t care why these people are doing this. It just wants to scare you. There’s a purity in that.

10/1: Hellraiser / The Invitation

10/2: Splice / Banshee Chapter

10/3: Jennifer’s Body / Raw

10/4: Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist / Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2

10/5: Kill List / A Field in England

10/6: Halloween II / Halloween III: Season of the Witch

10/7: A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge / A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

10/8: Ginger Snaps / Creep

10/9: Cube / Creep 2

10/10: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) / The Ritual

10/11: Hell House LLC / The Taking of Deborah Logan

10/12: Re-Animator / From Beyond

10/13: Beetlejuice / Sleepy Hollow

10/14: Idle Hands / The Lords of Salem

10/15: The Ring / Noroi: The Curse

10/16: I Know What You Did Last Summer / The Monster

10/17: Night of the Living Dead / Train to Busan

10/18: The Devil’s Backbone / Southbound

10/19: Event Horizon / Dreamcatcher

10/20: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari / The Bad Seed

10/21: Eyes Without a Face / Goodnight Mommy

10/22: The Strangers / The Strangers: Prey at Night

10/23: In the Mouth of Madness / The Void

10/24: The Amityville Horror / Honeymoon

10/25: Gerald’s Game / Emelie

10/26: The Monster Squad / Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

10/27: Veronica / Jacob’s Ladder

10/28: High Tension / You’re Next

10/29: The Innkeepers / Bug

10/30: The People Under the Stairs / Vampires

10/31: Saw / Saw II

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