FILM REVIEW OF ''THE STRANGERS" (2008)

Freshman writer & director Bryan Bertino's new horror movie "The Strangers" (*** OUT OF ****) qualifies as an eerie, ominous, white-knuckled account of an after-dark home invasion. If you live deep in the woods where the plot unfolds, this nerve-racking, scream-inducing exercise in terror will make you think before you answer the front door at 4 AM. Horror fanatics that thrive on suspense, surprises, and blood-curdling chills in a plausible context will crave this gripping, low-budget, nail-biter. "The Strangers" is not a supernatural horror movie. Although "The Strangers" neither matches nor surpasses either Sam Peckinpah's violent classic "Straw Dogs" (1971) or Ruggero Deodato's horrific "The House on the Edge of the Park" (1980), both legendary home invasion epics that set the bar high for imitators, this Rogue Pictures Release has more than its share of virtues. Bertino uses silence to create suspense and alternates silence with the sudden appearances of the intruders in masks to build tension. Deep-fried gorehounds will complain about the shortage of blood and humor.

"The Strangers" opens with an anonymous "Dragnet" style narrator talking in a funereal tone. According to him, FBI statistics show one-point-four million violent crimes occur annually in America. He adds that intruders attacked both Kristen McKay and James Hoyt in their summer house at 1801 Clark Road, in South Carolina, on February 11, 2005. No such actual incident occurred, but the semi-documentary approach enhances the film's authenticity. Incredibly, Bertino lets the cat out of the bag at the beginning. Two Mormon boys on bikes in white shirts pedal up to 1801 Clark Road. They find a smashed up car in the driveway with its glass shattered and the house's front doors have been battered down. Abruptly, Bertino turns back the hands of time. Typically, this kind of anti-climactic strategy would blunt a movie's impact. Already, you know the outcome. Nevertheless, Bertino relies on our morbid curiosity—we gawk at accidents—to draw us into the events of this unspeakable crime.

Kristen (Liv Tyler of the "Lord of the Rings" movies) and her boyfriend James Hoyt (Scott Speedman of the "Underworld" movies) are guzzling champagne at a wedding reception. Sweeping her off her feet, he carries her outside where he proposes marriage. Kristen rejects James. They leave the wedding in his car. An oppressive silence isolates them from each other until they reach the summer house in the sticks that belongs to James' parents. Kristen finds rose petals scattered across the carpet leading to the bathtub. James confesses that his brother Mike (Glenn Howerton of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia") and he spent the morning preparing this reception. Kristen explains that she isn't ready for marriage. Later, the ice thaws between them. Kristen and James start to make out. This amorous interlude comes to an abrupt halt when somebody bangs on the front door. They glance at the clock; it's four in the morning. At the door, they meet a wayward young woman. She inquires about somebody that neither Kristen nor James know. After a moment elapses, the girl vanishes into the night.

Kristen asks about cigarettes and James drives off to buy them. While James is gone, the mysterious girl returns and hammers at the door. Kristen tries to ignore her. She finds a beer from the fridge. While she is musing about the evening's events, a man wearing a white flour sack turned inside out on his head appears in the background. Suddenly, Kristen spots him. She starts screaming. Our heroine locks herself inside a bedroom. She cowers there in fear with a steak knife in one bloody hand until James returns. He refuses to believe that anybody has broken into the house. James takes Kristen on a tour of the premises and shows her that they are alone. When James asks her about her cell phone, Kristen tells him that the intruders stole it. James checks his car and finds it in a shambles. He stares at a girl not far away wearing a Pin-Up Girl mask. Afterward, all Hell breaks loose.

What sets Bertino apart from Peckinpah and Deodato is that he pares everything down to its bare essentials. We know very little about the killers. They wear ordinary masks, and Bertino never reveals their faces. All he wants us to know is they are random, cold-blooded killers. Basically, they want is to corner somebody at home somewhere that they can torture and kill. Neither Kristen nor James has done anything to deserve their tragic fate. They are in the wrong place at the right time for our homicidal maniacs. Bertino keeps the story short, simple, but far from sweet. Liv Tyler is a scream queen natural, and Bertino paces the film for maximum impact. The assailants have a way of being everywhere at once, and their encounters with Kristen are guaranteed to shock. Bertino loves to let the intruders emerge unbeknownst behind our heroes or to tackle them out of the blue like a football linebacker. Indeed, Bertino leaves out so much that your typical hack horror director would wallow in that "The Strangers" seems comparatively poetic in his down-to-earth authenticity. Altogether, "The Strangers" will hoist your hackles and keep them hoisted during its brisk but hallowing 85 minutes.