Summer Movie Suicide Mission No. 8: The Strangers

In which one man attempts to view every summer blockbuster for the entire season, regardless of taste, genre, or screaming Liv Tylers.

I’ve said before that I’m not a film critic, and that’s been sort of a credo of mine while approaching the summer movie project. But I sure do love reading movie reviews. On Fridays, I read every review on several publications, regardless of whether I have even the remotest interest or knowledge of the film under consideration. One of my ground rules for the Suicide Mission was that I’d be free to read reviews of the movies I plan to see; I added this provision because, though I’d like to keep an open mind about everything, I just didn’t think I could overcome my addiction. The problem is that sometimes a critical analysis can certainly color one’s perception. In the interest of disclosure, I believe that the A.V. Club’s surprisingly positive review of The Strangers presents such a case.

Ahead of the release date, I knew almost nothing about this film. Had I let it stay that way, I likely would have been pleasantly surprised by The Strangers, a deliberate and suspenseful slasher flick with little in the way of overarching narrative, but a series of frightening plot turns. Instead, Scott Tobias’s review had me entering the theater expecting a pleasant surprise (if you could call a film like this “pleasant” in any capacity), but, while i thought it was a fine piece of understated filmmaking, I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed. I appreciated Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman’s performances, and the slow, methodical pace with which the story was executed, but I found myself nitpicking about silly things like the rote orchestral horror score, which only swelled when imminent danger was afoot, just like in every pedestrian thriller you’ll ever see. Director Bryan Bertino shouldn’t have had to resort to these stupid conventions, when his camera was doing all the work beautifully, hiding the titular “strangers” in the back of the frame, where the audience was ever unsure when they would pounce. But these are details I surely would have overlooked if my expectations had not been raised.

Despite all that, The Strangers is remarkable in its execution, perfectly arranging lapses in the action and picking its spots carefully when the real frights came. With its shoestring budget, its lack of a true plot, and the not too small matter of being completely derivative of the golden age of 70s low budget slasher films, it needed to get all the little pieces right. To his credit, Bertino does a fine job.

Of course, its rare for a genre picture like this to get a major release at this time of year. By all rights this should have been a mid-October movie. With The Strangers, the real pleasant surprise is that a film like this is able to survive in this marketplace. It made double its budget in the opening weekend, so let’s hope this presages more diverse Summer movie seasons to come.

Film: The Savages
Director: Bryan Bertino
Stars: Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman

Viewing Situation: Weekday matinee, small audience; digital projection
Rotten Tomatoes Average: 42% 
My Grade (Out of 10): 7

Next Up: Kung Fu Panda

>> Summer Movie Suicide Mission: An Introduction [mentos and manatees]
>> The Strangers [A.V. Club]