By Aniruddha Basu • Sep 28th, 2008 • Filed under: Film Review, Hollywood, Movies, featured

Aniruddha Basu reviews Bryan Bertino’s The Strangers

Somewhere towards the interval, some 45 minutes after The Strangers began, I was filled with two very different emotions. The first was something close to fear, the film had me sitting at the edge of my seat. The second was relief that Hollywood can still make films crafty enough to make us jump. My only concern was whether first-time director Bryan Bertino can sustain the tension till the end. I will come to that later. First a few words about the plot.

An estranged couple decide to spend the night at their secluded summer home, possibly to work out the issues plaguing their relationship. We are never clear what went wrong between them. Was it infidelity? Misunderstanding? Are they even married? To the director’s credit he keeps things edgy from the very start by portraying their relationship as teetering on the edge. Somehow after this night we sense things will either go back to normal between the couple or end forever.

This was the first act and Bertino sets up the mood beautifully through soft lighting, minimal dialogue and moody background scores. And then just when the two start getting cosy, they hear a rude knock on the door. They open the door and find a young girl who asks for someone who does not stay there. They send the girl away and realize its 4 in the morning. Soon however things turn even more bizarre (and creepy) as the knocking on the door starts again, louder and incessant, then they find the young girl standing out in the dark just looking at them, and three masked figures appear out of nowhere and get in and out of their locked house, almost at will.
The way Bertino sets up the frights is simply amazing. He takes his time establishing the lead pair, he strikes the right note of understated menace when the couple see the peculiar young girl the first time, and then escalates the scares through a combination of sexy sound effects and solid old fashioned “Boo”! moments. Add to this the terrifying uncertainty over the identity and motives of the masked perpetrators and you seem to have a thriller comparable to the works of Hitchcock.

The first time we see the masked figure standing vaguely in the background is unexpected and truly creepy. (The way it was shot seems to be a direct tribute to that seminal slasher classic Halloween). But it’s certainly not the only effective scene. I could count at least a dozen more jump-out-of-your seat-moments including the film’s final scene.

So who are these masked strangers.? Why are they targeting this young couple? Are they even human? Unfortunately, the way the film resolves these questions is disappointing and anti climactic. After the harrowing first half the audience was expecting something much more, shall we say, profound than random acts of violence which is what the film offers by the end. Also several questions remain unanswered in the narrative, such as how the strangers could navigate the couple’s home with such effortless, almost supernatural ease. And how could not even a single person in the neighborhood be woken up after all the sound of gunshots?
The Strangers is indeed very creepy. You don’t have to be only a horror/thriller buff to enjoy it. It’s also clever. Its filled with references to earlier genre classics like Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and even Funny Games. But it’s a bit of a letdown that the director could not explain all the occurrences and justify the chain of events. One can argue that he took a “creative license” and left things deliberately open ended but I don’t think so. What essentially happened is that he sacrificed plausibility for terror. And it’s quite a handy bargain as The Strangers is the creepiest thing to come out of Hollywood this year.

Our very own Bollywood should take lessons after laughable duds like Phoonk and 1920.
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