By: Jim [2008-06-04]

The Strangers

movie review

I was expecting to dislike this movie when I found out Liv Tyler was in it, owing to her participation in things that are bad thoughout her career: a video for the scooped-out wreckage of her father and his band, the movie Armageddon -- well that's about all, but that's enough. As it turns out, she plays an annoying and unlikable character, so her presence is not entirely a bad thing.

The premise, and I doubt I need to warn anyone of spoilers because it's so basic, is that two rich kids go to one of their parents' vacation home and are psychologically tormented by unknown uh, tormentors. And then it takes a turn for the gory. It's very much in the spirit of gratuitous drive in movies I learned to love (at a crumbling walk-in theater that is now a chain drug store across the street from two other chain drug stores) in my teenage years, and while I would certainly rent Last House on the Left or I Spit on Your Grave rather than watch it again, as far as something new, it was satisfactory.

Despite the comparisons above, there's no hanky-panky here, unwilling or otherwise. None of the subtleties of Last House on the Left, either. The camera work is sometimes confused in a way that just seems halfassed -- angles and focus change without really emphasizing anything. The musical score is as generic as that of any mediocre slasher flick in the last 30 years, which is surprising, because the other music in the movie is used really well. The records on the record player are one of the best things about this movie, and are part of what's definitely the best scene (you'll know it when you see and hear it).

This movie is marred by the same thing that renders lots of half-good works of art and entertainment these days: mannerism. As I mentioned above, there's a lot of shrieky horror movie music that doesn't accomplish anything and could have just as well been left out. Same with those camera angles. They're there because horror movies are supposed to have them, not because they accomplish anything -- even a vague feeling of discomfort unrelated to the onscreen doings, unless this is your first horror movie. The record player antics and the fact that nobody makes a good old-fashioned exploitation movie anymore were enough to make it worth my nine big American dollars, and I look forward to any future offerings from writer/director Bryan Bertino. Hopefully he'll prune away some of the generic clichés.
? [2008-06-04 08:08:50] zeP
A movie review?
Um [2008-06-04 21:15:14] zeP
I wasn't being a dick, my computer was being wonky.
it is not without precedent. [2008-06-05 17:56:20] Jim
Annna used to review movies here from time to time. One only hopes I've managed to approach the standard of wit and insight that she set.
~copy catter~ [2008-06-07 00:49:56] perfktMperfktshn
..my sentiments exactly zep! i guess my actual conversation where i fucked with an internet scammer wasnt good enuff for things i hate! dang it i hate nigerian internet scammers ..well i used to til i started tellin them all kinds of stupid stuff ..fine sean a crappy movie review is more betterer than my crappy scammer conversation ...hhhhhhhrrrrrrummmmmmpppppffffff!!!
not true [2008-06-07 04:16:24] zeP
I was interested to see what you were going to submit. Horrible spelling galore, I take it?
Whoa... [2008-06-08 12:09:44] Sean
Jim's an editor 'round here too, of course, and put this up himself. I didn't choose it over anything else. (Though I did like it.) I'm still just as distracted as ever.
one thing I meant to mention but forgot to add... [2008-06-09 23:24:01] Jim
is that one of the worst genre movie conventions to surface needlessly in this film was the use of sound effects. A knife being taken out of a drawer, friends, does not sound like a hundred mighty katanas being unsheathed.
I [2008-06-12 08:01:31] zeP
can't believe that more than one person runs this site. Are there more editors I don't know about?
~out to pasture~ [2008-06-22 16:19:40] prfktMprfktshn
..it needs more cowbell...
Dead [2008-06-29 21:53:30] zeP
Dead dead dead dead.

Things die, things move on.

Things I hate? The dead who refuse to die.
~karmic debt~ [2008-06-30 23:56:58] prfktMprfktshn
..i died ..only problem is i keep cummin back here ..its a vicious cycle ..u know like a huffy with teeth and a bad attitude
Bzz. [2008-07-04 23:41:42] zeP
And look, the flies are here.
~dirty deeds dung dirt cheap ~ [2008-07-10 18:54:53] prfktMprfktshn
...thats onaccounta shit draws flies...
~fooey~ [2008-07-13 14:33:08] prfktMprfktshn
...i think the editors r malfunctioning...
Jim! Is that you!?!? [2008-07-25 19:00:18] König Prüße, GfbAEV
I, too, would like one of those duplicate monkeys! Yeah, I miss Annna's wit and humor. I found a guy on the net in Hollywood who does awesome monster make-up for the cine, and he has the same last name as Annna. Sheesh! I blinked and it went from Spring to now when the days are getting shorter again. I want to get one of the quad-core computers, but got distracted by the kilocore computer, 1028! I dunno, a quad-core would be great with terabytes of drive, and gigs of ram. I was the same with cars, planning a lot and building a few. I'll wait and see but between 3-D graphics and music, it sure chews-up the gigglebytes.
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