The Strangers (2008)

James and Kristen come home from a friend's wedding to a remote cabin, James' childhood summer home. A stranger comes to the door at 4am and leaves, only to return multiple times despite being told she has the wrong house. The incidences get more and more frightening as the phone stops working and noises are heard throughout the house. A trio of people torment the couple throughout the night and only time will tell if the couple will survive the encounter.

I first saw The Strangers in the theater when it came out and it still holds up. The characters, the eerie suspense, and the villains make the film memorable despite it's pretty basic plot. James and Kristen are going through a hard time. While most times home invasion movies target happy couples without a care in the world, there is already tension when the movie starts. They should be elated, but instead, they drive home in silence, refusing to look at one another. Kristen refused James' marriage proposal because she wasn't ready and both are pretty upset. They get to a place where they can both move forward and talk rationally about their relationship, but intruders interrupt their relationship problems.

The eerie atmosphere stays throughout the film. It starts with the couple's emotional tension and progresses to quiet, mundane moments punctuated with either intermittent loud bangs or silent intrusions. The loud bangs show how the people outside could be doing anything and use the loud noises to both distract and frighten. The most memorable scene is when Kristen is smoking and getting a glass to drink while a man in a sack mask simply observes from behind her. Our most mundane moments are supposed to be safe and private while these scenes have the intruders boldly observe them without really hiding. This type of scene repeats throughout the film and makes the danger real. Silence and sounds are used effectively from the strained silence of hiding in a closet to the blaring record music to cover James' brother's arrival.

The villains are memorable because of their masks, bold attitude, and surprisingly competent tactics. Nothing is really known about them as people because it doesn't really matter. They randomly chose this couple to terrorize and seem to work well as a team. With three people, it's much easier to strategize and keep eyes on the couple at all times. They anticipate what the couple will do and respond to surprises with supernatural calm. They remove their masks at the end, but their faces are thankfully kept out of the frame. The ending confirms that this is likely be their first kill and they want to do it again.

The Strangers is such an atmospheric movie that feels realistic. James and Kristen fight these intruders and honestly do their best. They don't make many obvious mistakes and they don't make it easy for the intruders. The Strangers: Prey at Night is coming out next year and even though it's coming out a decade after the original, I'm pretty hyped. I hope they follow generally the same formula with the atmosphere and the treatment of the villains at the very least.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins