The Strangers, released on 2008 directed by newcomer Bryan Bertino who had zero experience directing and his background was in cinematography. All this and he nailed the film. Bertino stands out amongst current horror film directors because he understands it’s not about the blood guts and gore. It’s about SUSPENSE. Yes there is blood and gore but not on the level of Hostel or SAW. He keeps it to a minimum and uses it when it really is needed. So kudos to Bertino for taking a different approach here.
The story begins with James and Kristen are at a wedding. James takes her outside to propose to her. She says no. The night gets really awkward when they go back to James’s family cabin in the middle of nowhere. Kristen finds the house with flowers, candles and all the romantic stuff one could think of had she said yes. Well she said no. After they arrive at the cabin and have a brief and uncomfortable conversation we begin to see their night take a turn for the worse and the “strangers” come to disrupt their night.
Now this is a VERY simple horror story but it’s a story and film that WORKS. Here is why it works. Unlike recent horror films as of late the chaos and madness of stalkers comes to THEM. Instead of films like Friday the 13th (remake) where a bunch of mindless teens wander into the woods looking for weed that happens to be camp Crystal Lake and shit OBVIOULSY goes wrong, this film doesn’t look for the trouble. The trouble comes looking for them. It starts off almost as a drama with no horror and how this relationship will end. It really could have gone down that path story wise. So the film does an amazing job of giving incite into these 2 characters that are in love but she says no to his proposal and terror just happens to come knocking on their door.
Another stand out reason as to why this film worked is because Bryan Bertino understands that you can’t use fast editing to build suspense. The film is edited in a very John Carpenter Halloween fashion. Bertino uses long cuts, and not showing 3 different angles of someone walking up to a window. It’s one long cut FACING the character so you never really know when she approaches the window and what can be on the other side. He’s never letting you off the hook. He also uses wide shots very effectively here and doesn’t shoot everything in close ups. Only when needed. The editing and camera work can make or break a horror film.
Visually this film is very different. The color isn’t your current craze of midnight blues or teal green tone with lots of grunge. It’s a very warm and inviting amber tone. A look that was intentional so you feel a sense of comfort with the home and then these killers take that away by the horrifying events that take place here.
Also understood by the filmmakers is the element of sound. No cats jumps out here but the sound is a very low tone of strings, and screeching sounds that play just at the right time and create an amazing amount of tension. Also the sound effects are solid. On my surround sound when they BANG ON THE DOOR the door is heard on the back left speaker, which is where the door was based on the geography of the scene and it, was easily the loudest sound at that moment. With the subwoofer as well it scared the hell out of me. The sound in this film is what makes it work. Very deep sounds and one caught me off guard after Bertino had built the tension with a brief montage and it got me good. Another reason why this film works with the sound is because Bertino used some old country music played back on record player that has a certain texture to the sound that gave it a very creepy sound. It also helps that the music itself is creepy to begin with. One song is a high-pitched female singing and works perfectly.
This film in my opinion works on many levels. Is it a horror classic? Absolutely not. It doesn’t have memorable enough characters and any memorable scenes to warrant it being a classis BUT it does deliver on the scares and the quality of filmmaking and the care taken into this film is apparent. In an era of fast cutting, overly gory and action style music for horror films this film stands out from the pack. For that reason it’s a staple in my horror film collection.
