Going into The Strangers there's one thing you need to be aware of: this is nothing more than an eighty-five-minute snippet in time that follows a night of terror with the sole purpose of scaring. Writer-director Bryan Bertino doesn't tread any new ground but does one Hell of a job achieving what he set out to do. This is a movie that takes it's opening sonnet (that this is supposedly based on a true story, even using a Texas Chain Saw Massacre-like narrated intro crawl) and ramps it up from a quiet build-up before delivering many over-the-top, tense moments to try and make your skin crawl.

When we first meet James (Scott Speedman) and Kristen (Liv Tyler) they're on an uncomfortable ride home from a wedding back to a remote house his parents own. Seems that things didn't go too great for James when all his planning, and intention to ask Kristen to marry him is snubbed by her. This, of course, causes some sadness and tension between the two, which makes sharing each other's company generally uncomfortable.

Imagine their surprise when, in the wee hours of the morning, a girl comes knocking at the door looking for, what they assume is, her friend. After telling her that no such person lives there and questioning her frame of mind (they assume she is under the influence), James decides to go to the store to pick up a few things while waiting for his best friend to pick him up in the morning. This proves to be a mistake as Kristen soon finds out that the girl is very persistent, and that she probably has other motives as Kristen soon finds herself alone in the house, surrounded by a group of people who begin pounding on the door and doing other threatening things. James returns home, doubting her stories, but we know better.

Turns out James and Kristen have become targets for a roaming group of psychopaths (two girls and a guy) who have chosen their particular house for an evening of fun. Not only do they don some extremely eerie masks (he wears a pillowcase with a jagged face on it, they wear doll-like plastic ones), they soon become relentless in their efforts to terrorize our estranged couple. This includes cutting the phone lines, wrecking their vehicle, and appearing from the shadows to toy with their victims.

Debuting filmmaker Bertino has crafted the kind of horror movie we don't see that often anymore. It's quite amazing how solid a film he's crafted here as he confidently hits all the right notes to wrap his audience around his finger. He doesn't rely too much on bloodshed to make his point, instead ramping up the suspense and punctuating it with various moments of shock (and, yes, a little bit of the red stuff). Never once does he give his miscreants a motive, but it's really not necessary in the context of the movie, as he's set the story on a focused, determined path to chill you.

This quest is helped out on all fronts by the actors involved. Tyler and Speedman bring just enough helplessness to their roles and our trio of killers (including model Gemma Ward) get by on their creepy visages and calculated actions alone. This is a movie that we're able to buy into as something that might actually occur and a lot of that is due to the performances.

The Strangers is a success. It's of the horror movie school that doesn't need to pile on multiple special effects, off-putting comedy, or abundant bloodshed to be effective. Bertino has crafted what I consider to be one of the best genre flicks of the year (up to the halfway point, anyway) and obviously distributor Rogue Pictures has taken notice of this when, despite having its release date pushed back twice, this has gone on to be a surprise minor hit. It's also led to Bertino signing a deal to make two other thrillers for the company, which is something I'll be looking forward to. (Chris Hartley, 7/13/08 - DVD, 10/15/08)

Directed By: Bryan Bertino.
Written By: Bryan Bertino.

Starring: Scott Speedman, Liv Tyler, Gemma Ward, Kip Weeks.

Picture Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: Considering the movie has a lot of bright/dark contrast, I was surprised to see no evident colour bleed on display. The transfer handles the bright fall colours near the beginning and the numerous black night sequences fine, though it does look washed-out at times. The image is also free of debris.

Extras: Universal has included the theatrical and unrated versions of the film on the disc with the unrated cut running about two minutes longer. I couldn't really notice much different, so I'm going to assume it's a bit more bloodiness and a few snippets of dialogue. Apart from this there's really not much else here as we get two deleted scenes consisting of more dialogue between our two leads and a making of entitled, "The Elements of Terror" which plays exactly like the EPK material it is. Running at about nine minutes it has brief interviews with cast and crew, has some behind-the-scenes footage, and covers the basics - it's realtively painless yet passable.