Tuesday, October 18, 2011

31 Days of Halloween - Day 18 - Movie 1


The Strangers (2008) is the kind of horror movie I usually don't watch. I don't find it particularly entertaining to watch people being brutalized by other people for an hour and a half no matter how well the movie is made.

The Strangers stars Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman as a couple spending the night in an isolated family summer home. While the two of them try and deal with some relationship issues they find themselves completely cut off while a group of masked figures assaults them from both outside and from within the house.

The movie is well made and well acted, and the slow burn build-up of the first act is mesmerizing to watch and full of promise, part of that promise being that this movie was going to be brutal and hard to watch. That feeling is maintained for about the first forty minutes, but once Speedman's character ventures outside for the second time and the couple is split up, all of the tension seems to rapidly seep out of the movie and unfortunately it stays that way through the very end. The movie goes from something well polished and suspenseful to something dull and lacking the care that preceded this portion of the movie. Writer-Director, Bryan Bertino does such an excellent job for the first half that the second half ends up being even more disappointing than if this had simply been a mediocre movie throughout. It's almost as if he lost interest in the movie at the midpoint.


  

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