For AKN

Great horror movies are remembered for being something that we haven't really seen before. 'Psycho' was the first horror film where the monster was a very average young man. 'The Exorcist' introduced a documentary-style realism to the genre. 'The Blair Witch Project' brought a first person, home video quality that put us right out there in those woods. With this in mind, this month's 'The Strangers' is not a great horror movie. It leans heavily on every convention that makes the scary movie scary and preys on the audiences basic fear of vulnerability. James and Kristen are a disintegrating couple who spend a post-wedding reception evening at a remote cabin. After an hour or so, they begin to get terrorized by three people in scary masks. When asked later why they're subjecting them to such brutalization, all they get is, "Because you were home".
There is something unsettling about being out in such remote places, where there's no safety in numbers and the law is far away. The screenplay was based loosely on the unsolved Keddie, CA murders in 1981. and, to its credit, 'The Strangers' is unsettling at first. The initial suspense is drawn out for an excruciating long time and those first few knocks on the door do get to you. After about forty-five minutes though, the scariness dies an unceremonious death. The action seems so unnecessarily drawn out it feels as if the killers are deliberately trying to get to an acceptable movie length. In addition to the occasional masterstroke, the overall feeling is enough make you nervous about walking to the car alone; but not enough to really recommend 'The Strangers' to anyone.