Synopsis
After a 4 a.m. knock at the door and haunting voices, Kristen McKay and James Hoyt’s remote getaway becomes a psychological night of terror as three masked strangers invade. Now they must go far beyond what they thought themselves capable of if they hope to survive.
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Cast
- Liv TylerKristen McKay
- Scott SpeedmanJames Hoyt
- Gemma WardDollface
- Kip WeeksMan in the Mask
- Laura MargolisPin-Up Girl
- Glenn HowertonMike
- Alex FisherMormon Boy #1
- Peter Clayton-LuceMormon Boy #2
- Nick BarghiniJoe - Lumberjack (uncredited)
- Shawn McClellanShawn the Bartender (uncredited)
Recommendations
- 91
The A.V. Club
It isn't particularly original--for one, it owes an unacknowledged debt to the French film "Them"--but as an exercise in controlled mayhem, horror movies don't get much scarier. - 75
Chicago Tribune
Bertino's taut, spare thriller is plenty scary without relying on pseudo-historical context. Anchored by convincing performances from Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler, both of whom elevate their roles above the standard horror-movie caricature, this is an enormously unsettling movie. - 70
Village Voice
Bertino teases with the unknown until he's left no pimple ungoosed. Sometimes avoiding the synapse-raping bad habits of splat packers Eli Roth and Alexandre Aja is its own reward; doing so without also submitting to Michael Haneke–style hand-slapping is nearly monumental. - 70
Variety
It's all efficiently nerve-jangling, with Tyler and Speedman credibly registering every hue of panic. Still, after such a long, creepy, cannily restrained buildup, it must be said the resolution is rather flat, a full-circle postscript rote. - 67
Austin Chronicle
Younger viewers who've cut their teeth on the instant horrors of modern "torture porn" may find The Stranger's pace and psychological upsets more slow-going than they might like. Yet a film like this may be just the bracing corrective the modern horror film needs. - 67
Entertainment Weekly
Bryan Bertino, stages The Strangers' early scenes with spooky panache...But then comes the blood, the shrieking midnight chase scenes, the anything-goes over-the-top-ness. In other words, everything that we liked the movie for not being. - 25
Charlotte Observer
Bertino directs at a funereal pace. Speedman remains comatose, though Tyler flickers fitfully to life. The mournful look on her face suggests she's remembering the days when she was given more psychologically complex scripts, such as "Armageddon." - 25
Philadelphia Inquirer
No one is getting at anything in The Strangers, except the cheapest, ugliest kind of sadistic titillation.
