The Strangers
| Year: | 2008 |
| Production Co: | Rogue Pictures |
| Director: | Bryan Bertino |
| Writer: | Bryan Bertino |
| Cast: | Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, Gemma Ward |
It doesn't look like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , but this smoothly shot film has similar B roots as a young couple with a relationship crisis endure a brutal home invasion at their remote holiday house.
First time writer/director Bryan Bertino goes for nerve sawing tension rather than gore, and thoroughly achieves it through inventive camera angles and an unsettling score and sound effects. Unfortunately logic, natural behaviour and consistency are all sacrificed on the altar to achieve such a living, breathing sense of dread, and cliché often curbs an otherwise realistic depiction of events.
Like Chainsaw, plenty will be disgusted by such a nihilistic movie (take a bow, Funny Games), but as Oscar Wilde said, art is neither good nor evil, just well or badly made.
First time writer/director Bryan Bertino goes for nerve sawing tension rather than gore, and thoroughly achieves it through inventive camera angles and an unsettling score and sound effects. Unfortunately logic, natural behaviour and consistency are all sacrificed on the altar to achieve such a living, breathing sense of dread, and cliché often curbs an otherwise realistic depiction of events.
Like Chainsaw, plenty will be disgusted by such a nihilistic movie (take a bow, Funny Games), but as Oscar Wilde said, art is neither good nor evil, just well or badly made.