The Strangers (2008 film)

For other uses, see The Stranger.

The Strangers
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Bryan Bertino
Written by	Bryan Bertino
Produced by	Nathan Kahane Doug Davison Roy Lee
Starring	Liv Tyler Scott Speedman and Gemma Ward
Cinematography	Peter Sova
Edited by	Kevin Greutert
Distributed by	Rogue Pictures
Release dates	May 30, 2008
Running time	90 minutes
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$10,000,000

The Strangers is a 2008 horror film written and directed by Bryan Bertino and starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman. The film score was composed by Tomandandy. The film was rated R by the MPAA for violence/terror and language.

Plot

The film starts off with a narrator voice stating:

"The film you are about to see is inspired by true events. According to the F.B.I. there are an estimated 1.4 million violent crimes in America each year. On the night of February 11, 2005 Kristen McKay and James Hoyt went to a friend's wedding reception and returned to the Hoyt family's summer home. The brutal events that took place there are still not entirely known."

The film opens with the discovery of the house and a 911 call, in which the caller sobs to the operator that there is blood everywhere, whilst two Mormon boys passing by on bicycles discover the grisly scene.

The film then flashes back to the previous night. When James and Kristen first arrive at the home, they answer a knock at the door. A blond girl asks for a person who does not live there, then leaves. The couple do not get a good look at her face, as the front porch light bulb had been partially unscrewed, but they think no more of it and Mike leaves for cigarettes. While he is gone, the lit fireplace begins to pour smoke into the house. The smoke alarm goes off, and Kristen partially dismantles it to turn it off. There is another knock at the door. Kristen does not open the door, and asks who the knocker is through the closed door. The same girl from before again asks for a person who is not there, and Kristen tells her that she had been to their house already. Kristen tries to call Mike with her cellphone, but it has a low battery, so she hooks it up to its charger and leaves it by the fireplace and calls James on the house phone. She asks him to hurry back, and to stay on the line with her until he returns, but the call drops. She walks into the kitchen, and has her back turned while the audience can see a man in a mask staring at her from another part of the house. When she turns around, he is gone, but she notices that the smoke alarm has been reassembled, and her cell phone is missing. She sees the masked man and another masked person(presumably the blond girl who had knocked on the door) through windows, grabs a large kitchen knife, and hides in the bedroom of the house until James returns. He is not convinced that anything is amiss, but when he returns to his car for his own cell phone, he finds the windows smashed, the tires flattened, and his phone gone. The blond girl is standing in the yard, and he asks her what it is that she wants, but receives no reply.

He goes back into the house and Kristen tries to call 911 from the house phone, but the line is dead. James' cell phone is found on the piano, its battery removed, and the audience sees Kristen's phone in the fire burning, though the two never realize it is there. James decides that they should try to leave in what is left of his car. They begin to drive away, but notice the masked man standing before the car, and a third masked person, a female brunette, rams them from behind in a pickup truck. Kristen and James run back into the house, and James finds his fathers old shotgun. They find shells in the closet in the bedroom(the word 'hello' has been written repeatedly on the bedroom window in red paint). As they return to the house's living room, the masked man begins hacking at the front door with an ax. Kristen and James push a piano in front of the door, and James shoots at the man, but misses. They decide to hide in a spare room and wait for help to arrive.

Meanwhile, James best friend, Mike, whom James hadn't expected to arrive until morning, pulls up to the house. Upon seeing the wrecked vehicles and broken door, he enters the house. He walks through the house, unaware that the masked man is following him with an ax, and passes by the open door of the room Kristen and James are hiding in. As soon as he walks into the door way, James shoots him in the head and kills him. He slowly realizes that the man he shot was not wearing a mask, and is horrified to realize he has killed his best friend. The word 'killer' is now written on the back door in the same red paint as before. After regaining his composure, he decides to make a run for the barn behind the house, as there is an old radio there that is the couples last hope of reaching help. He makes it through the woods behind the house and is close to the barn, when the brunette walks around the barn with a searchlight. James drops to the ground and takes aim, but the brunette suddenly trains the light on him. He realizes too late that she had been distracting him and whips around just as the masked man descends upon him. He manages to get a shot off, but it is unclear whether he missed or not.

Back in the house, Kristen hears the shot and runs to investigate. In the dark, she falls, hurts her leg, and crawls the rest of the way to the barn. She finds the old radio and tries to call for help, but does not know how to use it and reaches no one. She finally hears a voice on the other end, and tries to call for help, but the brunette suddenly appears and smashes the radio with an ax while Kristen runs back to the house as quickly as her injured leg would allow. She hides in the pantry, and looks through slots in the door as the masked man walks into the house and looks around. He looks directly at the pantry several times, but makes no move towards it and walks out. Kristen is relieved, until suddenly the blond appears at the pantry door and begins smashing her way in. Kristen fights back, and the blond relents and backs away. Kristen steps out, and asks what they are after. The blond replies with "You're gonna die here," and brandishes the large knife Kristen had had before. Kristen finds a smaller knife and brandishes it at the blond, but the blond slowly continues towards her, then suddenly walks away. Kristen returns to the spare room to hide. She peaks her head out of the room, and is immediately grabbed, slammed against the wall, and dragged away by the masked man.

When the couple come to, they are both tied to chairs in the living room of the house. It is now morning, and the brunette opens the blinds to let the sun in. Kristen asks why they did all this, and the blond replies, "Because you were home." They each take off their masks, though their faces are never shown on camera. The male stranger then picks up the large knife and begins stabbing James slowly and repeatedly, then hands the knife to the brunette who stabs James until the blond takes the knife and begins stabbing Kristen. Afterwards, they drive away in the pickup truck, but pass the two Mormon boys from the beginning and stop. The blond takes a pamphlet from one of the boys, and they continue on their way, one stating, "Next time, it will be easier." When the boys come to the house, they find James, untied, on the floor, and clearly dead. They pass Mike as well, and come to Kristen. When one boy reaches down to touch her, she awakens, begins to scream loudly, and the scene cuts to black.

Inspiration

The movie is inspired by an event from the director Bryan Bertino's childhood, among other things. A stranger came to his home asking for someone who did not live there. Later, he found out that empty homes in the neighborhood had been burglarized. With that memory in mind, Bertino created this, his debut screenplay. The screenplay is also inspired by the events of the Charles Manson murders. The core of the story is based on the murders that took place in Cabin #28 at Keddie Resort, in the remote township of Keddie, CA, where three people were found tied up, stabbed, bludgeoned by a hammer. (A fourth victim who'd been at the site was found some months later, the body dumped 90 miles away.)

Cast

• Liv Tyler as Kristen McKay
• Scott Speedman as James Hoyt
• Gemma Ward as Doll Face
• Kip Weeks as The Man in the Mask
• Laura Margolis as Pin-Up Girl
• Glenn Howerton as Mike
• Alex Fisher as Mormon Boy #1
• Peter Clayton-Luce as Mormon Boy #2

Production

The Strangers was filmed in the United States in Florence, South Carolina beginning on October 10, 2006 and finishing in 2007. The production's estimated budget was around $10,000,000. The release of the film was postponed twice. The producers originally intended to release the film in Summer 2007, but due to complications, the date was pushed back to the Autumn. The release was pushed back yet again to May 30, 2008.

Marketing

A short promotional teaser trailer for the movie was released in August 2007 on the internet, and can be found on YouTube and on Apple's Quicktime. It was not until March 2008 that a full-length theatrical trailer for the film was released, which is available at Yahoo Movies. This theatrical trailer began showing in movie theaters soon after to promote the film, first being attached with Rogue Pictures' Doomsday.

There were two promotional one-sheet posters for the film that were released in August 2007, one displaying the three masked Strangers, and the other displaying a wounded Liv Tyler. In April 2008, the final, official one-sheet for the film was released.

In addition to traditional promotional activities, there is also an active viral marketing campaign. The viral campaign includes a hoax web site with message board for people to discuss the crime which the movie claims to be based on.

Critical reception

The Strangers received mixed reviews from critics. As of May 30, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 44% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 82 reviews — with the consensus that the film "provides a few scares, but offers little else to distinguish itself from other slasher films." The film has a 57% rating based on the reviews from Top Critics. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 48 out of 100, based on 25 reviews. The movie received an average score of 51.2% from 50 film critics according to Movie Tab. On IMDB, the movie has received a 7.5/10 with 1,022 people rating it.

Box office performance

The Strangers opened in the United States and Canada on May 30, 2008 and in its opening weekend the film grossed an estimated $20.7 million in 2,467 theaters, ranking #3 at the box office and averaging $8,393 per theater.

Soundtrack

In addition to the film's score by Tomandandy, "The Strangers" features the following songs:

1. "Ariel Ramirez" - Richard Bucknker
2. "Hopeful" - Jennifer O'Connor
3. "At My Window Sad and Lonely" - Billy Bragg and Wilco
4. "Sprout and the Bean" - Joanna Newsom (first song played on the turntable in the movie)
5. "My First Lover" - Gillian Welch

External links

• Official site
• The Strangers at IMDb
• The Strangers at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Strangers at Metacritic
• The Strangers at Box Office Mojo
• ‹The template AllMovie title is being considered for deletion.› The Strangers at AllMovie
• Official trailer at alliancefilms.com
• Rogue Pictures