The Strangers' fails to make friends with its audience.

'The Strangers' a stranger to horror

By: Charlie Upchurch

Posted: 11/3/08

If you're looking for a post-Halloween horror movie that will make the hair on your arms stand on end, "The Strangers" isn't for you.

Though initially this new DVD release starts out with a terrifying concept and an intense focus on scene that starts the ball rolling, the plot stops after the first scream.

Kristen (Liv Tyler) and James (Scott Speedman) are a couple planning on spending a romantic evening alone at a relative's home in the middle of nowhere.

The attention to the characters' personal lives from the first scene gives the viewer the false hope that in addition to being a horror movie, "The Strangers" might be psychologically compelling as well.

James proposes to Kristen as they leave a wedding in an early flashback and gets turned down. The couple are now stuck in a house strewn with rose petals, meant to help celebrate their engagement, and now just an uncomfortable reminder of the failed proposal.

One has to wonder, why, as the movie progresses, this interesting story about their lives has ended. Literally, from this point on, we learn nothing new about their characters, nor the "strangers" who start to harass them.

The set and the cinematography are incredibly compelling and terrifying-the entire movie is dark, yet warm at the same time, creating an interesting contrast between the warmth and disappointment in the first few scenes of the movie, then later on between the warmth of light and the terror, which is described fully in the bonus feature, "The Elements of Terror."

There's even an attempt at including the initial storyline into the movie-the "Bathroom Conversation" deleted scene joins Kristen and James in the middle of the movie, trapped in the bathroom and talking about the relevancy of the terror they're experiencing in the light of their relationship.

This type of connection between a horrifying concept and real details of life is the perfect example of the moments the entire movie is missing.

So far as viewers being "emotionally challenged by this movie," as director Bryan Bertino states as a goal in "The Elements of Terror," viewers will probably feel more of a challenge to stay interested for 86 minutes (88 full minutes for the "unrated extended version") and not turn the film off.

Overall grade: C

cupchurch@unews.com