{"id":30951,"date":"2009-10-08T11:04:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-08T11:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jordanhthonextract2.wordpress.com\/2009\/10\/08\/the-strangers-3"},"modified":"2011-09-23T04:00:03","modified_gmt":"2011-09-23T04:00:03","slug":"the-strangers-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jordanorlando.com\/ns\/the-strangers-3\/","title":{"rendered":"The Strangers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Strangers<\/i> is on the opposite end of the horror spectrum from Hostel<\/i><\/a>. It\u2019s pure atmosphere, pure style. As I wrote below<\/a>, a movie like Hostel<\/i> works on multiple levels, employing complex storytelling techniques to convey political and philosophical overtones (in the great tradition of Halloween<\/i> and Dawn of the Dead<\/i>). The Strangers<\/i> isn\u2019t interested in any of that. It\u2019s all about wind chimes, and neo-Ridley Scott handheld photography, and little indoor breezes that make the candles flicker. This is the kind of movie in which the characters decide to put some music on and you\u2019re not remotely surprised that they\u2019re playing vintage piano blues\u2026on a phonograph.<\/p>\n

The Strangers<\/i> has exactly as much plot as it needs (i.e.<\/i> barely any) and not a stroke more. The story is so sparse, it actually flirts with the kind of surrealism practiced by Polanski and Lynch and Antonioni; any less of an explanation of what you\u2019re watching, and you\u2019d be too baffled to follow the sequences and you\u2019d have to classify it as an \u201cart film.\u201d By means of a rudimentary \u2013 but very effective \u2013 framing device (involving a pair of young quasi-Jehovah\u2019s Witnessess on bicycles) we\u2019re deprived early on of much hope of a happy ending; even the basic elements of surprise are essentially stripped away. But this skeletal narrative framework is filled with so much sensual texture and so many artfully evocative touches that it\u2019s every bit as gripping and frightening as it would be if you had been provided with reams of exposition (if not more so). I mentioned the miniature Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses on Schwinn bicycles who open the movie: Why<\/i> are they Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, exactly? If you want a reasonable answer, you\u2019ll have to get over it. Because it looks good, and suits the odd, off-kilter tone that the movie sustains so masterfully. (Just like the vinyl record, which is, of course, warped and scratched.)<\/p>\n

This is, obviously, an extremely difficult game for filmmakers to play (judging by the failure rate); most of the points I\u2019ve made above could easily be employed as criticisms<\/i> rather than plaudits (and, of course, have been by the movie\u2019s detractors), so I have to give the writer\/director (Bryan Bertino, making his debut) tremendous credit for not hedging his bets; for having the courage to strip nearly everything away and be assured that he\u2019d still have a movie. Like Night of the Living Dead<\/i>, The Strangers<\/i> focuses completely on a few characters in a remote house over the course of a single night, increasingly aware that a grave threat is outside, trying to get in\u2026but Night of the Living Dead<\/i> is Dr. Zhivago<\/i> by comparison. This time, there are only two protagonists: estranged couple Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman (who\u2019s from that breed of interchangeably affable, reasonably talented male actors you find in horror movies with female protagonists, like the boyfriend in The Ring<\/i>), whose reasons for being alone in this lonely house on this particular evening are (again) barely provided. The threat beyond the walls \u2013 the strangers who seem able to find their way inside despite Tyler\u2019s and Speedman\u2019s increasingly desperate efforts to keep them out \u2013 are so elemental and yet so mundane in their fearsomeness that none of the standard movie responses seem to apply. The plot never thickens, or provides any twists, but it doesn\u2019t matter: it never even occurs to you that you\u2019ve seen these narrative moves before.<\/p>\n

So why not five stars? Only because the movie ultimately plays its cards a bit too<\/i> close to the vest; Bertino isn\u2019t quite the visual\/auditory genius he would need to be to pull off this parlor trick completely. (But it\u2019s his first movie!) The Strangers<\/i> was a surprise hit, and there\u2019s talk of a sequel (which may or may not be a good idea), which indicates its effectiveness in bravely sticking to its minimalist intentions and winning over the audience, not with ideas or innovations, but with pure skill. There\u2019s not much to be said concerning what this movie\u2019s \u201cabout\u201d (again, in marked contrast to Hostel<\/i>), but confounding the need to answer that question is among the noblest traditions in art (Ridley Scott famously bragged that Alien<\/i> had \u201cno theme and no meaning\u201d). Ultimately, The Strangers<\/i> is about the sound of crickets, outside the window\u2026and the whisper of unease that accompanies that sound.<\/p>\n

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