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Strangers, The
EMAILPRINTRogue Pictures (Universal Pictures)

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 27 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 154 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Horror | Mystery | Suspense/Thriller
Written by: Bryan Bertino
Directed by: Bryan Bertino
Release Date:
Theatrical: May 30, 2008
DVD: October 21, 2008
Running Time: 90 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for violence/terror and language
Starring Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, Gemma Ward, Kip Weeks, Laura Margolis, and Glenn Howerton
The Strangers is a terrifying suspense thriller about a couple whose remote getaway becomes a place of terror when masked strangers invade. The confrontation forces Kristen and James to go far beyond what they thought themselves capable of if they hope to survive. (Rogue Pictures)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
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.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis
This is no splatter movie: spare, suspenseful and brilliantly invested in silence, Bryan Bertino's debut feature unfolds in a slow crescendo of intimidation.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen
A spare, creepily atmospheric psychological thriller with a death grip on the psychological aspect.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jennie Punter
Both Speedman and Tyler deliver solid, nuanced performances as a couple caught at the most fragile moment in their relationship.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
There's nothing more to it than meets the eye, but Bertino understands the mechanics of suspense and knows how to use them.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves
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.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
This is one of those rare horror movies that concentrates on suspense and terror rather than on gore and a high body count.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ed Gonzalez
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.
Read Full Review >Variety Dennis Harvey
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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
There's nothing remotely new here, but the movie has the taut, queasy feel of an early 70s drive-in shocker: old-fashioned suspense without any guarantee of old-fashioned mercy.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
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.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
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.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Bertino does an excellent job building dread, especially during the first half of the movie. Every silence, pause and sudden noise startles - and the results, frankly, are more frightening than the graphic torture scenes in movies like "Hostel" and "Saw."
Read Full Review >Film Threat Rick Kisonak
Ultimately, The Strangers does succeed in the sense that it offers a riveting, vastly credible enactment of everyone's worst nightmare.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
As pointless suspense exercises go, The Strangers at least gets off to a good start.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
You can only string an audience along for so long with scary masks and sudden appearances at the window, and after a while, the suspense starts seeping out of The Strangers, because you realize that's all there's going to be to the movie.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The movie deserves more stars for its bottom-line craft, but all the craft in the world can't redeem its story.
Read Full Review >NPR Bob Mondello
What possessed Liv Tyler to take a role in this sadistic, unmotivated home-invasion flick.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Sometimes, dear reader, there's no place like home, and that's just where you should be when this gorefest opens at a theater near you.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Here's the tricky thing about The Strangers. Sure, it uses cinema to ends that are objectionable and vile ... but it does it well, with more than usual skill.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
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."
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
No one is getting at anything in The Strangers, except the cheapest, ugliest kind of sadistic titillation.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Is Hollywood so disconnected from its past and bankrupt of ideas that it doesn't even know this movie is a screaming cliché?
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
I like watching snakes eat mice just as much as the next fella, maybe even more, but The Strangers turns the gobble-'em-up into an ordeal. It's a fraud from start to finish.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
The bad movie in my head was far better than the one on-screen, which offers no twists at all. A twist? There isn't even a curl or a bend.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
A horror film with a moral. No matter how nasty a gang of murderers is, the moviemaker calling the shots is ultimately worse.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 154 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Dillon T. gave it a10:
This movie was amazing what horror should be. the scarys are done so perfect. many may find the ending to be a let down but i found it to be truly scary. the felling of not knowing is scary. all the little stuff like music, sudden nosies give it that scary, creepy vibe. you never know what may happen next which I love. I lock my doors more often now. Tyler has a terrific scream. good movie!!
Joss T gave it a9:
Good god there are a lot of morons here who think they know something but show through their comments how pathetically ignorant they are. Obviously a few FAILED 'film makers' here....hahahha. Fantastic film. Scary as hell and delivered exactly what it intended to do.
Gavin gave it a6:
It doesn't provide many scares but, when it does, they are fairly satisfying.
Sarah T gave it a0:
The most pointless film i have ever seen.
K P gave it a6:
Horror movies, in general, I watch with low expectations. I don't expect them to all be The Shining. That said, this movie creeped me out. Mainly b/c I live in a house in the middle of no where and could picture the scenario. I thought the movie was decent for what it is. if you are looking for a quick scare flick to watch check it out...better yet, rent it when you are on vacation at a secluded cabin.
Tanner J gave it an8:
It's not terrifying but it is pretty thrilling. The 2 lead characters are probably some of the dumbest people in the history of horror movies tho. Overall a pretty good movie.
Jeff D. gave it a1:
I'll give this a 1 for technique, but I don't watch movies for techniques so it really gets a 0. All they had to do was connect some dots. This movie was made for a non-thinker and that offended my intellect. It really sucked ass.
