Ed. note: this film review appeared in a previous post on The Strangers.
Bryan Bertino’s opening shots in The Strangers immediately set up a lonely atmosphere. As James (Scott Speedman) and Kristen (Liv Tyler) drive home in silence, they pass through empty city streets and wait at stoplights with no other cars; the quiet becomes palpable. Their travels bring them to a solitary house in the middle of the woods, no other lights in sight. They quietly shuffle into the house, and not even an animal can be heard in the distance.
These are great establishing sequences – for one, it’s clear that there’s no one around for James and Kristen if they need help, and James can’t even reach his friend Mike (Glenn Howerton) on his cell phone because it’s 4 o’clock in the morning. But it also conveys a sense of isolation from even the main characters, who, as a couple, have distanced themselves due to James’ not indecent but certainly unwelcome marriage proposal. The setup works well to create all kinds of tension, and it’s even more palpable if the viewer has been in a situation similar to James and Kristen’s. If not, Bertino ensures that one can imagine it regardless.
The Strangers‘ initial scares are well-paced and eerie, but Bertino understands that a slower pace will inevitably craft much scarier sequences. He allows the cat-and-mouse game to begin with subtlety: a knock at the door, then a bang, before the characters even know what’s going on. For anyone who’s lived in the lonely countryside, this is their worst nightmare: that someone malevolent comes along, and there’s no one around to help.
But Bertino makes a couple of serious mistakes in this home invasion piece. One of them is character development, especially for Tyler’s character Kristen. It’s hard to read this woman, and it’s difficult to tell if it’s the writing from Bertino or Tyler’s performance, but Kristen often seems in a perpetual state of confusion or even airheadedness. She whispers through her dialogue, often wavering between decisions or completely abandoning common sense. The whole marriage proposal seems weird too, even though it doesn’t have a huge bearing on the plot: her reaction to it feels hollow, especially for someone who seems so in love with James. Regardless, it’s really just a way to set up the ending’s attempt to lessen the bleakness of the finale.
The other flaw is certainly due to writing, because the plot moves forward solely due to character stupidity. While most horror films do take liberties with believable character actions, The Strangers feels like a comedy of errors thanks to many bad decisions made by the couple. Bertino has said that the intention was to show how stressful scenarios can make anyone panic, causing them to act inappropriately, but James and Kristen rarely use any kind of sense throughout the film. It’s especially egregious once James and Kristen find a shotgun with a decent amount of ammo; rather than constantly splitting up, it makes more sense to hide in a room (as they initially do), and wait for daylight, blasting anyone that tries to breach the entrance.
These problems are certainly frustrating, but they don’t detract significantly from the overall experience. The Strangers isn’t as smart or tense as some of its home invasion peers (and I’m confident that Funny Games will always reign supreme), but it does have some interesting elements – sound design being most prominent – and an outrageously grim ending. While the film borders on comical in its last moments, the stabbing scene is brutal and difficult to watch, and perhaps the most chilling element is when the Strangers take off their masks; at that point, death is a certainty, and James and Kristen are forced to contemplate their own violent demise. Forget the “because you were home” statement; the unmasking is the creepiest part, and Bertino was right not to show their faces.
While inconsistent and sometimes irritating, The Strangers is a pretty good addition to the home invasion genre, and it has enough tension to elevate it above its flaws. Bertino’s direction and pacing craft suspense throughout, even rivaling some of the best of the horror genre with its understated background scares. Its brutal ending will also have most people in rural locales packing up their belongings for a more populated area.
4K UHD
Scream Factory has released The Strangers on UHD with a new “4K presentation of the film from the original digital intermediate.” The film was shot on 35mm but finished with a 2K digital intermediate, and so what Scream Factory is truly presenting here is a 2K upscale from that digital intermediate, since it’s unlikely a new 4K intermediate was created for this release. Thus, fairly unsurprisingly the actual results of this UHD are pretty similar to the previous (very good) Blu-ray quality. While the picture features a slight zoom out from the prior release, giving very minute extra image, the 4K visuals don’t offer much improvement or detail that wasn’t already inherent on the Blu-ray. The Dolby Vision/HDR 10 addition here is the bigger draw considering the film features a large number of dark sequences; the HDR does a lot of the heavy lifting here, bolstering the contrast between the warm color palette of the fireplace backdrop versus the extreme blacks of the film’s shadows. With that said, most others won’t notice too much of a difference between the Blu-ray and UHD versions, so this is only worth upgrading if you can take advantage of the Dolby Vision and think the contrast is necessary.
Audio is presented with both a DTS-HD MA 5.1 track the corresponding 2.0 stereo. Both sound very good with no issues with dialogue volume or sound effects; the 5.1 surround does make some nice use of the satellite speakers for various spatial effects including the knocking on the house door, but either option will do. English subtitles are included.
For extras, this is effectively the same overall package as Scream Factory’s previous Blu-ray release. No new additions here; extras are included on both the theatrical cut disc (that cut Blu-ray only) as well as the unrated cut disc. See below for full details on those supplementals, as well as our previous review of the Blu-ray.
Extra Features
DISC ONE (4K UHD – UNRATED VERSION):
- NEW 4K Presentation From The Original Digital Intermediate
- Presented In Dolby Vision
DISC TWO (BLU-RAY – THEATRICAL VERSION):
- “The Element Of Terror” Featurette (1080p; 9:12)
- “Strangers At The Door” Featurette (1080p; 9:37)
- Deleted Scenes (1080p; 4:56)
- Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:11)
- TV Spots (1080p; 1:34)
DISC THREE (BLU-RAY – UNRATED VERSION):
- “Defining Moments: Writing And Directing The Strangers” (1080p; 29:37)
- “All The Right Moves: Kip Weeks On Playing The Man In The Mask” (1080p; 11:34)
- “Brains And Brawn: Laura Margolis On Playing Pin-Up Girl” (1080p; 13:44)
- “Deep Cuts: Kevin Greutert On Editing The Strangers” (1080p; 20:29)
- Still Gallery (chapter breaks; 4:02)
Verdict
The Strangers remains a fairly compelling home invasion film, and this UHD release is good for those that can take advantage of the HDR or don’t already own this on Blu-ray. As a double-dip in terms of upgrade enhancements, however, this one doesn’t offer enough improvement to warrant a recommendation.
