Lock the Door...Pretend You're Safe

Is Tamara there?

Are you sure?

See you later...

As previously mentioned posted...there is one way that is guaranteed to make me stop feeling sad...no matter what....and that is a scary movie. It truly is impossible to feel sad when you are terrified. So that is what I did and here is my review of The Strangers. I knew that it was going to be good based off of the fact that the previews freaked me out. As long as the previews hadn't showed all of the scary parts...I would leave the theater looking over my shoulder and walking fast out of fear.

So you have Liv Tyler as Kristen and Scott Speedman as James...and they are the somewhat troubled couple who are "home". They spend the next 90 minutes trying to stay alive in spite of three insane people in masks who are taking their sweet time in finishing them off. The movie is truly terrifying and not terribly gory...which is a rare feat in film today. Here is why it works...

(POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT)

So there is the obvious angle of the whole thing happening in the safety of one's home. OK so techincally it is a summer home but when you think about it...that actually makes it slightly more scary. Think about it...vacations are supposed to be relaxing and typically your guard is down because you are relaxed. More importantly...how much would it suck for the madness to be occuring at the safe and fun place from your childhood? But back to the point... it is happening in one's home...the place where one should feel the safest. I know that I always feel safer once I've walked through my door and promptly locked it behind me. But what if the very thing that you are afraid of is already inside? Guess what...You're pretty much fucked.

Another part that scared the hell out of me was how incredibly smart "The Strangers" were. It wasn't like they were brainless zombies or lunatics. "The Strangers" were incredibly smart and that sends chills up my spine. From the way that they returned James' cellphone so quietly...sans the battery to the way that managed to keep sneaking back into the house unnoticed to do little creepy things like turn on the record player..clearly they were fairly bright cookies.

Creepiest of all in the opinion of Millie the Geek is the fact that there were three "Strangers" and of those three...two were women. Sure that is probably incredibly sexist of me to say it but there is something really, really creepy about two women helping to torture a young couple with no real reason for doing so. Not to say that I don't think that women are capable of committing such heinous acts...but it is almost always fueled by jealousy and/or love. Rarely it is unprovoked. Random acts of violence tend to be a man thing. Yet there were the two young women being just as evil as the man they were with.

Liv owned her role as Kristen...largely in part thanks to her big blue eyes. She was born to look vulnerable and therefore she sold that she spent the entire movie in fear for her life. She never did anything out right foolish throughout the movie but she was not a smart heroine. She was average with worked for the role. I mean...how does one prepare to combat something as terrible as being tortured in your own home?

James was awesome. He was a total gentleman in spite of his broken heart, smart, tough, and completely sexy. I knew he was doomed but damn it all I really wanted him to make it.

The scare scenes were scary...the death scenes were gory but not overly so...and the storyline was believable....so overall the film was pretty damn awesome. Definitely worth seeing.

"Why are you doing this?

"Because you were home."

Oh...and don't forget that the story is based on actual events. That little fact increases the fear factor tremendously.