Now this is what I do the Halloween marathon for each year … the new horror movies I’d heard a lot about this movie but, as with any horror movie I haven’t seen yet, I’m more skeptical than

The set-up here is familiar – so familiar that in recollecting it I find myself struggling to remember just what it was about that movie that I ultimately found so gripping. A couple spend the night in a house in the middle of nowhere; the strangers of the title come a-knockin’; it’s not your average romantic evening. There are moments here that are genuinely masterful. My eyes were glued to the screen right from the start not for the horror but for the introduction of these two characters, who we slowly learn have just had an awkward evening together. There’s immediate inner tension in the relationship – they don’t have to say anything, their looks and silence doing all the talking. Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman give this movie what all the greatest horror movies thrive on, the great performances. I haven’t cared so much about what happened to a victim in this genre in a long, long time. When they look at each other and say “I love you,” at the end, I really felt it. It’s a beautiful nightmare. The last minute shock is slightly cheesy, it’s gotta be said; but overall this is one of the better horror movies of the last decade that I won’t mind seeing again.

Tags: horror

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 at 11:59 pm and is filed under 4 hearts, Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.