The Strangers : A question for everyone who hates this movie

I've seen so much hate for this filmmy question is, what is YOUR favorite horror film?

This film is FAR from perfect but considering the entire horror genre, it is far from the worst. It succeeded in two thingsbeing creepy and being entertaining.

It's just baffling that people will pay so much to see movie after movie and not even *try* to enjoy the experience. It's a movie, nothing more.

You just can't please anyone, anymore.

So if this movie is so horrible, I'd LOVE to see what your favorite horror films are.

get prepared for a list of slice 'em and dice 'em torture porn.

most people can't sit through a decent movie with a storyline.

I thought this film was great. reminicient of the old 60's and 70's suspense films that didn't rely on blood and CGI. Great mind phuque movie.

---

Swing away, Merrill.Merrill, swing away

---

"get prepared for a list of slice 'em and dice 'em torture porn. "

sure, the old "you don't like what i like, so you have to be dumb a a stump" excuse. it is the brother of the "you did not like it, well then stick to fast and the furious" excuse.

"most people can't sit through a decent movie with a storyline. "

you call that a "storyline"?

I so agree, I mean the movies not terrible, trust me I've seen much worse then this but I can see why people don't like it. Firstly some people might not have liked that it was more horror then thriller or the terrible, lack of climax or resolution ending. Also the script has bad structure there is no B Story in the second act, a device that's entire purpose is to strengthen the A-Story and the third act just kinda goes to *beep* It just ends, I mean this is something i find with all first time filmmakers they can get started easily enough, but they lose focus of structure along the way

I so agree, I mean the movies not terrible, trust me I've seen much worse then this but I can see why people don't like it. Firstly some people might not have liked that it was more horror then thriller or the terrible, lack of climax or resolution ending. Also the script has bad structure there is no B Story in the second act, a device that's entire purpose is to strengthen the A-Story and the third act just kinda goes to *beep* It just ends, I mean this is something i find with all first time filmmakers they can get started easily enough, but they lose focus of structure along the way

---

You just can't please anyone, anymore.

---

People like different things. Who knew?

I personally did not enjoy this movie because it progressed quite quickly with little backstory, explanation or plot line. Of course, opinions differ, so I wouldn't impugn anyone who enjoyed this movie. A horror movie favourite of mine was 'The Orphanage'.

I appreciated the stripped down, right to the point, almost abstractly straight forward approach to horror this film had. No plot to speak of really. Just an average couple, fighting to maintain their relationship. And their melancholy solace suddenly interrupted and shattered by horrible fateas what occurs in real life tragedyalways unexpected and in the most inconvenient of times. Three people with no motive other than murder and psychological torture and the couple who just happened to fall in their path.

The build up of the first half was pitch perfect. You believe you are watching a new horror classic unfold terrifyingly and menacingly before you. But once James decides to leave Kristen in the houseit begins to fall apart. I still appreciate it for what it is. And maybe under a lot of stress one would not act as rational as we think from behind the safety of a TV screen, watching the whole thing play out.

There were some beautiful, downright skin crawling shots and unbearable stretches of silence and anticipation.

The only thing I would have appreciated more was perhaps some sort of an opportunity for the couple to not go down without a fight. It was cruel and frustrating that they seemed so helpless to every attack. And if this would have resulted in some sort of intense sequence of peril and near escape. Without thatthe movie left an impression of being slightly dull. One wonderedwill these psychopaths just get on with it alreadywe get itthey're purposely screwing with themdrawing out their horror. But at some point it would have been reasonable for some more actionraise the stakes a bit more.

Other than that this is a simple, unnerving little horror film that will be remembered for its sinister conceptmurder without clear motiveand its diabolically creepy atmosphere. And quite a downbeat and sadistic end for our main characters.

Other horror films I found scary/suspenseful or genuinely unnerving that delivered a bit more pay off
Scream
Stir of Echoes
The Others
28 Days Later
The Ring
The Skeleton Key (diabolical, knock out twist ending makes up for its early duration cliches)
The Descent (uncut)
Wolf Creek
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (quite twisted and morbid for a modern slasher)
Vacancy
Quarantine or Recbut I prefer Quarantine if I'm going to be completely honest
The Last House on the Left (2009)
Eden Lake
A Perfect Getaway (director's cut - another mind blowing twist and turner)
The Crazies (2010)
Absentia
The Pact
Insidious
Paranormal Activity 3 (uncut)
Lovely Molly
The Grey
Kill List
Sinister
The Conjuring
You're Next
Beneath
The Den
Wolf Creek 2
The Babadook

Hey!! Someone else who liked Absentia!!

Absentia blew me away. I wasn't expecting much. They really went a long way with such a small budget.

More than anything, I was impressed by how relentlessly frightening it was.

This is just what I thought of the movie, it felt like one of the best horror movies I've ever seen, until James decided to leave her alone in the house, I almost stopped watching the movie there, it just ruined the movie for me in that exact moment. Anyways, beside the simple act of such a stupid thing being done (we're used to that in horror movies), the quality of it starts decaying from there, the tension doesn't build as wonderfully as in the first half, there's some jump scares that puts the movie in the same place some *beep* horror movies are.

I wouldn't say I didn't enjoy it, it was a good, entertaining and sorta different thing to watch. I liked it overall, but I was disappointed.

I see a lot of resemblences with Michael Haneke's "Funny Games".
There's a similar feeling of hopelesness or maybe an intentionally false sense of hope, for the protagonists.

This was a lot less precisely executed though.

Nice list! Definitely gonna check some of them! Thanks!

I'm watching it now, and it's giving me the creeps.
Horror films I liked:
Sixth Sense
Scream
The Exorcist
Saw (first one only!!!)
Poltergeist
28 Days Later
Candyman (saw it when I was 8 and was traumatized)
House of Wax (remake)
The Haunting (B&W original)
House on Haunted Hill (remake)
Nosferatu
The Shining
TX Chainsaw Massacre (original and remake)

Horror movies I didn't like and didn't find scary:
The Ring
The Grudge
Blair Witch Project
Alien (s)
Halloween (liked it but didn't find it scary)



1. BVS 2. TWS 3. Avengers

Funny what you say about Candyman. That movie really got to me too when I saw it for the first time more than such movies usually do.

I don't hate it but was left dissatisfied. The lines spoken by the killers suggest there is motive and background, but then the film does not deliver.

UhI'm sorry. What lines were spoken by the killers that led you to believe there was a motive or background?

"Because you were home" surely could not have been one of them.

Yes, that seems to mean something to them.

The other was 'next time it will be easier' woah there, why will there be a next time?

Ohhh I'm sorryI thought you meant that there was some sort of motive for killing that couple specifically.

Next time it will be easier. That line was chilling the more I think about it. Because they clearly enjoy drawing out the terror as opposed to killing them immediately, and at the same time, the line implies that there is something difficult about what they're doing. Maybe the young blond was being initiated and the brunette was reassuring her that she will get used to the carnage. Who knows. The implications are left up to your imagination which makes it scarier.

Ohhh I'm sorryI thought you meant that there was some sort of motive for killing that couple specifically.

I did not see it but one poster above claimed that their white truck was visible in the beginning of the movie when the couple is at that party.

Yeah. That was definitely them outside the reception.

But the premise is still that they were picked at random.

I hated it, gave it a 1 which i rarely do. Maybe its a 2 but since they draged it out to the point i got pissed im giving it a 1.

My favorite horror film is prolly The Last House on the Left, also Black Christmas from 1974 i great stuff.

I gave this movie a 4/10.

I didn't hate it, but I had already seen a movie called Ils (Them) which has a similar story but with seemingly younger children. The younger children in Ils made that movie seem much more horrifying than this one. Also the children in Ils didn't have any specific 'props' like the killers did in The Strangers (i.e. their masks), so it seemed more spontaneous.

i love "ils", it delivers exactly what this film sets out to, but lacks completely.

SPOILERS!

even the "last line" of both films were similar in intention, but superior in "ils".

I have a hard time following your point, I mean I absolutely loved "Them"! but that doesn't mean I disliked "The Strangers".

If you dislike a movie just because you've seen a smiliar movie there can't possibly be a lot of movies you actually enjoy? Especially not in the horror genre.

"It succeeded in two thingsbeing creepy and being entertaining"

You forgot moronic. If this "entertained" you, you need to see more movies. A lot more.

depends on the definition:

horror/drama:
confessions
hard candy
spoorloos
13 beloved

horror:
king of the ants
ils
splinter
high tension
the thing
the mist
3 extremes

horror/comedy:
shawn of the dead
slither
behind the mask

I thought it was a fantastic movie. It was very scary and intense.

My favorite horror film (and one of my overall favorite films): The Thing (1982)

The Strangers is god awful. The killers CONSTANTLY appeared to the VIEWERS and NEVER appeared to the PROTAGONISTS. The killers were just trolling the audience. Every horror cliche in the book can be found in The Strangers: Cell Phones unavailable, jump scares galore, cringe-worthy character decisions, and the killers disappearing right before the protagonists turn around EVERY SINGLE TIME! Not that I enjoy ripping apart films that people like, but it honesty baffles me that people liked this movie.

Looking through your ratings it seems you don't even watch these kind of movies let alone like them so why would you bother watching a movie like this in the first place? Did you begrudgingly watch it with someone else who wanted to watch it? You give it 1 star? Really? It was that bad?

It seems like you had your mind made up going in to this movie that you probably weren't going to enjoy it and just sat there looking for any little thing to criticize. I wish people would acknowledge when they normally don't like a certain kind of movie. I mean, if you're not the target audience then your opinion only counts for so much.

Horror is my favorite genre by far. I've rated plenty of horror movies so i don't know where you got the idea that I don't watch these kinds of movies. If you looked at my lists, I have one specifically designated to horror, and a few of my top 10 of the year lists have horror movies in them.

And yes, 1 star is an accurate rating for this atrocity.

There isn't one redeeming quality in this movie.

Horrible acting, lazy directing, non-existent story, cliched to the point where it becomes hilarious, and predictable to the point where I wasn't caught off guard in the slightest. To sum it up, The Strangers contains everything that is wrong with horror movies today

Also, I actually went into this movie thinking it would be good considering all the praise it got. I watched it by myself and in the dark which is what I do with most horror movies I watch for the first time (unless there is one worth watching in theaters (which nowadays is very rare.))

Since you appeared to enjoy this movie, tell me why? I am genuinely curious.

I couldn't agree more. I also rated The Strangers a 1. It was one of the most frustrating horror movies I've ever seen.

---

Horror is my favorite genre by far. I've rated plenty of horror movies so i don't know where you got the idea that I don't watch these kinds of movies. If you looked at my lists, I have one specifically designated to horror, and a few of my top 10 of the year lists have horror movies in them.

And yes, 1 star is an accurate rating for this atrocity.

There isn't one redeeming quality in this movie.

Horrible acting, lazy directing, non-existent story, cliched to the point where it becomes hilarious, and predictable to the point where I wasn't caught off guard in the slightest. To sum it up, The Strangers contains everything that is wrong with horror movies today

Also, I actually went into this movie thinking it would be good considering all the praise it got. I watched it by myself and in the dark which is what I do with most horror movies I watch for the first time (unless there is one worth watching in theaters (which nowadays is very rare.))

Since you appeared to enjoy this movie, tell me why? I am genuinely curious.

---

Well, in neither one of your posts did you go into any specifics whatsoever so maybe when you can actually explain what was bad about the movie will I bother explaining why I liked it.

A whole bunch of generic labels like "horrible" "lazy" "cliched" "predictable" is nothing to go on and a typically lazy response that doesn't open up any kind of conversation which is what these forums are for.

The Haunting (1963)
The Shinning
Suspiria
Jacob's Ladder

To mention a few.

" Look, there's two women fuc*ing a polar bear "

I didn't completely hate the film, but I was really bored. NoI did hate the movie. It felt like forever before something really happened and when it did, it wasn't scary in the slightest. I was rooting for the "Strangers" in the end because the couple made the stupidest decisions possible!!!
My favorite horror movies would be: John Carpenter's The Thing, Aliens, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) Silence of the Lambs, The Shining and Evil Dead 2.



Get away from her, you BITCH!!!

I didn't hate this movie, I gave it a 5. My problem with the movie wasn't that it didn't scare me as I don't get scared by most horror movies. My main problem was that it tried to be a realistic home invasion movie but it had so many horror clichs that it came across as a little silly and at times very illogical. I don't consider it a good horror movie but I've come across worse.

And my favourite horror movie is The Babadook. It's one of the only scary movies that has actually scared me, and that's saying a lot. A lot of the classic 'scary' movie doesn't usually get me scared at all, even though I do think they are well made (The Exorcist, Halloween, The Thing, etc). Something about The Babadook got under my skin though.

Did I miss the part, I would assume it would be near the beginning and after about the third knocking/bashing of the door, and just before our heroine called our hero on the phone, when she called the police?

I'm watching it now, as I write, and if this level of dumb continues throughout the film, I will hate, guaranteed.

Favorite horror films:

1. The Bride of Frankenstein
2. Les yeux sans visage
3. Spider Baby
4. The Black Cat (1934)
5. The Babadook
6. Suspiria
7. Shock
8. Kill Baby Kill
9. The Wicker Man
10. Blood on Satan's Skin

That's just the beginning of my listI don't have all day to list the rest.

One really wonders what else people think a movie in the horror genre is supposed to achieve. If a horror movie manages to be entertaining and creepy, surely it has to be considered a success?

Hated The Strangers.

Not a huge fan of horror films generally, but my favorite is probably the original Halloween. Or The Exorcist.



Never defend crap with 'It's just a movie'
http://www.youtube.com/user/BigGreenProds