|
In cinemas Wednesday [M]
Director: Bryan Bertino.
Runtime: 85mins
This gripping film, the screenwriting and directorial debut of Texan, Bryan Bertino, is a relentless horror thriller in the 1970’s adult style. Transpiring in almost real time, it depicts a young couple, Kristin (Liv Tyler) and James (Scott Speedman), returning from a wedding to James’s isolated, childhood home in the woods for what is meant to be a romantic epilogue. What follows is a senseless and protracted ‘home invasion’ in which the intensification of the couple’s terror takes precedence over the simplicity of murder.
For audiences, this results in an arduous, often shocking experience in which every sonic nuance of the house in which the couple are trapped becomes disturbingly palpable. Set almost entirely within this very ‘homely’ house, Bertino and his cinematographer have rendered the film in deep, warm ‘70s tones that contrast sharply with the cold violence of ‘the Strangers’ themselves.
These three figures, except one (played by Gemma Ward), remain anonymous behind unsettling masks for the duration of the film. While variously evocative of previous fiends such as Jason, Michael Myers, and Bubba the simpleton from Dark Night Of The Scarecrow, the Strangers’ behaviour is much more menacing. They are not driven by a supernatural power to kill, but rather by a sociopathic impulse to terrify. And this makes the scenario they enact far more disquieting than those portrayed in many previous ‘slasher’ films.
Although we know almost nothing of Kristen and James, the claustrophobia of the indoor setting, and the film’s real time progression, provoke a surprisingly forceful sympathy with their plight. Bertino has said of the film that he consciously worked to dissolve ‘the Fourth Wall,’ the screen through which the viewer feels they are observing the characters portrayed. And while the film certainly is very cinematic, exhibiting none of the ‘you are there’ style of The Blair Witch Project or Cloverfield, Bertino does make the screen seem truly redundant for the majority of the film. We cannot escape the house just as we are fixed to our seat in the theatre, wanting desperately for the nightmare to end, yet unable to simply walk away, or ‘wake up.’
Tapping directly into the ubiquitous fear that a noise outside could ‘be something,’ The Strangers expertly unlocks and magnifies our own, usually latent sense of dread. This is what the best horror movies do so well – they don’t simply portray horrible events, they make you feel really fucking scared, even while you’re sitting in the safety of a theatre. As one US poster for the film advises us: “Lock the door. Kill the lights. Pretend you’re safe.”
Go on. You know you want to.
****½
ADAM DODD
|
| Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Poster's IP addresses are logged. |
|
Be first to comment on this article
