I decided to watch this movie last night because when this first came out i thought it looked very interesting but i never got around to watching it so i thought “what the hell, why not?” when i saw it was recorded on my Sky+ box, and I want those 85 minutes back i wasted watching this terrible movie. The movie opens with a voiceover claiming that this is based on “true events” when in reality it was because the Director/Writer of the film, Bryan Bertino, had a childhood experience of someone knocking on the door and having the wrong house, then the next night there were reports of houses being broken into, how is anything in this movie based on that? Bertino wrote the script for The Strangers and then quit his job so the Director was going to be Mark Romanek who demanded a $40 million budget but after talking to Andrew Rona, Bertino became the director even with absolutley no directing experience.
Although most horror movies today are full of cliché’s this just takes the piss to be honest, “wait here alone in the dark, scary, unsecure house while i go and find help, oh no! one of them got me, i never would have predicted that would happen” most of the movie are shots of Liv Tyler breathing heavily and walking around the house very slowly with a few spooky things going on in the backround or loud noises suddenley happening in an effort to at least keep the audience a little bit alert and still wishing that something interesting would happen. But then something interesting does happen! Oh wait its not interesting its Liv Tyler breathing heavily again finding some sort of old radio in a barn outside of the house (why is thre a ham radio in the barn?) then its another horror movie cliché, this time its the “calling the police in a very panicky voice with the bad guy standing in the backround who then stops the attempt for salvation”.
The ending of the film is even more pointless and idiotic, the two main characters played by Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman are now tied to chairs with the three naughty little masked villains looming over them dramatically, after being asked why they are doing these things to them they simply reply “because you were home”, what the hell is that meant to mean? this only emphasises the pointlessness of the events that happen in the movie and the terrible script that Bertino thought up from “true events” . They then proceed to stab Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman in turns which is a very anticlimactic death for the two main characters, you would at least expect them to die a little bit more interesting rather than simply being stabbed once or twice in the stomach. After the killing is done the 3 of the now, again pointlessley unmasked murderers (pointless because you dont see thier faces) escape to thier truck and drive away meeting two Morman (thats right, Morman, wtf?) boys cycling to the house, they stop and one of the killers gets out of the car and asks for a pamphlet from them, another pointless thing i guess to waste a couple of minutes or something. The boys the continue to the house to find the carnage the killers have left, one of the boys step over to Liv Tylers lifless body and just before he is about to touch her, she opens her eyes and screams then it cuts to the credits, another pointless thing that Bertino slapped in there to mak it a little more “scary”.
I know my review isnt too good but i just wanted to see if anyone else had the same opinion as me :)
by Dan Peters
Whilst I agree that this film was very cliched, what terrified me the most was the idea that the killings were random. Classic horror narrative usually goes with the suggestion that the victim has done something for which the ‘bad guy’ considers they deserve comeuppance. But the thought of an anonymous trio targeting you “because you were home” is far more scary.
I will also agree that most films billed as being ‘based on a true story’ are far more exaggerated and colourful versions of the real happenings, but I think you should know that this films is actually based upon the Keddie Murders of 1981, where 4 seemingly random people were killed whilst staying at a remote resort in Northern California, for which nobody was ever arrested and no motive was ever established.
This movie to me had to been very misleading , the commericals for this movie made it so that oh okay maybe we will find out who is really doing this but no they leave you clueless. Two people who happened to be going through what a crisis because the woman does not want to settle down just yet. Boring if you ask me , the 911 call in the being of the movie which i guess is the real person the movie is really based on but come on now they dont even show anyone in the movie making this call.
The story line could have been better, if it is horror make it a horror movie even if you have to add on extra things this movie could have been better in so many ways it should be longer for one thing lol this movie was way to short for my liking.
The person making the call to the police at the very beginning was meant to be one of the boys who passed the ‘strangers’ in the street at the very end, as it was them who discovered the bodies.