The Strangers is about a couple living out in the middle of nowhere who are targeted by three attackers for some reason. Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler are the couple, who were already having troubles before the three psychos attack them. Glenn Howerton (Dennis from Always Sunny in Philadelphia) pops in as a guest star but mostly it is just the couple being messed with by the strangers.
If you've read this website enough you know that The Strangers represents all I hate about some strains of modern horror. The nihilism of the story and the brutality of the movie are just two aspects I can't get behind. I don't really care if I spoil this so let me just say that at no point is the couple even fake safe. I don't mind horror movies where the whole cast is killed but there has to be a moment of catharsis. If the whole movie is just watching three sickos torture a helpless couple, what fun is that? They never turn the table on the attackers, not even for a second. Every gambit to do so fails and we are just left with watching two innocent people die. Call me crazy, but that's not what I watch horror movies for. I am never on the side of the psycho unless they are somehow framed against a worst psycho (like in Devil's Rejects). You put yourself in the place of the heroes and, if nothing good happens to them, you leave feeling dirty and depressed.
As I said with Bertino's Mockingbird, the random nature of the violence just stinks of darkness for the sake of darkness. I've seen others try to critically dissect the anonymous nature of the attackers as commentary on post- 9/11 anxiety but all that is just bullshit. Horror movies should be scary and fun. This is just miserable.
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