The Shining (one of my favorites)

Naked old lady in Room 237.

The Strangers - Maybe I'm becoming a horror snob like Curt?

I have a good friend who's a pretty serious movie buff - his name is Curt. As a matter of fact, I have a few friends that are pretty serious movie buffs - Packy, Shilo (super serious), a few others. But Curt shares me and my wife's passion for old school and well constructed original horror ideas. The thing is, Curt is a little hard on the films most of the time. The wife and I usually search for the entertainment value instead of doing our best to break the films down structurally even though we are screenwriters. All of us have argued the merits and shortcomings of certain post 2000 horror films  many times over. 

Then comes The Strangers. I loved the premise from seeing the trailer--creepy, suspenseful, okay maybe a classic horror throwback in 2008? Curt loved this movie by the way. While I didn't dislike it, I couldn't help but feel a little robbed of some vital element. Everything was waaaay too easy for the murderers. While its cool to have a couple that is absolutely terrified the whole time, there usually comes a point when that terror turns into anger when the characters' backs are against the wall. The triumph of the human spirit had a very small role in this film. There was no point when the victims actually decided that they were not going out without a fight. These weren't gruesome creatures! These weren't supernatural killers like Jason or Michael Myers! These were two girls and a guy with doll masks and a paper bag over their heads. And for most of the time the two victims were terrified, the killers only had the most basic weapons--- a knife, an axe. Only after the pansy guy in the film gets a shotgun taken from him by a guy with no weapon and a bag on his head do the killers have a firearm. Come on! Seriously? I'm fine with everybody maybe getting killed in the end but the "triumph of the human spirit" factor to create SOME TYPE of difficulty for the killers was noticably absent. Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler were sobbing bags flesh the WHOLE time! Curt I gotta disagree with your assessment of this flick playboy.

Everything else was pretty cool - the masks, the creepy scenes where we see someone in the house early on, the knocking on the door, the summer house in the middle of nowhere, the friend getting his head blown off, the quick build-up to action. But the murderers left the house after re-dressing the victims, tying them up, and stabbing them in the abdomen several times WITHOUT A SINGLE SCRATCH! The film did give you the impression that maybe Liv Tyler's character lived but in my opinion --- she didn't deserve to.

Until next time.

-Sirius