The Strangers has a couple of scares, but it's not anywhere near as frightening as advertised. The creepy folks of the title are more fumbling than fiendish.
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10/18/08
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The Strangers (2008)
48
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:25
Fresh:12
Rotten:13
Average Rating:4.8/10
Consensus: The Strangers provides a few scares, but offers little else to distinguish itself from other slasher films.
Theatrical Release:May 30, 2008 Wide
Box Office: $52,534,295
Synopsis: For his film debut, director Brian Bertino has crafted a fantastically creepy horror flick based on the very simple premise of strangers who come knocking late at night. Kristen (Liv Tyler) and... [More]
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Reviews for The Strangers
Top CriticAt least it's short.
07/18/08
Top CriticDon't let the attractive cast, the slick look or the 'inspired by true events' nonsense mislead you. The Strangers is a despicable and mean-spirited practical joke.
06/02/08
Top CriticKind of like what The Shining might be if you took out the ESP. And the ghosts. And the chilling atmosphere. So call it The Sucking.
05/31/08
Top CriticI like watching snakes eat mice just as much as the next fella, maybe even more, but The Strangers turns the gobble-'em-up into an ordeal. It's a fraud from start to finish.
05/30/08
Top CriticWith no plot to speak of, no character development whatsoever, no theme and precious little intrigue, what we have here is simply a pileup of effects. And not especially special effects.
05/30/08
Top CriticLet's give writer-director Bryan Bertino credit. He knows how to frame a shot to make characters seem vulnerable. Now for his next trick, he just needs to turn his talents toward something that isn't repulsive.
05/30/08
Top CriticIt's intense but not necessarily fun and may disappoint less sophisticated horror fans. However, for die-hard supporters of unsettling peeks into the dark side of human nature, this is a welcome excursion.
05/30/08
Top CriticWriter and first-time director Bryan Bertino wastes his taut, tense premise -- two lovers, three villains, one house -- by depending on wearingly familiar tricks.
05/30/08
Top CriticUnfolding with an almost startling lack of self-awareness, young filmmaker Bryan Bertino's debut is such a careful, straight-faced knockoff of '70s exploitation films it plays like a parody.
05/30/08
Top CriticEvery silence, pause and sudden noise startles -- and the results, frankly, are more frightening than the graphic torture scenes in movies like Hostel and Saw.
05/30/08
Top CriticA frightfully effective chiller.
05/30/08
Top CriticIt sounds stupid enough, and ultimately is, but the director, Bryan Bertino, stages The Strangers' early scenes with spooky panache.
05/30/08
Top CriticIt's an efficiently made, appropriately terrifying film, downright minimalist in approach and all the more horrifying for it. It's so basic it's believable.
05/30/08
Top CriticThe movie deserves more stars for its bottom-line craft, but all the craft in the world can't redeem its story.
05/30/08
Top CriticThere's nothing remotely new here, but the movie has the taut, queasy feel of an early 70s drive-in shocker: old-fashioned suspense without any guarantee of old-fashioned mercy.
05/30/08
Top Critic[Director] Bertino has the pretensions of an artist and the indelicacy of a hack. He tries to get under our skin with a pile driver.
05/30/08
Top CriticThis is no splatter movie: spare, suspenseful and brilliantly invested in silence, Bryan Bertino’s debut feature unfolds in a slow crescendo of intimidation.
05/30/08
Top CriticChilling feature.
05/30/08
Top CriticNo one is getting at anything in The Strangers, except the cheapest, ugliest kind of sadistic titillation.
05/30/08
Top CriticLatest News for The Strangers
August 28, 2008:
Rogue Eager to Meet More Strangers 
Rogue Pictures has greenlighted a sequel to the Liv Tyler horror movie "The Strangers," and hired the original's writer/director, Bryan Bertino, to pen the script. More...
June 05, 2008:
Box Office Guru Preview: Black vs. Sandler in Comedy Showdown
Two big doses of comedy from a pair of Hollywood's funniest men will hit the multiplexes across North America on Friday in a fierce battle for the number one spot. For family... More...
May 29, 2008:
Box Office Guru Preview: Sex in the Multiplex All Weekend Long
This weekend a quartet of New York City gals will try to boot Indiana Jones out of the number one spot at the North American box office as the much-hyped comedy Sex and the City... More...
May 29, 2008:
Critical Consensus: Sex and the City Will Please Fans
This week at the movies, we've got love and commerce (Sex and the City: The Movie, starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall) and romantic getaways gone wrong (The... More...
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