Second Sight, out now

‘Is Tamara home…?’ 

Following in the footsteps of movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, that were inspired by true events, The Strangers – which originally came out in 2008 – takes the all-too real possibility of a home invasion to another level. One that will have you jumping every time there’s a knock at the door!

Heading back to his isolated childhood summer home after attending a wedding, James Hoyt (Scott Speedman from Underworld) and his girlfriend Kristen McKay (Lord of the Ring’s Liv Tyler) are already having a rough night after she refused his marriage proposal. But things are going to get a whole let worse, because just after 4am there’s a knock on the door, which they answer. It’s a woman in the shadows asking if Tamara is home…

They do the sensible thing and send her packing, but she’s not alone. All masked up, a trio of Strangers – Bag-Man, who’s basically wearing a sack over his head with holes in, Dollface and Pin-Up Girl – proceed to plague the couple for the rest of the movie, playing a deadly cat and mouse game with them for their own amusement. It all culminates in a gruesome ending which reveals their motivations, but they might not be what you’re expecting.

Obviously ‘Home Invasion’ films weren’t a new thing when The Strangers came along, indeed this one owes a debt to movies like Straw Dogs and Funny Games in particular. And they’ve continued to prove popular, with the most recent examples being Mike Flanagan’s Hush and Jordan Peele’s US. However, what this film does is combine the tropes of that sub-genre with the more ambiguous nature of Halloween. I remember watching it for the first time and wondering whether this was just a bunch of crazies or whether there was a supernatural aspect to it. As it is, first time writer/director Bryan Bertino does a magnificent job of capturing the feel of a nightmare that never ends, in the same way John Carpenter did back in the ’70s.

Pulling out all the stops (sudden noises like an alarm, ominous footsteps, music on a turntable, glimpses of figures in the background), from the minute those knocks happen to the shockingly uncomfortable ending, the suspense just keeps on building. This draws the viewer in, making them an unwilling part of it all until you feel like you’re the ones fighting for your lives as well. The performances are top-notch too, especially by Tyler who’s in practically every frame; you really feel like she was being put through the wringer… which of course she was during the draining, emotional shoot on a closed warehouse set standing in for the house.

Rightly hailed as a classic hit (it made over $80 million on a $9 million budget), this new limited box set of 3000 copies comes with a choice of theatrical or extended cut, a softcover book featuring essays by Anton Bitel and Mary Beth McAndrews and behind-the-scenes stills, plus a poster with new artwork. But it’s the extras on the disc that really make this a must have. There are a couple of featurettes from 2008 – ‘The Elements of Terror’ and ‘Strangers at the Door’ – which contain brief interviews with the likes of production designer John Kretschmer (‘I think of this as more of a terror film, a new approach.’), sound mixer Jeffree Bloomer (‘When you scream in here, it really reverberates!’), not to mention Speedman (‘I’ve heard noises in the basement before and thought someone’s down there. This time someone is down there!’), Kip Weeks who plays Bag-Man (‘This is massive psychological-style thriller horror – that’s also simple.’) and Gemma Ward who plays Dollface (‘It is difficult wearing the mask, but freeing.’).

The new interviews are the highlights, though, including an hour-long chat with Bertino, which takes us from his early days growing up in a small town in Texas, to entering competitions and struggling to make it in Hollywood, finally selling the script for The Strangers only to be fired initially from the movie, until it came round full circle again so he could also direct it for Rogue pictures (‘Some people thought I was bossy, so directing was just the next step.’). What was fascinating was how after selling the film he went from having no money to suddenly having a manager, a lawyer and 50 meetings a week! ‘The Fighter’ comes next, which is a terrific interview with Tyler, who reveals her earliest memories were watching horror movies like Night of the Living Dead with her cool mum, before growing up in the golden era of the ’80s slasher. She also tells us how she came to be involved with the production: ‘I was on a flight from Japan to LA with a stack of scripts, and The Strangers caught my eye… for some reason I thought it was a comedy! I started reading and didn’t look up again until I’d finished it!’

‘Cutting Moments’ shows us the importance of editor Kevin Greutert, who came to this one from the SAW films. He was especially handy when they needed to chop 20 mins out of the running time to get to the scene where James grabs the shotgun quicker, and the studio decided they didn’t want to show the faces of the killers after all when it had been filmed with them in focus. Finally, there’s an interview with ‘The Pin-up Girl: Laura Margolis’ who originally played ‘Liv playing Kristen during the casting sessions’ before they made her one of the home invaders (‘I didn’t see myself as a cold-blooded killer, but apparently some people do!’).

Verdict: All in all a fine collectors’ item and a fantastic way to celebrate a horror landmark. ‘See you later!’        9/10                                                   

Paul Kane