The Strangers
i don’t care what anyone else has to say about it, but this was some genuinely horrifying shit to watch. the home invasion genre is definitely one of my favorites because they’re all so real, and this movie just magnifies my fear about being put through anything like this. that’s the scary part about the entire genre — this can happen to anyone, and it has happened before to different extents.
the beginning was a tad bit slow, but i find that to be my only real complaint about this movie other than the sheer stupidity that these characters had, specifically james. he made almost every single wrong decision you can make in a horror film, literally. despite the beginning being a rather slow start, i really like how it sets up the tension between james and kristen that they must overcome throughout the night in order to survive; however, only one of them is able to make it to the next day with the pure luck of those christian boys stumbling upon the aftermath of the hellish night the couple endured. i am a fairy anxious person, and this movie brought that out immensely. i was on the edge of my seat throughout this entire film because i had no clue what to expect besides the few things i did know about this movie beforehand. i continuously jumped and audibly screamed multiple times during this, and it definitely did not help to watch this at two in the morning. i’m very fond of this film’s usage of the record player to add an eerie element to select scenes because sometimes that alone was enough to get me nervous. i also really love the shots where the masks are visible yet hidden within the background to our characters, it’s really nerve-wracking. this film used all of the lighting really well to instill fear amongst the viewers — i was legit so nervous the entire time because of that, i just knew something would pop out. their exchange of ‘i love you’ right as they’re being gutted is so so sad to watch, especially considering it took something like this to bring that out of them. not seeing the full faces of the terrorizers is saddening yet intriguing, i like the sense of anonymity even if it horrifies me.
the strangers is definitely an interesting watch and one of the scariest films i have ever seen. it’s such a realistic film with realistic threats that could occur any day to anyone. if i were put into this situation, i definitely would have done a few things differently considering i’m not a dumb horror movie character, but i can 100% say i would have ultimately sobbed throughout this entire experience. finally, it pains me to see such low ratings for this film because it was genuinely one of the best things i’ve seen this year, which shocked even myself.