James (Scott Speedman) and Kristen (Liv Tyler) arrive late one night at his family’s remote home in the woods burdened with relationship issues. They talk things out, very dully, until there is a knock on the door. That’s followed by more bangs, then three strangers in creepy masks and finally unpleasant events involving a kitchen knife. Until it indulges in unfounded cruelty and gore, The Strangers is a cleverly efficient scare machine. These monsters don’t jump out of the dark; they emerge, which is somehow more frightening. There is nothing frightening about the movie’s climax, however. It’s only deadening. What was an empty, if effective, thriller becomes, in its final moments, even emptier. You’re left with absolutely nothing, which makes you feel all the more shameful for watching the film at all.
