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This time though, it came to me that these houses look rather like some famous horror movie houses, even if they’re obviously not the genuine articles. We’re told that what we’re about to see is based on a true story before seeing some shots of different houses, and the first time around I wondered what on earth the point of the latter was. When released, many cinemas in the US were accidentally sent faulty reels containing sound problems, which made a few minutes to several scenes of the movie filled with a loud static sound, with many cinemagoers not realising the sound wasn’t supposed to be there. Following test screenings, the final scene was shortened so that the killer’s faces remained hidden instead of them being revealed. Tyler came down with tonsillitis due to the extensive screaming her role required her to do. During filming, in order to get an actual reaction from Liv Tyler, Bertino would tell her where to expect a loud bang from, but would then have the loud noise come from a completely different direction. It was shot in chronological order, using a house on the outskirts of Timmonsville, South Carolina. Justin Lin and Marl Romanek were both attached while Bertino was even removed from the project so others could remodel the script, but when Universal passed it onto its subsidiary, Rogue Pictures, Bertino was approached to direct and regained control of the screenplay. He entered the screenplay for The Strangers into a screenwriting contest in 2003, after which he sold its directorial rights to Universal Pictures. Bertino states the Manson murders as also being a huge influence, particularly the film Helter Skelter. Later on, he found out that these people were knocking on doors in the area and, if no one was home, breaking into the houses. Writer-director Bryan Bertino’s screenplay was originally called The Faces, and was inspired by an event from his childhood when his parents were out and his little sister answered a knock at the door to be faced with some people asking for somebody who didn’t live there. Only some instances of our two main characters behaving stupidly significantly put a damper on things.

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In fact its first third is an object lesson in how to introduce characters and build up the atmosphere and suspense, and the film does this so well that the rest of it can’t help but exist at a slightly lower level – but then most Dario Argento fans would probably admit that Suspiria, brilliant as it is, never quite lives up to its incredible first ten minutes. Virtually plot-less, it’s really just an exercise in tension and fright, reducing things to their most basic and primal – and for the most part one it succeeds in achieving its aim.

In any case, Second Sight’s release of this nifty little chiller was a good excuse for me to watch it again. Yet Bertino has never mentioned it, so it’s probably just coincidence. The biggest thing that struck me though, and which I couldn’t get out of my head, was that, while Funny Games and Vacancy also came to mind, it seemed, more than anything else, to be an unofficial remake of the French home invasion effort Them from two years before, right down to having some extremely similar scenes including its ending. Us horror lovers are a weird bunch if you think about it.

I think the general opinion of it at HCF is that it’s good but has lost much of its effect due to the many imitations it spawned, but I wouldn’t really agree with that I say that it’s still hugely effective, and it truly worked me up the first time around though of course watching it late at night with all the lights turned off probably helped. A young blonde woman asks the couple, “is Tamara home?” She’s turned away by James, but this is only the beginning of a nightmare where they’re terrorised by three masked strangers.…Īmazingly, it was only two and a half years ago when I first got around to seeing The Strangers, and that was only really because the sequel was about to hit cinemas and I felt that ought to see it beforehand. Shortly after 4:00 a.m, there’s a loud knock at the door.

James calls his friend Mike and asks him to pick him up in the morning. Tension abounds between the couple, as Kristen rejected James’s marriage proposal to her after the reception. In a secluded area, away from civilization, James Hoyt and Kristen McKay return from a wedding to James’ s secluded childhood summer home. Starring: Gemma Ward, Kip Weeks, Liv Tyler, Scott SpeedmanĪVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY : SEPTEMBER 28TH, from SECOND SIGHT