Finally just picked up the blu of the first film for $5 http://screenrant.com/strangers-movie-2-director-filming-start/
Big pass for me. The first film isn't that good. The killers were creepy but other than that there's nothing remotely special or worthwhile about it. Them (Ils) is far superior.
The plot of part two sounds pretty cool. It would be great if the same three masked characters were back and if it gave more backstory on them as well.
There have been so many home invasion movies after the first Strangers, I hope they do something different with the sequel. Especially since You're Next effectively sent up the subgenre.
Ils/Them was crap. And The Strangers pretty much screwed itself by... yeah, showing the damn people wearing masks. I know how the film staged itself. I know that they needed us to see the people in the masks for it to work. But, you can't really forget that the audience have a habit of injecting themselves into the film and therefore, they question its reality. And it's a fact that there is no way 3 people could have organized a trap/plot the way the group in The Strangers did. Too many scenes rely on the "Strangers" being able to be in an exact spot to freak out the characters or the audience and then to completely vanish a fraction of a second later. That's physically impossible. Cannot be done by humans. Horror didn't used to require realism to work, but the scares require the audience to believe this could be possible. And this isn't believable. It's utterly impossible. So, the movie has a huge problem with its entire setup. After watching it play out for mere minutes, it becomes frustrating and insulting. Of course, at least it wasn't Ils/Them-level bullshit. The twist reveal at the end is friggin' pretentious and showing even the feet of the assailants on the couple's home completely ruined what made any part of it effective. You're Next was better than both of these films. (And, yes, I remember the post I left on the trailer for the film. I was pretty nasty and definitely had it in for the film. I was... mostly wrong.)
Never got the hype for the original. It was okey, but I found it to be pretty forgettable. This one looks much more entertaining.
I enjoyed the first one. When they mentioned the trailer park setting I wasn't sure, but the movie trailer looks pretty good and seems like it could be a fun movie. I will also be picking up the new Shout Factory Blu of the The Strangers in March also. (I wish there would be a US blu release for Ils, I enjoyed that movie too).
I'm in for the sequel. When I originally watched the first one I wasn't enthralled at all. I recently revisited it and found it to be much better than I recall. Totally creepy, cool effects, love the fact you have no idea who the killers are or what their motive is. "You were home." Love that. I'll be getting the new Shout! Blu when ready.
While I agree that Ils was better, I also really loved The Strangers... or at least the first 70 minutes of it. It was inevitable that it was going to end the way it does, but how it was executed just left me thinking "that's it?" And the lame final jump scare doesn't help matters. But like High Tension, it's still a favorite that I frequently go back to, and the ending doesn't discredit the other 80% of the movie that is well-executed. I think Liv and Scott are great, the movie is tense and atmospheric, and I also really love the use of music throughout. Based on the trailer, I'm hoping music will play a role in this sequel as well. I disagree in that I hope they don't do anything drastically different. Going into the killers' backstories or anything like that would be a major mistake. For a while there, we were bombarded with a long string of dull and miserable home invasion films that certainly soured the genre a bit (Kidnapped was especially awful). But like the slasher genre, I think as long as you have fun with it, you don't necessarily need to bring anything new to the table. The trailer looks like it's doing exactly what it should be doing: taking what worked about the first film and delivering it in a new package. All I want from it is the fun cat-and-mouse rollercoaster the trailer promises and I'll be happy.
Speaking of The Strangers, I bought a cheap indie horror DVD for $2.99 today at Family Video called Cabin 28. Across the top of the DVD case, it proclaims "Based on the true-life murders which inspired The Strangers". It's based on the infamous Cabin 28 Keddie Murders back in 1981 (even using the real names and dates, at least according to the back of the case), which most people claim is the true crime that was the inspiration for The Strangers. However, I believe the director debunked that it was based on that, saying it was based on his own personal experience where a stranger showed up on his doorstep asking if some random person was home. The next day, he found out that they were casing the neighborhood, looking for empty houses to rob. Looks to be in pretty poor taste, but for $2.99 I was willing to take the gamble. Anyone here seen / heard of this one?
I feel like this came way too late. People wanted a Strangers sequel years ago, not so sure now. I know I'm not really interested but I also haven't watched the trailer nor do I remember much of the original. Not a big home invasion fan apart from maybe House on the Edge of the Park.
Since it doesn't deserve it's own thread, I'll just chime in that I watched Cabin 28. Incredibly generic paint-by-numbers home invasion movie, but I've seen worse. Probably in bad taste to use the names of actual murder victims. Filmed in the UK, but takes place in northern California, and the mom's American accent was atrocious. The home invasion stuff actually ends pretty early, then it goes into about 20 minutes worth of interrogating the suspects, followed by the most hilariously slow end credits crawl I've ever seen. You could tell they made a 70 minute movie and needed an 85 minute running time. It may even be slower than Evil Remains, which also has about 15 - 20 mins of end credits. It was written by John Klyza, who runs the Official Sleepaway Camp website.
I enjoyed Cabin 28 for what it was. I though the beginning had some tense moments and was decent for a low budget movie. It kind of petered out at the end, but not bad overall.
Anyone going this opening weekend? I might I got the awesome new Scream Factory collector's edition Bluray today at my record store for $20 I can't wait to revisit it on bluray!
