The Strangers
The Strangers provides a fairly meaty part for Liv Tyler who up until now has done pretty well in roles that don’t challenge her to stretch. Here she rises to the occasion but what will live after the fallout - her career or just her first name? She plays Kristen McKay who dashes the hopes of her boyfriend James Hoyt (Scott Speedman) with a cool reception to his marriage proposal staged at his father’s secluded rural rancher. The awkward tension that follows is nothing compared to the tension spawned by the arrival of a trio of sadistic masked teens. Using a cookie cutter horror formula they isolate the couple and like a grizzly pawing its prey proceed to violently victimize Kristen and James. This scenario has been done before and more effectively as recently as earlier this year in Funny Games (but I wasn’t fond of that one either). The opening credits chime that The Strangers is based on true events and that the truth about what happened in 2005 has never fully come out. Actually the truth is that you’d be hard pressed to find any documented case that matches this series of events.