The Strangers
Rogue Pictures | Release Date: May 30, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
4
Negative:
11
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
It isn't particularly original--for one, it owes an unacknowledged debt to the French film "Them"--but as an exercise in controlled mayhem, horror movies don't get much scarier. Read full review
90
The New York TimesJeannette Catsoulis
This is no splatter movie: spare, suspenseful and brilliantly invested in silence, Bryan Bertino's debut feature unfolds in a slow crescendo of intimidation. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
A spare, creepily atmospheric psychological thriller with a death grip on the psychological aspect. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
This is one of those rare horror movies that concentrates on suspense and terror rather than on gore and a high body count. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jennie Punter
Both Speedman and Tyler deliver solid, nuanced performances as a couple caught at the most fragile moment in their relationship. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
There's nothing more to it than meets the eye, but Bertino understands the mechanics of suspense and knows how to use them. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneJessica Reaves
Bertino's taut, spare thriller is plenty scary without relying on pseudo-historical context. Anchored by convincing performances from Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler, both of whom elevate their roles above the standard horror-movie caricature, this is an enormously unsettling movie. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
There's nothing remotely new here, but the movie has the taut, queasy feel of an early 70s drive-in shocker: old-fashioned suspense without any guarantee of old-fashioned mercy. Read full review
70
ColliderNate Richard
The Strangers might not be the kind of horror movie I’ll revisit time and time again, but it will stick with me, finding ways to freak me out with minimal resources. Read full review
70
Village VoiceEd Gonzalez
Bertino teases with the unknown until he's left no pimple ungoosed. Sometimes avoiding the synapse-raping bad habits of splat packers Eli Roth and Alexandre Aja is its own reward; doing so without also submitting to Michael Haneke–style hand-slapping is nearly monumental. Read full review
70
VarietyDennis Harvey
It's all efficiently nerve-jangling, with Tyler and Speedman credibly registering every hue of panic. Still, after such a long, creepy, cannily restrained buildup, it must be said the resolution is rather flat, a full-circle postscript rote. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Bryan Bertino, stages The Strangers' early scenes with spooky panache...But then comes the blood, the shrieking midnight chase scenes, the anything-goes over-the-top-ness. In other words, everything that we liked the movie for not being. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Younger viewers who've cut their teeth on the instant horrors of modern "torture porn" may find The Stranger's pace and psychological upsets more slow-going than they might like. Yet a film like this may be just the bracing corrective the modern horror film needs. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Bertino does an excellent job building dread, especially during the first half of the movie. Every silence, pause and sudden noise startles - and the results, frankly, are more frightening than the graphic torture scenes in movies like "Hostel" and "Saw." Read full review
60
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
Ultimately, The Strangers does succeed in the sense that it offers a riveting, vastly credible enactment of everyone's worst nightmare. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
You can only string an audience along for so long with scary masks and sudden appearances at the window, and after a while, the suspense starts seeping out of The Strangers, because you realize that's all there's going to be to the movie. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
As pointless suspense exercises go, The Strangers at least gets off to a good start. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The movie deserves more stars for its bottom-line craft, but all the craft in the world can't redeem its story. Read full review
30
NPRBob Mondello
What possessed Liv Tyler to take a role in this sadistic, unmotivated home-invasion flick. Read full review
25
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Is Hollywood so disconnected from its past and bankrupt of ideas that it doesn't even know this movie is a screaming cliché? Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Here's the tricky thing about The Strangers. Sure, it uses cinema to ends that are objectionable and vile ... but it does it well, with more than usual skill. Read full review
25
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Sometimes, dear reader, there's no place like home, and that's just where you should be when this gorefest opens at a theater near you. Read full review
25
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Bertino directs at a funereal pace. Speedman remains comatose, though Tyler flickers fitfully to life. The mournful look on her face suggests she's remembering the days when she was given more psychologically complex scripts, such as "Armageddon." Read full review
25
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
No one is getting at anything in The Strangers, except the cheapest, ugliest kind of sadistic titillation. Read full review
20
Washington PostStephen Hunter
I like watching snakes eat mice just as much as the next fella, maybe even more, but The Strangers turns the gobble-'em-up into an ordeal. It's a fraud from start to finish. Read full review
12
New York PostKyle Smith
The bad movie in my head was far better than the one on-screen, which offers no twists at all. A twist? There isn't even a curl or a bend. Read full review
12
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
A horror film with a moral. No matter how nasty a gang of murderers is, the moviemaker calling the shots is ultimately worse. Read full review
0
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
All it offers is sadism, impure and simple. Read full review
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