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Quint liked THE STRANGERS, too! It's a real horror movie! How about that?
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I have a quicky review of THE STRANGERS for ya’. I would have had this up pre-release, but the day after I saw the movie I was on a plane for Bucharest, Romania. Needless to say, every leg of the flight was packed to the gills and I couldn’t get much work done on the plane.
Now I have about 25 minutes before I have to run off to the set I’m visiting here, so now’s the time if I’m going to review the movie.
I liked THE STRANGERS quite a bit. It’s not perfect… it borrows liberally from foreign horror, specifically the French home invasion thriller THEM and Haneke’s FUNNY GAMES, but it is refreshing to see a horror film take time to create characters so that when they’re attacked you really feel like real people who you know are being terrorized.
Make no mistake, THE STRANGERS is a jump scare movie, but it’s not a cheap one. There are very few stingers to make you jump. Instead writer/director Bryan Bertino uses atmosphere, pacing and ambient sound design to really create a palpable fear.
In fact, the first jump of the movie is one played in absolute silence. Scott Speedman’s character leaves Liv Tyler’s character alone as he runs a late night errand. She’s standing by herself in the home… creepy shit is starting to happen. Knocks at the door, pounding knocks and quiet knocks. She’s freaked out, but not panicking yet.
She’s standing in her kitchen and behind her, in the hall leading to the front door (the locked front door, by the way) the Bag Head intruder slowly walks into the room. He’s out of focus and moving so slowly that it doesn’t register for everybody at first.
What that created was a series of screams in the audience that had me smiling big time. First the sharp-eyed viewers who noticed the man in the background jumped and screamed. The screaming itself scared a new batch of screamers into joining along and then the next group of people saw the Bag Head intruder and the chain continued until it was rolling across the whole theater.
That’s a very strong testament to Bertino’s directing and scriptwork. He created fear without any cheap tricks.
Tyler and Speedman are both very good in the film. I didn’t think I’d ever say that about Speedman… I’m no fan of his UNDERWORLD work and he always came off as a very vanilla personality to me onscreen, but here he really works. There’s depth to his character. His confusion as to what is happening around him mirrors his confusion about his relationship wit Tyler. He loves her, she loves him, but she won’t commit to marriage and he’s hurt by it.
Before the first knock at the door there’s already an awkward atmosphere around the two as they tip-toe around each other.
Another bonus is the movie actually looks like a movie. It’s edited like a movie. It takes itself seriously, in other words. It isn’t an exercise in Avid Farts and fuckin’ extreme! editing. It’s gritty and affecting, letting the story, the sound design and the pacing dictate the horror, not the score or editing.
That said there is a zinger at the end that feels a bit tacked on and a flashback in the first act that tells us shit we already know. It really felt like it was in the movie so the dumbass viewers who can’t pay attention while watching because they’re texting the whole damn time didn’t get lost and miss something.
It’s not all that original, but it is involving and it is scary. I definitely recommend the experience, especially if you’re a horror fan.
Okay, gotta run. Be back soon with some goodies. Lots of great stuff lined up next week, including a handful of interviews and hopefully at least one of these set visits I’ve been on in the last two weeks.
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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Yeah..Strangers, but this is fucking awesome, http://tinyurl.com/4abgl6 . Batman must take OFF his mask!
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Talk about one of the worst endings ever! Pretty good thrills and chills until they kick you square in the nuts with a dismal, sad and irritating ending that leaves you wanting your money back. A waste. There was potential here but a totally awful ending that ruins the whole experience. Movie goers were bitching about the "hours of life they couldn't get back" as they were filing out of the theater. This is one to miss.
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May 31, 2008 1:37:10 AM CDT
I'm gonna piss all over this movie reel. Then anally invade it.
by mike_d
Then never call it again.
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Okay, I'm booking this one for the weekend. Hope there'll be a lot of people in the theater.
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I've been hearing mixed things about this one. But I love horror movies, so maybe I'll take a chance on it. Speedman wasn't bad in the police drama DARK BLUE.
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Let me know when you do that, cuz I want to tag team that ass. Lawl
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So I don't know if I'll be able to actually watch it. Scary movies scare me... :O
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My diaper needs changing... :(
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Damn You Michael Bay
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Still going strong. What a shame. If they do make Transformers 3, 4, 5, 6 etc. he's gonna be a busy boy.
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May 31, 2008 3:53:33 AM CDT
"dumbass viewers who can’t pay attention while watching because
by frightreviews
Hahahaha perfection. So true too. I actually went back to see this a second time tonight and it was sold out, so i hope it does well.
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The performances were strong and there is some genuine suspense throughout the movie but it drags on way too long and the ending is anticlimactic. There's a French language thriller called THEM which tells a very similar story but is far superior to this movie in almost every way. This movie was slow and predictable.
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The people who were scared and screamed out loud then resorted to laughing hysterically because they were embarrassed about screaming. Talk about ruining the atmosphere...I hate it when people find the need to justify or cover their screams by laughing even louder. Ugh.
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Say NO to original movies.
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Damn you Michael Bay.
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Hmmm, browsing through the past releases from a month or so I don't think hes doing anything too crazy. Although I think the 3.5 stars for Indy 4 is a bit generous... especially with IM 1/2 a star lower. Of course you might think differently. ..
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I am Dr. Remulak
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Strangers was great, but how is a man walking in the room great script-work? it's good cinematography. The script part says, man walks into room out of focus which can be done well or bad. I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU.
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Nice spoiler cockbreath.
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He admits in his review that it's a well made film. The problem with Ebert is that he sometimes confuses moralizing with art criticism. I don't read film reviews to get a lecture on whether or not the reviewer agrees with the director's themes/ideas. A reviewer should stick to the craft of a film and let viewers judge the 'message' themselves. If you want to throw in some moralizing into the review text, but give the film the decent rating it's direction, acting, and suspense deserve. The purpose of a film is to tell a story and make people _feel_ something. This film does that masterfully. It scared me and left me disturbed. Well done and not bad at all for a first time writer/director!
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and completely enjoyed it. I went in knowing it was short and they got right to the action and I really liked it. It does a great job of playing on the intruder fears in all of us. The acting was top notch too. Speedman comes across in this as a guy who is ready to handle his business but just doesn't know how to get there, just like most of us regular joe's. Even when you knew there was a scary part coming, you couldn't help being scared when it actually happened. Go see it if you can, it's a good movie.
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I just deciphered that. Now, where's my Latin award?In other news, let's better damn George Lucas, 'cause that fuckhead fucked our fucking childhoods way more than Mr. Bay ever will. So, DAMN YOU, George Lucas! DAMN YOU TO HELL!!!
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After seeing the previews I thought to myself: Great another movie that depicts all the characters as idiots that can't defend themselves. Lets see, Late night tapping at the window = me getting my .45, calling the police, and smoking the first dipshit that breaks into my house. But after reading this review it seems there is more to it than just that. Perhaps worth checking out.
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Did they attach this trailer to Strangers for you guys? The duration of the trailer seemed to have caught the audience's interest, up until it showed the title, then everyone laughed. Yes, it did sound like a title to a porno.
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The Lane Bryant fattiies have invaded AICN! Hide your wieners!
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I'd like to see a different version of this- where assholes try to break into a house, then spend the rest of the movie running for their lives when the homeowners come after them all with shotguns. Which is how it would happen at my house.
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He always says that he doesn't judge a movie on what kind of movie it is but if it does what it intends to do. Then he says this was a well made movie and shits one it. He just doesn't like these kinds of movies. Not anymore anyway.I don't know about this ending you're all talking about but this sounds like the movie the Halloween remake should have ben.
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I mean, he liked Indy 4. But either way, this movie sucked. Same old, same old.
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I saw this last night at a pretty packed showing. And I really enjoyed it, the scene Quint described with the dude appearing from the background scared the shit out of everyone in my theater too.
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Started off strong but gradually tapered off.
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Ebert is the same idiot that liked a Japanese POS called "Infra-man". He has no consistency in what he likes/dislikes. He seems to think it's cool to single out popular movies and shit on them.
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FUCK Torture porn and it's creepy fans! I feel sorry for the kids today who have no real horror icons to dig like Leatherface, Krueger... "SAW" is about as scary as a PBS pledge drive.
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I didn't read the reviews, I was just trying to get a feel for how those who'd seen the flick felt about it. But then again, I should know better than to even glance at these fucking talkbacks if I don't want the end of a movie spoiled. I don't know what I was thinking.
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And the Honeymooners remake. And the Guess Who remake with Ashton Kutcher. And Van Helsing. And he said that Transformers would've been 4 stars if it wasn't for the action at the end. These are the last two sentences of his Transformers review : "The movie runs 144 minutes. You could bring it in at two hours by cutting CGI shots, and have a better movie." He means that. He liked the Megan Fox's dad is a carthief shit. Ignore him. I will never forgive him for giving a positive review to "The Medallion" which led me to go see it. Heinous movie, no one with a functional mind could like that movie.
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This isn't an incompetently made film by any means (though I do hate that they employed the shaky cam technique) as the director does do a good job building tension. But for you guys to say that it doesn't have any cheap scares is just totally erroneous.
This movie could have been completed in about 40 minutes. 20 minutes of the film is a believable-because-its-so-typical-and-left-vague-enough-anyone-could-apply-it-to-themselves back story, and then it only takes the killers a few minutes to get the couple into a killing position. But the killers leave. And then corner them again...and then inexplicably leave... again and again and again. About 15 times we have the killers rush up behind a crippled Liv Tyler to deliver a killing blow and then magically vanish between cuts just to pad the movie out to 90 minutes.
If the whole goal was to tie the couple up and torment them before killing them, it could have been done about a hundred times over without letting Liv get to the CB radio, or the guy to a gun, or any of the other bizarre choices the killers make.
And of course the couple makes a few dumb choices too. You hate to see movie characters make ridiculous choices, like splitting up, or not checking your friend's corpse for a cell phone. Hell, since all the phones in the house were destroyed, but the little Mormon boys at the beginning of the film make a call from the house, THEY must have been smart enough to do that.
I'll give you that it was better than the dreck that was Prom Night, as this one did have some great suspense moments in it, but the movie doesn't even hit the hour mark before you realize that the director is just jerking your leg, and it gets old. -
May 31, 2008 2:47:24 PM CDT
Horseshit from AICN. This entire movie is people in the distance
by tallboy66
wearing creepy masks melting in and out of the darkness. They whisper menacing things once in awhile, and the movie simply gets really quiet then REALLY FUCKING LOUDDDDDDDD to make someone jump. Its all setup for, like, an hour and 20 minutes. And the ending is needlessly sadisitic and saying "inspired by true events" is laughable. Fucking garbage, one of the worst movies of the year.
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This one is great. A real surprise. Go see it!
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May 31, 2008 5:13:04 PM CDT
"A reviewer should stick to the craft of a film and let viewers
by hktelemacher
It's a pretty fuckin' crappy review that only addresses form without any relation to content. Without any kind of reaction to the "message" all we get are descriptions of shots and cuts. Like Quint's review here. Unless the craft is glaringly bad that shit by itself should be the least important part of a serious critique.
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May 31, 2008 5:25:57 PM CDT
.....this movie is so-so. I'd recommend seeing it on video....
by the dum guy
Hearing a bunch of a teen girls squill at the scene from the trailer is really fucking annoying... its just a guy in a mask popping up into the shot.That, and some fat kid kept getting up every ten minutes to pour more "butter" oil on his popcorn was annoying...Oh, and the movie was only kinda scary.
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You have all seen this movie before. It has no reason for being and its ending is just mean spirited. A film should have a really good point, a really good reason for being and some inventiveness, instead...this film is just really a one set piece to save on its budget...wth all the money going in the pocket of Live Taylor. If you don't believe me, read it, the story outline, for yourselves!!!
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...horror movies does a movie like the Strangers receive praise. I just saw this and was wholly disapointed. It had a near perfect set-up and the first few scares are effective. The image of a person in a mask just staring at your home from across the street is just plain frightning. It conjures of so many emotions and begs you to ask so many questions. Who is that? What do they want? Why just stand there? Should I go out and talk to them? Why the mask? What next? If the movie played on that kind of fear throughout, it would have been brilliant. Instead it decends into predicablity and absurdity. I won't give away what happens, but it employs every horror cliche available. And even worse,the screenplay uses the cliches right about the very moment you expect that particular cliche to be used. Imagine a movie, where we only see the evil from afar, where the sounds are scarce, maybe the worse thing that happens is "the missing cell phone that you just plugged in." How would a couple deal with this? Is the threat real? Or is it paranoia? But no, that's not this film. Instead, this movie knows exactly the moment when an axe should come through the door. The only problem is, we do too.
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This has been the biggest disappointment of the year for me, and here's why:
1) the characters: it's a horror film, yes, and while I don't exactly go to them for the Chronicles of Laurie Strode, a bit of getting to know them before the mayhem would have been nice. But no. You get about 15-20 minutes of extremely boring and soft-spoken dialogue; you could barely hear what they were saying sometimes. All in all I just simply didn't care what happened to them.
2) the plot. or, the lack thereof. Perhaps I'm missing a ton of subtle depth or hidden metaphors, but what I saw was perhaps one of the most plotless films I've ever seen. There's no reason for it, you don't learn anything about the killers (which can be a good thing sometimes, I like mystery, but here you get absolutely nothing), nothing is explained or resolved, or anything. it's an empty shell of a film with nothing at all to latch onto.
3) the most important thing: the scares. while I'll admit this had some exceptionally creepy moments, after a while it just starts going through the same exact motions over and over again, there's about 10 minutes of Liv Tyler crawling across the lawn with the killers lurking behind her, tons of cheap and fake scares (like Scott Speedman popping the cork-- the dialogue is recorded so softly that when he pops the cork off the alcohol bottle, it made everyone in the theater scream). so aside from a scarce few moments of glory, it lost steam rather quickly.
I wish I could agree with these positive reviews, but I'm going to have to unfortunately side with Ebert: aside from some obvious craft, the movie is empty, repetitive, and as hollow as a bamboo stick. -
"its ending is just mean spirited"
The ending of a movie about psychos terrorizing people is 'mean spirited'? Oh Boo Hoo Hoo...That's a laugh and a half. -
That great scene where the killer walks into the room out of focus that is one of the creepiest parts of the movie? Actually, THE best part of the movie? It's in the trailer. If you've seen the trailer, you knew the shot and knew he was about to come out. That doesn't mean the scene isn't awesome, it is, but I kind of found it hard to have an impact on me since I'd already seen it in the previews.
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George Lucas presents!
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What is the horror of a movie that is just sick and is simply mean??? A horror movie should make you say..."Damn, I haven't seen that before?" Or "I wasn't expecting that" or "Shit, that was fun!" The story of this movgie is flat and seems to be nothing but a play on Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects just redressed as something else. "Gimmie Something New Already", not just the same old movie remixed or given the mash-up treatment. This is bullshit!!!You wanna see something scary, watch "To Serve Man" one of the original Twilight Zone episodes or how about "The Thing" remake, or the original Halloween...now that is scary, not this. Those killers would have fled that house the moment the first shotgun blast went-off which shows you how stupid this movie is!!!A better plot would have been to show this couple being terrified by the killers and then turning out to be serial killers themselves who terrorize and torture their tormentors in the last killing scene, not the other way around as it now stands. That would have really fucked the audience up, but no...we got the same old garbage!!! I could easily out write this writer in my sleep!!!
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WATCH THE 2007 FOREIGN FILM "THEM". SAME EXACT PREMISE, BEAT BY BEAT, BUT WAAAAAY MORE COMPELLING, AND SCARY. HASN'T ANYONE CALLED FOUL ON "STRANGERS" RIPPING OFF FROM "THEM"?
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You are an idiot.
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Whatever the case, this story is a waste of film!!!
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Fucking creepy.
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The script was sold in 2004, then writer was signed to direct in 06 and the film's release was delayed a year. Not a remake of "Them" at all.
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Easily the worst film I've seen this year. Not a single legitimate scare, and the back story only makes unlikeable characters less likeable.
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Ah, hell, forget it. You are an idiot Mediah Messiah.
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..."Strangers'" ending needed something (like the films he cited) to justify sitting through nearly an hour and a half of build up. Nothing worse than NO PAY OFF at the "climax" of a movie. "Strangers" failed miserably in that regard.
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Figure I'd better say that before going on, since I ripped into Ender above....
I just got back, and I guess Ender didn't spoil anything, because it was pretty clear within the first two minutes how it was going to end.....
I enjoyed it overall, and thought it did a good job of building the tension, but thought the ending was sort of a waste of that hour and a half build-up.....
I'd give it a 3 out of 5....
I also thought they wasted Gemma Ward's fine ass self.... They could have at least had an orgy in front of the couple while they had them tied up..... -
My ending, I feel would have provided the pay-off that we both agree was missing.As for my critics, maybe...this take would be more to your liking: Perhaps the female (Liv Tyler) and the male best friend were secretly planning to kill the would-be groom, but the Strangers show-up and Liv Tyler and the best friend have their plan go to pot when they, the other killers, present a bigger threat, one that targets everyone in the house? That would have been interesting. Even more interesting, the would-be groom leaves his double crossing best friend and lover to die at the hands of the Strangers, who he gets the jump on with the shotgun, but let's them go when he over-hears the truth about his lover and best friend's plan to kill him. Through an unspoken agreement, just shown in exchanged stares with the Strangers, the would-be groom allows them to have their way with those who betrayed him. Turning, he walks away as they scream for forgiveness. Down the road, the Strangers happen upon him as he continues his walk. The Strangers stop their car and offer him a ride. He, knowing full well that they have killed his lover and best friend, accepts the ride, and seemingly joins the cult of killers as they drive-off. Once again, that is simply a better ending than the one presented n the movie and a better story.
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Jun 01, 2008 5:24:41 PM CDT
Media Messiah:: I thought your idea woulda made a better ending
by the dum guy
Because, I was wondering that when I was watching the movie: what if the psychos got a "victim" that was more sadistic than them and they end up getting hacked and shot?At least I would most likely try and enjoy killing a group of people that where trying to slaughter me for no reason.
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I just have always felt that you can take an obvious premise and alter it making it something new again, thus giving it new life. Joseph Campbell, the late mythology researcher, said that there are only 5 or 6 different story arcs, which is true if you handle a premise in a straight forward traditional manner, but I have discovered that if you change the ending of the story to something non-conventional, you can completely change even a cliche story arc, thus, that one simple alteration can change the meaning of the entire story, from start to finish, and give it a fresh unexpected take.The Strangers as it is, in its current form, might as well have been a repeat of the Sharon Tate murders. It's just mean and cruel, with no entertainment value when it comes to the actual killings, or killing.A horror film should be spooky and fun leaving you guessing about what comes next and why...and it should be as much of a thriller, mystery and suspense yarn as it is a scary campfire tale. The Strangers delivers the villains and the victims, but once you know who's who...without a sudden twist in the story, what's to keep you jumping and guessing for the remainder of the movie??? Nothing??? That's where the filmmakers failed here.
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Roger Ebert gave thumbs down to FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH. One of my (RDD) top rated 100 movies. He ranted about what a travesty it was for Stacy Hamilton (Jennifer-Jason Leigh) to be having painful sex. Mr. Ebert please grow a brain. A big theme to the movie FTARH is the negative effects of sex without love. The funny part is that when EBERT saw what a CLASSIC it became, he failed to put it in his book "I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie." What a cowardly back-pedaler. However, I'll bet when he dies some AICN big-wigs will cry like little girls.
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Usually critics’ main complaint is that the good guys had it too easy. This is just the opposite. Here, the bad guys have it too easy. Which is just as bad because there is no real conflict. There’s no balance of hope and dread. It’s just dread dread dread until the inevitable pointless murder seen.
We're not mad just because the good guys lost. WE'RE MAD BECAUSE THE BAD GUYS HAD IT TOO EASY. If it was a hard won murder, it would've been great. -
That same scene sent the audience at my theatre into hysterics... not me though since the poster kinda gave it away and I saw it on a preview at IGN and was just like m'eh... it's an enjoyable date movie I guess... but overall m'eh... The thing that really irks me is if that was me I would've been more confrontational, especially if I had the shottie, but then again I wasn't there so what do I know those masks might've freaked the shit outta me till I can't think straight. But seriously I would've taken up the courage to just walk it on the road with her behind me watching each others backs for as long as it takes. Out through the front door or window or whatever and on the road into town. We can see all around us and if anything gets too close, BAM! But no... they keep running back into the fucking house and separating from each other, they would've stood a chance by being together, especially considering most of the shit happens because they don't spend enough time looking behind them! And if I was their dumbass friend, maybe I would've called the cops the moment some brick hit my car windshield and I saw the fucking chaos on the front yard even if I was ballsy enough to go in and investigate? Was he still drunk?
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I'm looking forward to them, thought you said it would be up t today.
no rush buddy, just exited! -
I done with torture porn, bored with remakes, what's left? The genre needs a lifeline but nobody seems to be innovating. Unless I'm missing something? Thoughts?
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A cautionary tale... for... living? I mean, seriously, WTF? You might like this movie if you have no interest in plot, characterizations, or even a remote fucking point. Yes, the movie has some scares, but folks, I'm here to tell you... that aint enough.
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Come breed with hot women from around the world and your favorite hot celebrities and LURAO @ www.TheHumanHybrid.com
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More brutal crud from psychos.
If I want that, I can watch the evening new.
A waste of time for all.
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