Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.

A couple reader reviews of THE STRANGERS come in!

way to go! by Stevie Grant	May 27th, 2008 02:41:38 AM
that a boy gotham, celebrate your stalking of AICN in the middle of the night (I swear I'm just surfing the net cause I can't sleep).
Thanks for ruining the movie, asshole by Han Cholo	May 27th, 2008 02:42:52 AM
Also learn some grammar skills when writing a review.
whereas funny games u.s. was accused of being... by birdy birdman	May 27th, 2008 02:42:59 AM
this really does look like "avant garde torture porn" and a straight plundering of haneke's vision and minus the intellectual subtext
p.s. cholo "spoilers" usually mean "spoilers" by birdy birdman	May 27th, 2008 02:43:39 AM

ok seriously upon reading the spoilerview by birdy birdman	May 27th, 2008 02:47:32 AM
this really sounds to me like a watered down ripping of european horror, namely "Inside" and as stated before "Funny Games" i guess it's kind of a step in the right direction for shitty commercial horror(?) but probably not
cholo by frankenfickle	May 27th, 2008 02:56:26 AM
it's a remake of funny games.
i mean birdman. by frankenfickle	May 27th, 2008 02:56:50 AM

nooooo it's not by birdy birdman	May 27th, 2008 03:04:16 AM
funny games was just remade by its own director, if you read that somewhere please provide a link
"Oh buy the way his is a very short movie" No you buy it! by Orionsangels	May 27th, 2008 03:13:38 AM

Sounds exactly like that french film by FILMFUNK	May 27th, 2008 04:06:36 AM
where a couple get terrorised in their remote home by a bunch of hoodies
Funny Games+Them=? by TroutMaskReplicant	May 27th, 2008 04:08:19 AM
I imagine there must be a lot of pre-existing "Home Invasion" movies in order to claim it as a take on a genre(The Last House On The left and such). Because the plot of this sounds so much like "Ils" that I thought it must be a remake. I suppose the based on true events spiel is a useful argument also.
no split personalities? by alice 13	May 27th, 2008 04:14:38 AM
no.
by The Dum Guy	May 27th, 2008 04:39:26 AM
...they need to rape someone for it to be really hard.
funny games was made in reaction to movies like this by birdy birdman	May 27th, 2008 05:08:16 AM
and now said movies are imitating funny games ... fucking sad, what with the "no shaky cam, etc." just more curdled shit, the fact that rape is considered a criteria for movies to be hard (unless dum guy is joking) is just a reinforcement of how bad things have gotten, fuck this SHIT
it actually IS a remake of the french film by SmallTuna	May 27th, 2008 05:09:06 AM
"Ils" (Them) After J-Horror remakes, here comes the F-Horror remakes
Hmmm... by Laughing Irishman	May 27th, 2008 06:07:49 AM
Looks a lot like Vacancy.
Wait... "Hoodies" is short for "Hoodlums"? by tonagan	May 27th, 2008 06:56:42 AM
I thought it was because they wore hooded sweatshirts. Using that logic, if they wore pajamas, I would refer to them as "Jammies".
Super Jammies by bythehairofsanjaya	May 27th, 2008 07:04:21 AM
Nathan Petrelli has super jammies. He can fly at super speed in just his jammie bottoms and they don't come off!
sounds like a HUGE waste of money. I hate non-sensical endings. by Mike_D	May 27th, 2008 07:15:36 AM
c'mon, no actual reasoning for the tormentors to kill these ppl other than "cause you were home."??!! PFFT!!!!
Based on true events... by Kid Z	May 27th, 2008 07:35:39 AM
...Yeah, those damn doll-mask chicks and the cloth bag-hood guy showed up at my place last night. Luckily, I've got steel-core doors and a rottweiler. They were just rampaging all over the neighborhood, too. Every time the cops came by, it was "spooky disappearing trick" time. Whattaya gonna do, right?
About the movie... by Jubba	May 27th, 2008 08:03:48 AM
This is a SPOILER: I think that the movie would have had much more shock value if it had not started off by saying "based on true events, nobody is totally sure what happened" because you know that the 2 people ain't gonna make it and you never really have much hope for them, which is something a flick like this could have benefitted from. In terms of why would people do this just cause someone's home? Shit happens just because you're in the wrong place at the wrong time. Next time you're in a big house by yourself and you think you hear a footstep or a knock on the door...imagine how it would be if there really WAS someone trying to get in - or already in the house with you.
95% of all horror movies suck!! by BobParr	May 27th, 2008 09:10:25 AM
This seems like total crap. The Japan trend of a few years ago sucked. Torture porn isn't scary-just disgusting. That low budget Wes Craven stuff (Last House on the Left, Hills Have Eyes) is amateurish and ridiculously overrated. I love a good horror film but they are so few and far between. Off the top of my head all I can think of as really great horror films are THE EXCORCIST, THE OMEN, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS(Donald Sutherland version), HELLRAISER 1 AND 2. I'm sure I'm missing a few but there just don't seem to be many great horror films.
I forgot the original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD!! by BobParr	May 27th, 2008 09:14:49 AM
Hey Harry, It's the 21st Century. Can we get an edit feature?
Gemma Ward is in this movie by CarmillaVonDoom	May 27th, 2008 09:34:12 AM
That is all
it's not torture porn by Jubba	May 27th, 2008 10:00:32 AM
they could have gone that way but they didn't. i was worried at one point it would go that way but was relieved when it wasn't very graphic at all...disturbing, perhaps, but nothing like a "hostel" film. this wasn't a super great film, but like i said in the review, it delivers what the trailer promises.
Frenchy by Therealumlaut	May 27th, 2008 10:08:17 AM
Sounds like another American retread. The original French film is "Them" or "They"? I think.
Wanted to see Liv Tyler naked??? by Turd Furgeson	May 27th, 2008 10:32:44 AM
Yeah, reviewer lost all credibility at that point.. That chick is horrible to look at. She looks like Beeker from the muppets with giant hips.... It does sound like there is no 3rd act in this movie which sucks because the previews look pretty freaky!
BobParr by shodan6672	May 27th, 2008 11:12:34 AM
"torture porn" is a lazy term used by unintelligent "family-oriented" critics like Michael Medved. It says nothing.
Anybody see Funny Games? by TheLastCleric	May 27th, 2008 11:28:07 AM
I saw the remake a few months ago. It played for one week at the local arthouse theater and then vanished. I still can't decide if I liked the film or not. I really didn't care for the metaphysical stuff at all but the rest of it was pretty tense and well made.
the true story part is by Diagnostic	May 27th, 2008 11:41:51 AM
that Liv Tyler would turn this chump's proposal down.
Should have used the Happening's villian. by Diagnostic	May 27th, 2008 11:48:14 AM
or Cloverfields.
Exactly like the French version then by V'Shael	May 27th, 2008 12:05:26 PM
But I think the French one played with the "Is this a supernatural threat?" question for a bit, before the "twist" reveal of ... they're just fucking kids with no morals.
Indian Jones by Hovitos2k	May 27th, 2008 01:10:36 PM
Could someone PLEASE tell me where I can see Indian Jones. I've been waiting to see the swashbuckling adventures of that Native American Adventurer
ripoff does not equal remake by birdy birdman	May 27th, 2008 01:20:34 PM
someone please show me where this is a remake of Ils
sick things just for the hell of it? by Larry of Arabia	May 27th, 2008 04:58:07 PM
IS this what horror has devolved into? Even the cartoon hackers of the 80's like Jason and Freddy had some backstory, a reason for what they did. Fucking "Motel Hell" had more of a story than this seems to. I'm not a fan of the Saw movies but they work on some level because the killer has a motive. Even though it's just a reason to come up with elaborate gory torture devices and see people ripped apart they bothered with some context. Sometimes that invisible person in the woods is scary, but when someone says they do it "because you are there" without putting any context into it like "Funny Games" or even "Deliverance" then it smacks of lazy writing and cheap scares.
cant wait to see this movie by msi_urine15	May 27th, 2008 05:12:44 PM
it looks pretty decent
i don't get it... by JimmyJoe RedSky	May 27th, 2008 06:41:35 PM
this shit would never happen in real life - no to me anyway - a hard-to-swallow premise for a scary movie - there would be some dead masked assholes in and around my cabin
"Just for the hell of it" by Jubba	May 27th, 2008 06:55:19 PM
I think the scary thing is that there ARE people who carry out acts of random violence and we never get a real backstory. When it comes down to it, does it really matter WHY someone is mugging you or stalking you? This film is about random, unexplained violence by real people, not supernatural beings with a backstory to make them interesting. It's not that kind of horro film, and it may not be for you if you don't like that.
Looks slightly less nihilistic and demonic than "Funny Games"... by JackIsLost	May 27th, 2008 07:38:22 PM
but I am not really interested in either movie. Has anyone seen that commercial with Liv Tyler playing Nintendo? I think it's some of her finest work and I say that with all due respect.
Can't wait to see this! by ricardomontalkhan	May 27th, 2008 09:51:33 PM
Hey movie geeks, check out this great new blog on blogspot called thebitterproducer it's hilarious!
"Indian Jones" by haggardatbest	May 28th, 2008 06:13:08 AM
Funniest typo ever.
Umm...Cholo... by toxicbuddha	May 28th, 2008 09:13:19 AM
From the looks of the trailer, this flick was 'ruined' right around the time it was green lighted, dude.
I really liked it by Frightreviews	May 28th, 2008 04:49:42 PM
my full review will be up later at horror movie a day, but to sum up - yes its a lot like Them, but it's better. Them suffered greatly when they leave the house and run around the sewer, which broke the tension. This has no such break. But like the first guy says, it doesn't offer much beyond the trailer. I really liked the trailer, so that was fine by me, but I can see why folks might be put off by it. I also saw it for free, take that into consideration.
re: Indian Jones by Larry Sellers	May 28th, 2008 04:54:57 PM
Fucking hilarious.
AICN When You Put Up Poster's Reviews Like Jubba'a etc by Red Dawn Don	May 28th, 2008 09:49:20 PM
You need to give them a type of black-box in talkbacks like your cronies get to do. Maybe a temporary thread specific red-box for reviewers. I kept thinking that JUBBA in the talkbacks was an INDUSTRY PLANT until I realized he was just one of the orignal reviewers. Also, I noticed that you black-boxers get to do comment corrections why not the rest of us? I say all of us get to edit or else NOONE GETS TO EDIT. Else, you are a fake LIBERAL in speech but a true CONSERVATIVE in actions. Democratize EDITS you SOB.
The by codefool	May 28th, 2008 10:11:00 PM

The Stranger by codefool	May 28th, 2008 10:11:55 PM
I saw this movie before, all it was, was a dude sitting on his hand for a couple of minutes... I didn't really like it.

Talkbacks

A couple reader reviews of THE STRANGERS come in!

User login

Quick Talkback

Talkbacks