Instead of Kung Fu Panda or Zohan This Weekend, Talk to Strangers!

I just got done looking at some reviews of Kung Fu Panda. Now, I don't know why I feel this way, but I would just love for this movie to suck. Maybe its because Dreamworks Animation is terrible (yes, even Shrek!) and maybe its because Dreamworks Animation is terrible. Seriously, the only one that is even stomachable is Wallace and Gromit, and that was only because it had a little more charm when compared to the rest of DA's crap. Back to my original rant, I was reading some reviews on RottenTomatoes.com (KFP has 84% by the way), and more than once I saw a reviewer talk about how the story is outweighed by the colors, and visuals, and style. And they gave it positive reviews because of that. Seriously, this was my problem with Transformers. Why is it now a trend to give a positive review based on just how the robots look, or how the cute little panda bear kicks people. I don't understand who started this trend. Therefore, I say, if you are going to watch anything this weekend, make it The Strangers.

The Strangers was a shot in the dark for me. What really sold me on the movie were the trailers. The suspense, tension, and surprise this movie exudes are all in the trailers. And the trailers really do a great job of presetting the mood and tone for the movie. The movie starts out with a statistic of violent crimes in America and the proceeds to tell you that this movie is based on true events. Automatically, from that moment on, the whole feel of the theater goes cold. There is then some other information about how the FBI never solved the mystery, facts are still missing, blah blah blah. I won't divulge anymore details, but I will suggest (and I can never recall doing this ever) that you watch the movie trailer in order to have a better time watching the movie in the theater. The trailer can be found here.




I have read a lot about the silence in the movie. The first, real scary moment is silent. But the goal of the villains in the movie is to completely scare the crap out of Kristen (Liv Tyler) and James (Scott Speedman). And they do this by utilizing lots of noises and sound. The knock on the door is single handedly the scariest knock I have ever heard in my life. Not to take away from the effective use of silence though. There was more than once when I realized it was silent and I just waited for something to happen behind my hands. Sometimes it would, and sometimes it would not.



The music was also another big factor in the creepiness of this movie. It all comes from either a record player or a piano in the house. And there are multiple times when you in the audience don't know who is playing it, or turning it off or on. Oh yeah, and it is almost all creepy country music.



Bryan Betrino really does a great job in his directorial/writing debut. James and Kristen, from what I could see, never make incredibly dumb or rash decisions. Everything they do is probably what I would have done in that situation. For those of you out there who don't know how to take that previous sentence, I am pretty awesome under pressure. His use of sound and sight, or the lack thereof from time to time, really plays on the fear strings. The jump scare is used to the uttermost extent here, but it is never cheap or forced. You jump when the characters jump, and you will scream when they scream. The audience is in the house too, and we very rarely get to see into the mind of the masked villains. This movie was genuinely creepy, and it will make you look over your shoulder more than once during the your time there.

Rating: 8/10