Did you even watch the movie?

1.) Torture porn?? you have got to be kidding me.

2.)"She goes away and so—inexplicably—does James, who says he will return shortly," James does not inexplicably go away: it's pretty clearly indicated that he is going to get her cigarettes.

3.) "As for the psychos (Gemma Ward, Kip Weeks and Laura Margolis) they spend most of the movie behind their masks uttering zombie-like threats."--What "zombie like threats" are uttered? They didn't say anything until the end.

4.) Calling this movie "estrogen charged" is quite a stretch.

this reviewer just wanted to see Sex and the City and run home and raid his mother's closet. this review is so off. this film offers a TON of suspense and a lot of tension. pete..jumps and jolts are not SUSPENSE...they are usually just cheap scares. you say you didnt want the typical cliches found in these "home invasion" movies, yet later on in your review you complain that theyre not there. dont listen to this tulip go see the movie!

actually,

i'd saw 'torture porn' is a pretty accurate description for this pile of demented shit bryan bertino tries to pass off as entertainment.

the startle techniques and sharp, piercing soudn effect cliches are exploited throughout the movie.
ok...so nothing new here.

ok...so the characters are sneaking around like ninjas, floating in and out of darkness, "now you see me; now you dont" bs.

again, nothing new.

this is just a movie designed to make chills run up and down your spine.

fine. acceptable.

the characters are total retards with about as much survival instinct as a box of rocks.
once again, this is a classic cliche and fatal flaw in most horror movies. By stripping the characters of even the most basic elements of common sense, the alienate the audience from any attempt to associate with the victims. All efforts are empathizing with the victims is annihilated, and every single urge to extract even a semblance of shared reality out of their experiences is shot-to-hell.

you cant relate. period. so the couple just becomes an object of shock value; the only function they serve is to be spooked and startled and gruesomely prodded with knives in a vain, last-ditch effort to salvage what's left of the director's faltering attempt to connect with audience in any meaningful way.

Bertino goes to a whole other level of derrangement when he conducts an excecution-style murder that includes such lucid attention to detail that you have to wonder if the sick bastard gets off at the thought of horric acts of senseless violence. 'Torture porn' just about sums up this vain effort at recapturing the audience's investment.

it was entirely UNNECCESSARY to show the couple watching each other get stabbed again and again,
showing the blade slowly piercing their stomachs.
you have to wonder what kind of people are capable of thinking of such sordid details and glorifying shock value to the max. The ending is grasping, trying, leaving you feeling dirty and used.

it would've been 'just another' startle movie. bryan bertino's resortment to shock tactics like his perverted grand finale smacks of desperation and digust.

The torture porn comment doesn't make sense to me at all. The invaders are sadistic but there's no indication they were sexually motivated at all. They're just sadistic psychos who take pleasure in abusing and hurting others. Some scenes were predictable, but the acting was fine, especially Liv Tyler.

Pornography isn't just sexual. Technically, porn is any form of unartistic, tasteless media. "Torture porn" is appropriate here, as a large aspect of the movie is sadism (torture) and the reviewer thinks it's artless, sensationalist, obscene crap (porn).

Why even read reviews anymore? I'm asking myself this question. They don't watch movies the same way we do. We watch for the entertainment and the escape it allows from our regular lives. They watch because its their job to watch and critique. They are film academics with a trained eye for things like cinematography, director influences ect. ect. We merely want to be entertained and we review each film by concluding if it sucked, probably should've waited for the dvd, or it was worth the 12.00 + 30.00 for snacks.

not every movie is inteded to be comparable to the "fine art" of movie making. some movies are designed to serve purposes that are expected within their genre, meaning, don't compare Friday the 13th to Gone With the Wind. the entertainment elements you expect to find in a horror movie are nowhere near the same as say a documentary or a non-fiction film about the holocaust.
if the characters in these exploitation films had the common sense that you or i would have in these given situations, then we might not have the movie. all people react to all situations differently anyway, so its impossible to criticize that someone's survival instincts were not up to rational standards. don't say "why didnt liv tyler's character shoot those bastards?" maybe liv tyler's character is incapable of violent activity regardless of her situation. some people would faint at the sight of those hoodlums in those masks. critics love to hate these films because they are easy money for the industry and they dont enjoy having to watch them. they dont have the common horror fan's best interest in mind when they review them. they want to write pomp reviews about pompous films, and if i were to criticize their reviews of the films they commonly suggest that i see, my general consesus would be that these films are usually boring. i agree with anyone that refuses to acknowledge any "professional's" (????) review of a movie. most of them jump on wagons to avoid looking foolish when a film is widely acclaimed by not agreeing, which is why movies i think are boring trash like There will be Blood and No Country For Old Men are praised.
some studios pay off reviewers anyway, which renders the whole thing null and void.
did Strangers scare me? yes. am i easily scared? no. it has its creepy moments for sure, but these movies arent made to develop characters, jerk tears, or showcase amazing new up and coming actors. they are made to serve their purpose, and every film has its flaws. i didnt like the ending at all, but i loved the other 85 minutes. and to everyone that believes horror films can be made tastefully and ingeniuosly, like the commonly pedestoled JAWS, just remember one thing...sharks can't roar because they can't breathe!!

that movie iz da bomd brah it **** scared me i wattched it at da adge of 13 brah scary ****

it is soooo amazin :p
I hope there is a asecond one outtt!!!

it is soooo amazin :p
I hope there is a asecond one outtt!!!