I finally watched: The Strangers
Ok, this was a decently scary movie, but not because of any suspense it manages to build. It pulls off its scares because it creates a pair of victims in a realistic setting. Victims you care about (well, one of them at least)…
The Strangers’ victims are a pair of people who, with very little dialog and without the use of flashbacks, manage to have deep(ish), believable backstories. These aren’t just some punk teenagers out at a summer home trying to ‘get some.’ You actually want to see these people (well, one of them) make it, rather than see them be gruesomely murdered in glorified gory ways.
That’s what sets The Strangers apart from our average slasher flick. Besides that, however, most of the scares feel a bit cheap. I jumped whenever some quick action or startling scene occurred, but the general creepy setting didn’t affect me (unlike ‘The Thing’). I’m sure this will be different for others. There were plenty of people in the theater gasping at these ‘unscary’ situations.