MovieChat Forums > Vacancy (2007) Discussion > The Strangers was far better

The Strangers was far better

posted 14 years ago by AndersHede
18 replies | jump to latest

It had some very interesting elements and when they discovered they were in the same house as the videos, it got very creepy.

From then on, it was downhill, and way too much "Hollywood". It lost the touch and got very average, and thats being very nice.

I hate it when you see something, you see the potential and you end up with something very average.

The Strangers are in the same category of movies - only you get rid of the Hollywood-clichés, and that is so liberating. This movie, I have forgotten by tomorrow.

[–] ThatGuyGus 14 years ago

I actually liked the beginning, the characters started off real, but I hated the opening sequence, it sounded like a big budget hollywood film.
It had great suspense, but the director was squeamish, the once of blood used in the film looked like Ketchup,I'm not saying blood makes a good horror film, but its a very effective way to make it look real, The ending was HORRIBLE, the worst typical ending since the messengers.
The Strangers was a very effective film, it was real, it was independent, it was scary, you should check out THEM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFTbcDRkG1o

[–] marcus_stokes2000 13 years ago

Are you serious? Saying that The Strangers has no horror movie clichès and that it's scary only makes you sound really stupid, since it has

- Moronic characters
- People splitting up for no reason
- Teleporting killers
- Surprise ending written and conceived by a tubeworm
- characters walking BLITHELY into danger (the friend, the friend, THE FRIEND)

So, think before you type, next time. BOTH of you.

Saito: I bought the airline. It seemed neater.
Inception

[–] eraserhead_SH 13 years ago

I agree with Marcus.

Actually The Strangers was chock-full of clichès. Probably the most clichèd among all "horror" (I know it's a stretch) movies I've ever seen.

[–] BurnInMyLight 13 years ago

Not that The Strangers is horrible, but I enjoyed Vacancy much more because both the protagonists and antagonists were people that didn't have me holding up my hands and slapping my forehead in utter disbelief. The protagonists in Vacancy didn't require a total suspension of belief; you at least felt like they were real people making the best possible choices of folks panicking in a dire situation. In The Strangers, I stopped feeling sorry for the retarded bravado-fueled boyfriend after he left his best means of defense in the bedroom and abandoned his girlfriend in the house to run off around in the woods where the killers with ghost/ninja-like stealth had an even greater advantage.

[–] lucy111 12 years ago

I disagree. The Strangers was just plain torture porn IMO. Vacancy was far cleverer and served as a psychological thriller. Very Hitchcockian.

[–] BeefStroganoff 12 years ago

The Strangers was a conventional horror film (or should I say traditional) with creepy masked killers and eerie themes.

This film, however, seemed like a suspense crime thriller akin to Hitchcock.

[–] Blackace 12 years ago

I've seen both movies and thought both of them were decent for what they were. I gave each film a 7 rating. Neither film was GREAT to me.

[–] naith 12 years ago

Exactly what BurnInMyLight wrote. But I would dare to call Strangers quite horrible (4/10). Main reasons was well mentioned. I would only add the ending.

If you kill all of protagonists but one, ending film with him being certain of his incoming death, you have some additional explanation to do. In other case it is easy way out with meaningless shock value, the plot of a snuff film. The ending of "movies" recorded by antagonists in Vacancy. Not quite high standard.

In Vacancy on the other hand, the ending was presenting the victorious struggle of protagonists in somewhat original fashion nowadays. Last scenes are showing most obvious thing that main character have to do in this scenario (calling 911). And retrieving telephone cable from dead antagonist was like playing on all that cliches, yielding from them, as the tension was sustained by them. But he was really dead and nothing happened. Perfidiously surprising in its cogency and simplicity.

[–] potsi-1 11 years ago

Last scenes are showing most obvious thing that main character have to do in this scenario (calling 911). And retrieving telephone cable from dead antagonist was like playing on all that cliches, yielding from them, as the tension was sustained by them. But he was really dead and nothing happened. Perfidiously surprising in its cogency and simplicity.

Spot on! There's a brilliant simplicity on the ending of Vacancy which shows how much aware it is of the conventions of the genre.

It's almost satirical, the way it fools the audience in making them expect something ridiculous to happen simply because it happens in other films. The ending is basically telling you "what did you expect? The bad guys are dead. End of story". The only reason there's suspense in those final scenes is because we induce it to ourselves, thinking with horror movie conventions instead of logic.

[–] naith 11 years ago

It's almost satirical, the way it fools the audience in making them expect something ridiculous to happen simply because it happens in other films. The ending is basically telling you "what did you expect? The bad guys are dead. End of story".

Well said. Actually very well. Your point that it is almost satirical, the way movie makers played the audience is only causing me appreciate this picture even more. You mentioned awareness and that's it! The picture is using genre's zeitgeist for it's own purposes. And it is doing it bluntly and precisely at the same time. This manipulation at the end was truly amazing and it's great to know someone else is also admiring it. Cheers!

[–] potsi-1 11 years ago

Back at ya!!

[–] thagoff 9 years ago

nicely put. agree 100%.

[–] waspfan33 11 years ago

IT DOESNT MATTER WHAT YOU THINK...

the strangers is vacancy without the snuff film element.just straight sociopathic torture murderers doing it cuz they can.

spectre can

suck it.

[–] FinalGirrrl 11 years ago

I think The Strangers is hugely overrated. I saw it after it was hyped up and felt very disappointed. It had one cliche after the other and the killers weren't even creepy, had the couple being tormented been a bit smarter they would have been fine but they made idiotic mistakes just to keep the movie going. Liv Tyler was good but that's about it. My biggest annoyance was the way the killers would vanish and then show up somewhere it was impossible to be in as quickly and quietly as the movie portrayed.

I liked Vacancy much, much more and felt the couples fear. They were in a truly terrifying situation and the scene when you realise the movies are not just movies was very intense. Beckinsale and Wilson were great too. I think it has a much better concept, better made and infinitely better acted than The Strangers.

[–] dahl_2 11 years ago

I disagree. Vacancy was clearly a better movie. The reasons for this are mentioned in this thread, but if I were to mention something specifically, it would be how aware Vacancy is of its genre, subtly turning it on its head. The protagonists aren't absolute morons who make you facepalm with every decision they make, but feel realistic given their situation. Likewise, the ending scene was brilliantly shot (potsy and naith mentioning specifically why) whereas the ending in The Strangers was complete *beep* (which has nothing to do with it being "bad" as opposed to "hollywood good", I might mention).

That being said, I did enjoy the beginning of The Strangers immensely. It was well shot and written. Unfortunately, neither the writing nor the directing kept the same standard as the film progressed...

[–] hnt_dnl 9 years ago

I did NOT get the hype or love for The Strangers! I thought it was an absolute borefest, not nearly as intense or scary as Vacancy.

[–] cgbiondi 8 years ago

I've enjoyed both. I can watch Vacancy more often as the ending is up, where as with the Strangers...

Both are fun if you can suspend disbelief. Both get more from their cast than I would have imagined.

But Vacancy has Frank Whalley.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

I prefer Vacancy.