MovieChat Forums > The Strangers (2008) Discussion > People bxtching about how the main chara...

People bxtching about how the main characters were stupid

posted 10 years ago by StuffAndThangs
18 replies | jump to latest

Ive said it before, but this film strongly reminds me of the real life Wichita Massacre. A group of 5 friends were at a home one night around Christmas, 3 men and 2 women in their 20s, when 2 men broke in who were brothers

They proceeded to rape and torture all of them for hours and then started taking them one at a time to ATM machine. The remaining members were left at home with only man who had a gun. The police report said the lone man continued the torture on one member at a time..he'd leave the rest in a closet and come get them 1 by 1. Eventually he started pilfering around their home for stuff to steal. He found an engagement ring hidden in a cookie jar that one of the guys had got for his girlfriend to propose during the holidays.

After they had all visited the ATM, the two men loaded them up in their car, some stuffed in the trunk. They were beaten with golf clubs etc and were bruised broken and bloody. Most of them were naked.

The men drove them to an abandoned football field in cold and snowy weather that was not near any houses. They made them line up and then one by one, they went down the line and shot each person in the back of the head. Then when they left,mthey ran over them with their car!

When they got to the last girl, they shot her and she passed out but turns out the hair clip in her hair saved her life because the bullet bounced. In the police statement she said when she woke up she was face down in the snow. She could hear her fiance groaning and rolled him over and his face was in terrible shape..she took off the sweater that had been left on her and wrapped it around his head.

She states that in the far distance she saw twinkling christmas lights and ran towards them almost over a mile, also stopping to duck and run through woods when a car came because she was afraid it was the men coming back to kill her.

She finally came to a home,,and naked and bloody,pounded on the door and some people opened it. She ran inside and the people started to call 911 but the girl wouldnt let them. She was so afraid that she would die before the police got there that she made them listen to her statement and what happened before they called 911.

Horrible story, but she was the sole survivor and went on to become an award winning teacher. The men who tortured them had done similar things to other people,and she also ended up marrying another victim of the two men. Im glad she found some happiness

My point is, these people were 5 against 2 and were so scared and traumatized they never even tried to fight back.

The Strangers was 2 against 3. Kristen and James were terrified,

Yes its easy to call them stupid and point out what they did wrong, but if we were in their situation we dont know what wed do.

Fear can completely paralyze you to where you cant even think straight. I think their actions made sense because of terrified they were.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] IvyTempleton 9 years ago

It is easy to beat our chest and say what we'd do in that situation until we have been in that situation.

True and so far nobody on here has been in that situation.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] LukeLovesFilm28 9 years ago

Exactly. Most people beating their chests and acting all tough and superior on here would probably freeze up and sh!t their pants if they were actually in this horrible, dangerous situation. It's called shock and we all go through it. No one ever suspects or can ever be prepared for this kind of violence.

Look what happened during the theater shooting. I know the guy was using guns but the idea is still the same. Everyone ran or ducked or froze up. One or two guys actually threw sh!t at the shooter. But, that's it. Everyone who got cut down were sh!tting themselves more than trying to prevent it.

[–] koffeenkreame41-1 9 years ago

Exactly. Most people beating their chests and acting all tough and superior on here would probably freeze up and sh!t their pants if they were actually in this horrible, dangerous situation. It's called shock and we all go through it. No one ever suspects or can ever be prepared for this kind of violence.

Look what happened during the theater shooting. I know the guy was using guns but the idea is still the same. Everyone ran or ducked or froze up. One or two guys actually threw sh!t at the shooter. But, that's it. Everyone who got cut down were sh!tting themselves more than trying to prevent it.

Completely agree with you and the OP. 

"I'm the ultimate badass,you do NOT wanna f-ck wit me!"Hudson,Aliens😬

[–] resrwa 9 years ago

Some of it I chalk up to being afraid, but the majority of it - like leaving the realitive saftey of the closet where you can hold out with the gun - makes no sense... if I were terrified the last thing I would do is give up a defensable position, even if I had just accidentally shot my friend.

Above all else though was how they never called 911 when they had the chance. Call me paranoid, but the second time that girl showed up I would have called. Certainly would have called them before calling my significant other, like she did.

Also, when the friend shows up and the windshield gets hit... my gut feeling is not to go towards the trouble... why the hell didn't he call the cops right then and there?

[–] StuffAndThangs 9 years ago

I wouldnt want to be trapped inside. They could have set it on fire or stormed the room and overpowered them.

Yes i agree, she should have dialed 911 right away

Also agree with the friend not going inside

[–] CptHowdy87 9 years ago

Call me paranoid, but the second time that girl showed up I would have called. Certainly would have called them before calling my significant other, like she did.

I don't live in America but can you really call the cops to come out somewhere that far out over something like that? She wasn't in fear for her life or in any actual danger at the time, she was just weirded out. I don't think the jitters is a valid reason for calling the police. You the viewer knew that the girl was trouble but to the main character it was just a bit strange and unusual at the time.

[–] JohnnyJohnson (314) 4 months ago

When the friend showed up and was shot at, that's exactly what I thought too. CALL THE COPS. Don't get out of your car, and then start investigating the house. No lights on, things are a mess, so I wouldn't be like "James? Kristen? You okay? Where are you?" I'd get out of that house and call the cops. Oh well, it became a joke of a movie and I''m not sure who lived or died, and frankly I didn't care. They were too stupid for words.

[–] therileyhamilton 9 years ago

I watch movies to be entertained, not see real live simulations of events I can compare and contrast my own behavior with.

If people complain about the characters acting stupid then it means, for them, the movie failed. In a good movie, you don't think about these things as much and just go along for the ride.

[–] tegendemuur 9 years ago

People are know to survive *beep* like this, by actual instinct. Making mistakes is part of survival, but movies like these just add up mistake on mistake on mistake.

*beep* it. Get that gun. Lock yourself in a room with a solid wall on your back and wait 'till the sun comes up before you start your escape/assault. I know, it does not make a tense movie, but the trope of characters in horrors being stupid is just lazy.

I hoped for something more, considering the rating and it being from 2008. But its just not good. Liv's acting only made it worse. Reading through the trivia only supports how bad she is at what she's doing...

[–] StuffAndThangs 9 years ago

The people in the Wichita massacre didn't survive and it was 5 agaunst 2 and at times 4 against 1

[–] Shadowkisss 9 years ago

The people in the Wichita massacre didn't survive and it was 5 agaunst 2 and at times 4 against 1

True but the bad guys were the ones with the gun. In this movie the good guys had the gun.

I think one of the mistakes people make when they get attacked like this is to believe that if they do everything the bad guys tell them to do they won't get killed. Like in the more recent case, where a man, his wife, their son, and their housekeeper, were murdered by 1 guy. When he took the woman to the bank, judging by what she told them, she didn't even think their lives were in danger.

[–] StuffAndThangs 9 years ago

If I'm not mistaken, in the Wichita massacre, when one of the attackers left the room, he left a gun laying in plain view and any of the victims waiting in the closet could have grabbed it..but no one did.

Who knows what goes on in people's mind in these situations..they are so terrified and can't think straight

[–] CptHowdy87 8 years ago

*beep* it. Get that gun. Lock yourself in a room with a solid wall on your back and wait 'till the sun comes up before you start your escape/assault. I know, it does not make a tense movie, but the trope of characters in horrors being stupid is just lazy.

Which is exactly what they were doing until their friend was the one who walked in front of the door...

[–] ForeverLate 9 years ago

this was a horrible story. I can't believe this didn't get more media coverage..such a terrible crime.

[–] ForeverLate 9 years ago

this was a horrible story. I can't believe this didn't get more media coverage..such a terrible crime.

[–] BKB (10105) 2 months ago

If you're armed which they apparently were with the shotgun along with the shells in the closet, then you simply blow the Strangers away the moment you open the door, at 4 AM no less to some chick wearing a mask and some dude sporting a burlap sack over his head