What starts out as a night where Scott Speedman is expecting some nookie and kanoodling with Liv Tyler in a nice little rural hideaway turns into a desperate fight for their lives as some folks with masks start raising all kinds of trouble. Some people just don't like strangers in their neighborhood.

There certainly is a market for these slasher flicks and some folks actually liked this one by the reviews I see. These are people who just like to be frightened, but these kind of films have always left me cold.

Our three villains include two women and one man. The women where Halloween masks while the man makes do with a burlap sack over his face. Maybe it's the Unknown Comic in a new outfit or burlap is in for psychopaths this season.

Anyway that's money and time I certainly will never get back.

"Home invasion" horrors seem to have enjoyed a resurgence as of late, THE STRANGERS one of a handful of similar titles to hit cinemas in recent years: there was the French shocker THEM, the US remake of FUNNY GAMES, motel chiller VACANCY, even THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT remake explores similar themes of sudden, unexpected violence intruding in our own homes and neighbourhoods. THE STRANGERS attracted a little controversy after supposedly being based on a true story – a still unexplained murder in which a woman and three kids were brutally killed in their own home one night by supposed strangers without a motive. The sad truth is that the true story, which I read about online, is far more interesting than this clichéd, boring, and frankly forgettable attempt at horror. Heck, even the behind-the-scenes footage on the DVD was more interesting than the film itself.

The problems with this film are tenfold. The entire lack of a plot doesn't help – unless you count the expository first ten minutes, which introduce a central couple who are so caught up in themselves that you instantly dislike them. From then on, minor events are dragged out for endless minutes as the characters face a cat-and-mouse game with masked attackers. Plot points are ten, sometimes twenty minutes apart and between then we just get ominous music and noises on the soundtrack. Can you say repetitive? It's as if the film-makers saw the last ten minute showdown between Jamie Lee Curtis and Michael Myers in HALLOWEEN and decided to expand it to feature length.

I'm not saying this concept can't work; indeed, some films featuring just a couple of characters in a room work very well. THEM did it expertly, building tons of atmosphere without ever showing much. The newcomer who made this film, Bryan Bertino, seems to have no skill when it comes to suspense, world-building, or scares; we just get endless repetition. The first time we hear somebody knocking on the door is creepy – the next ten times isn't. There's no twist ending, no catch, just mundane stuff everywhere you look, as cliché piles on cliché before the non-ending that makes you think "is that it?". Liv Tyler is poor as the heroine in peril; Speedman featureless and wooden. The masked bad guys have the potential to be scary – if the look of the main one hadn't been copied from THE ORPHANAGE. I hear a sequel is to follow, but my question is why? This is about as bland, non-scary, and predictable as movie-making gets, a film as expressionless as its masked killers.

It's Feb 11, 2005. Kristen McKay (Liv Tyler) and James Hoyt (Scott Speedman) return to Hoyt family summer home after attending a friend's wedding reception. There seems to be something between them. Then someone knocks on the door. A mysterious girl is asking for Tamara. They send her away. James leaves to get Kristen cigarettes and the girl returns. It's a night of terror as they are hounded by masked strangers.

The start has no energy. Both Tyler and Speedman are mumbling their lifeless dialog. The movie grinds along slowly. Although it may be scary for people watching this in their big houses by themselves. This could be an effective horror for the right person. For me, it's not that compelling.