The Strangers (2008)

This movie is purely for the shock factor and its obvious from the lack of dialogue between the actors in the movie. For anyone that’s seen “vacancy” it might all feel very familiar but its in no way a copycat movie. At the start we are told how over 1.4 million violent crimes occur in the USA every year - this technique is borrowed from the original Texas chainsaw massacre & is used to tell us as an audience that yes this could happen & maybe it did.. Whether this impacts on most people I don’t know but I did think the movie wouldn’t creep me out in the least.. I was wrong. The main set piece is an isolated vacationing home where a young couple choose to stay for the night, during the night they receive a knick on their door & upon answering it they are met by an unknown women who easily creeps them out.. After she disappears from their doorstep the couple assume they will have no more late night callers. What follows is a night of terror as they are stalked by unknown assailants who slowly but surely terrorize them until their worst fears come true. For me I felt like the movie took a while to really take off but when it did it really proved that simple scares still work in modern cinema, feeling at times like a Friday the 13th movie I have to say the terror felt by the couple was genuine. One of the strongest points of the movie was that it was believable and realistic.. While some will argue that maybe the strangers themselves possessed almost supernatural powers I’d have to disagree. What they did possess was a passion for what they were doing & it felt at times that maybe they were doing it for some unknown reason other than being the usual slasher flick killers that Hollywood seems to endlessly churn out. I think the main theme of the movie was survival, the survival of the couple to what was happening to them - and how they dealt with the situation. If you are looking for a genuinely scary movie that will have you jumping then maybe the strangers will appeal to you, its very rare a movie actually scares or creeps me out but I will admit it happened here & it was refreshing to see a horror movie that used real terror tactics & didn’t rely on cheap gore like so many of the past few years. Its rare a movie like this comes along & if you like horror or even want a thrill then I’d recommend giving this a look, definitely worth watching especially with Halloween coming up.

TAKEN (2008)

Liam Neeson plays a retired government agent (they don’t mention the name of the agency but I’m guessing CIA) his training quickly comes back into play when on a trip to Europe his daughter is kidnapped by a gang of Albanian traffickers based in Paris. He soon learns that he has an extremely small window of time of which to track her down before she disappears forever so he wastes no time in getting to Paris to find her, the film itself wastes no time nor does the story. The action is a fast paced rollercoaster of raw force from Neeson as he fights against the clock. It really is an edge of your seat experience & feels almost like a bourne film but with more meaning in that he’s not just fighting for himself he is fighting for his own family & that’s what makes it so strong. Its not your typical Hollywood movie and I think that’s a good thing because like most European made movies they follow a more structured flow of story & drama, it keeps you guessing along with filling you full of a whole host of emotions. The subject of human trafficking has never really been fully addresses in mainstream movies so I’m sure it will have a huge impact on casual cinemagoers who haven’t seen such movies as “trade” - it’s a grey area of organized crime that movies have avoided for a long time & by featuring it in more mainstream movies it will hopefully promote a greater awareness to people that it does exist, the same way lord of war explored the business or illegal gun running. All in all the movie was an extremely powerful experience with top notch acting from Neeson & an amazingly great story by luc besson that will have you on the edge of the seat with every cliff-hanger moment.. Of which there are a lot of!

“I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.”