The Strangers: Collector's Edition - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Strangers: Collector's Edition



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:




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Movie
The idea of home invasion thrillers being a big thing wasn’t really fully released in the 20th century. Sure, we had films like Last House on the Left, but the idea of being at home and having people break into your house and mess with you before trying to kill you has been more of a recent phenomena. Movies like You’re Next (one of my favorites), Jackals, When a Stranger Calls and the The Purge (the original, not the sequels), only got their start due to the runaway success of a 2008 film called The Strangers. Bryan Bertoni had just gotten a grant for his third screenwriting gig, and was also given full control in the director’s chair as well. Shooting it on a $9 million budget, Bertoni raked in sizable $81 million during it’s theatrical run, and restarted the current trend of home invasion thrillers being a part of the horror genre.

The Strangers is actually a REALLY disturbing and dark film. For an 85 minute theatrical release (and an 87 minute unrated cut, which really doesn’t add much), it moves along at a breakneck pace, filing the viewer with despair, terror and an unmistakable sense of dread with a shocking ending that even left me a bit grossed out in the theaters. The plot is SUPER simple. James (Scott Speedman) and Kristen (Liv Tyler) have just gotten back to James’ cabin in a rural town after a HUGE fight at a wedding. The cause of their strife is shown pretty quickly (but I’ll let the film reveal it instead of spoiling, as the reason isn’t really something to worry about), and the two are getting ready to go their separate ways. That is, until the two hear a knock at the door and a young girl asking for a stranger arrives. Sending the woman away, the duo don’t realize that they have just opened the door for an utter nightmare.

Soon the two notice something is up. Kristen seems something outside, only to realize that the door is locked and the phone wires have been cut. A mysterious trio of masked figures being to taunt and torture (mentally) James and Kristen, driving them further and further to insanity as their cut off every avenue of escape and bring them closer and closer to the inevitable (and gruesome) goal.

The film is slow to build, but once it gets going with the mysterious invaders, it doesn’t slow down until the credits roll (literally). Kristen and James are forced into their most primal mode of “fight or flight”, and turning a simple evening into a night of terror. What makes it so palpable and “real”, is the fact that this technically could, and does, happen quite often. Coming from a family with police officers in them, I’ve seen the reports of people invading a home, trying up the family, and slaughtering them all for the fun of it. Kristen and James act like REAL people (for the most part), and use a mixture of logical, and illogical (based upon their emotional state) actions, which result in a helter skelter approach to the pacing. Actions are vicious and short, without long, drawn out, fight scenes, and the ending of the movie is so short and needless that it makes one sick to their stomach.

I’m not a huge Scott Speedman fan for the most part, this and Animal Kingdom have given him some street cred for having SOME acting chops. Both he and Tyler are very believable as a terrified couple fighting for their lives. The only problem is the fact that, like many horror movies, there are a few leaps of logic in the villain’s methods and it sometimes brought me out of the movie (the usual, “hey, how did they do that? That doesn’t make sense!” moments). Still, this was THE movie that shocked cinemas nationwide, and brought a whole new sub genre to the horror market alive. It’s brutal, short, visceral, and actually realistic enough to make the horror stem from the fact that something LIKE this could actually happen.




Rating:

Rated R for violence/terror and language




4K Video: Video:

The Strangers was originally release by Universal back at the beginning (ish) of the format war, and like many Blu-rays of that day it was given a mediocre encode using the old VC-1 codec on a BD-25 single layer disc. Scream Factory’s 2018 Blu-ray fixed that by giving it a fresh remaster from a 2K scan of the OCN. Fast forward another 6 years and Scream has gone back to the same Camera Negative and given it a fresh native 4K scan to see how much more improvement we can get. End result? Well, we can eek out a bit better looking image, pushing the heavily stylized and DARK (I must reiterate, DARK) look that Bertino was going for. Sure, there’s still that black crush and amber/yellow hue that is so prevalent in the master, but it’s a bit more refined, with cleaner looking blacks, no banding, and a very natural grain structure. Fine details look good, but due to the darker look to the film, and strong presence of grain, the upgrade is very good, but not going to make it a shiny new looking film or anything. I’d put this as nuanced fine tuning of the Scream Factory Blu-ray image that we got a few years back, with less artifacting and cleaner background delineation. The film is never going to look much better than it is now as this is exactly how Bertino shot it, and Scream Factory does a solid job replicating that look here and preserving it.








Audio:

This is the exact same 5.1 DTS-HD MA audio mix that Shout/Scream put on their collector's edition Blu-ray back in 2018, thus my thoughts wil remain the same as they did in 2018. Scream Factory has followed their predictable pattern of putting on the original 5.1 track in DTS-HD MA, as well as a 2.0 DTS-HD MA track for night listening, with my focus going on the 5.1 track. It sounds like Scream is using the same 5.1 DTS-HD MA track that the Universal release was renowned for. Channel separation is excellent, with the knocks on the door shocking the listener up from an otherwise languid listening experience during the first 25 minutes. After that the tense music fill out the surround speakers, and the shuffling and scraping of the invaders in the surrounds is pinpoint accurate. LFE is deep and throaty, adding weight to the shotgun blasts, as well as filling up the score with some nice low end. Dialog is crisp and well defined, anchored firmly up front in the center channel, and the mains make use of some really nice panning effects as James and Kristen struggle to hear where there tormentors are coming from.









Extras:

4K UHD Disc
• New 4K Remaster from the OCN

Blu-ray: Theatrical
• "The Element Of Terror" Featurette
• "Strangers At The Door" Featurette
• Deleted Scenes
• Theatrical Trailer & TV Spots

Blu-ray: Unrated
• "Defining Moments: Writing And Directing The Strangers"
• "All The Right Moves: Kip Weeks On Playing The Man In The Mask"
• "Brains And Brawn: Laura Margolis On Playing Pin-Up Girl"
• "Deep Cuts: Kevin Greutert On Editing The Strangers"
• Still Gallery

Final Score: ​

Looking back to when I reviewed this on Blu-ray, I have to say that he film still holds up. It isn’t the perfect horror movie, but it’s a very effective home invasion thriller that director Bryan Bertino is pretty much known for (the sequel is kinda “meh”). The 4K UHD upgrade is pretty solid, but only in the video department, as the new 4K remaster is the primary pull considering the same audio mix and extras found on the previous Scream Factory collector’s edition are present. Like I said before, if you have the old Universal disc, this is a very solid upgrade and includes a ton of juicy extras. If you have the Scream Factory collector’s edition from 6 years ago, then it’s less of an upgrade except for the video, but still probably the best version available. Good watch.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, Gemma Ward
Directed by: Bryan Bertino
Written by: Bryan Bertino
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Scream Factory
Rated: R
Runtime: 85 minutes (Theatrical) / 87 minutes (unrated)
Blu-Ray Release Date: September 10th, 2024

Recommendation: Good Watch

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

I remember waiting for this to come out, thinking it looked amazing, and then being utterly disappointed when I finally saw it. I don't remember much else about it.

 

[Todd Anderson]

I vaguely remember thinking it was decent, but not great. Scream Factory is doing an awesome job pumping these refreshed versions out. Love it!

 

[Michael Scott]

I vaguely remember thinking it was decent, but not great. Scream Factory is doing an awesome job pumping these refreshed versions out. Love it!

yeah, it wasn't a GREAT movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it was definitely creepy.