Jamie
For some reason in my head the second Strangers movie was very well received, while the first one was kind of a squandered opportunity. So I had no idea I would actually be recapping and reviewing this film. Wasn’t this a well received film? No. In fact it is perfectly at our threshold for qualification. So perhaps one day we’ll look back on this film and chuckle about what a waste of time it was to recap the film as it so clearly does not qualify having achieved 50 good reviews out of 125… that’s just one more good review, BTW. And, spoiler alert, if I had it my way and BMT was a nationally recognized contributor to RottenTomatoes, then, indeed, this would not qualify any longer.
To recap, Cindy and Mike are struggling with their daughter Kinsey. She’s a girl on the wrong track and they are sending her to boarding school. Or are they? Not so fast, because once they arrive in Cindy’s uncle’s semi-abandoned trailer park they are in The Strangers’ world. Dollface, Pin-up Girl and Masky or whatever are going to kill them… and that’s basically what happens. Kinsey and her brother Luke go off on a walk and discover the aunt and uncle murdered. They’re totally grossed out and get their dad. Luke and Mike go off to figure out what’s going on and Cindy and Kinsey are attacked. Cindy helps Kinsey get out of there and is murdered. Strangers! Luke and Mike escape Masky and find Cindy dead. While searching for Kinsey they are attacked and Luke gets away while Mike is murdered. Strangers! Luke and Kinsey are now on their own and run to the general store where they try to call 911. Luke is badly injured, but the kids are starting to kill some of the Strangers too. Strangers! The police arrive but are killed. Strangers! Kinsey kills one of them. Strangers! Masky is basically Michael Myers and won’t be killed. Not yet Strangers! But then he’s killed. Strangers! Kinsey and Luke live and the stranger die (or do they? (don’t ask me)). THE END
I thought this was a fun movie. The climactic pool scene in particular I found to be very visually engaging (you taking notes, Night Swim?). What a whirlwind it was watching these two movies. I didn’t even really like the first (and best reviewed, it turns out) The Strangers film. I can see why actors found it interesting. It starts like a drama and then dives into the horror and you’re thinking “oh wow, does this have to do with that drama?” The answer is obviously “no” dummy. The movie is called The STRANGERS. The point ends up being that they are doing it for funsies. But I guess that’s where I kind of throw my hands up. So the drama is meaningless and the kills are also meaningless. So it’s all just a trumped up regular slasher film? Anyway, I didn’t much care for it, although I got some chills from it. The sequel, though, as I said, was much more polished. I thought it looked great and I do think it smoothed a bit more of the theme of the films. People with drama aren’t thinking clearly and get themselves into weird situations. These situations are where The Strangers strike because all it takes is for you to be alone. No other reason. I liked it.
Hot Take Clam Bake! Splurge for a Holiday Inn, dummies. I know you want to see your uncle in his creepy abandoned trailer park, but also… continental breakfast? Ever heard of it? In fact, why doesn’t your uncle make a day of it? Date night at the Holiday Inn. Money’s tight, I get it. You have the unexpected cost of sending your problem child to boarding school. You know what’s financially prudent? A Holiday Inn. Do you know what’s not? Getting killed in an abandoned trailer park. Hot Take Temperature: Full Body Burn.
Patrick?
Patrick
‘Ello everyone! *Gif of me in a totally spooky mask and creeping around the woods.* Let’s go!
Fun fact: We didn’t realize this qualified until after we watched it. So now I’m begrudgingly writing about a movie I didn’t really plan on having to remember stuff about.
The Good? Out of the three movies I think this one had the most interesting stuff in it. The first had issues where I just thought they acted dumb and in general they were kind of unpleasant. This one had a few good set pieces (like the swimming pool) and in general I think the final girl ended up being much better. I don’t particularly like horror in general, but this was on the okay side.
The Bad? Franchises like this I think are just lame. They have three bad guys from the first one and then don’t really add anything? In a way they dare the viewer to wonder if any of them will be killed (they are). But still, unlike Freddy, they really don’t have a personality. In fact, the series draws some of its eeriness from the explicit face that they _don’t_ have personality despite intriguing masks. It doesn’t really work beyond the first movie, they should have had totally different bad guys in my opinion.
The BMT? I don’t think any of the franchise really transcends what it is, which is a mostly brainless series of jumpscares.
I had two additional idea on how to pull out images from a batch process accurately. The first was last time (just a number, seemed to work). My second idea was a hash. Well that also worked:
The issue is that it couldn’t quite translate the hashes properly (in that it would mix up the letters). I have a feeling it would also be a problem with using imdb stubs (the next test) or large indices, but that would need to be for a larger test.
Dumb Bad Guy Names (Who?) goes to Pin-up Girl and Doll Face, just terrible horror film villain names. According to Wikipedia this is a Setting as a Character (Where?) for somewhere in Ohio. And a Worst Twist (How?) for the final scene which (much like the third film) teases that she is going to be attacked again in the hospital, but that doesn’t seem like it is going to be resolved. The film is Bad I think, but a lot of that is just that I don’t like horror films, so it has to be very BMT or very Good to get my vote for that.
I guess we’ll probably learn about dumb masks or something in the Quiz. Cheerios,
The Sklogs
Bad Movie Twins 