Strangers, The (Blu-ray)

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Video:

Universal Pictures presents "The Strangers" in its theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The Blu-ray disc is mastered at 1080p resolution and uses the VC-1 codec to bring the picture to the small screen. With most of the film taking place at night and in poorly lit situations, I was surprised at how good the picture looks and just how strong the black levels are. There is a stunning amount of detail in this film and the picture holds up through the entire experience. I´m going to be completely honest and state that I can´t think of any other film that is this dark and this detailed. Colors are dull by design and you´d be hard pressed to find anything other than a few rose petals that are brightly colored. There are tons of browns, blacks and off-whites in "The Strangers." The high level of detail is strongly aided by a very clean set of source materials. There isn´t a blemish to be found and I´m still stunned at how incredible this low-budget film looks.

Audio:

Audio for "The Strangers" is delivered by an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that begins with a strong .1 LFE bass presence in the opening titles and then effectively uses its minimalistic sound to provide tension and this is most effective during the first half of the film. The heavy knocks on the door reverberate very nicely and you can hear things such as wind chimes in the distance. Screams and shrill sounds are terrifying in sound and that is impressive. There is a lot of depth to this mix and the soundtrack is as impressive as the film´s visuals. The musical score by Tomandandy is very effective and carries through all channels to add even more character to the film. While the story isn´t all that impressive, the sound quality is and part of my enjoyment of the film definitely stems from the sound design.

Extras:

The packaging states that "The Strangers" is really "2 Movies in 1" and this references the fact that the Blu-ray disc contains the Unrated Extended Edition of the film and the Theatrical Version. Upon booting the disc, a menu is provided to select either version of the film, but the interactive menu allows you to switch at your convenience after making this selection. There is roughly five minutes of additional footage and the only thing I could find during a cursory search was additional footage near the ending. I won´t spoil what I found. The disc is also equipped with BD-Live functionality, and will allow for downloading of trailers and other promotional footage. I admittedly have not had much luck with the BD-Live and am beginning to miss the way HD-DVD handled this type of content.

The film itself has two bonus materials attached to the disc. The first are two Deleted Scenes. "James Reflects at the Bar" (2:38) finds the lead character having more hard ships at the fact that his girlfriend rejected his marriage proposal and I´m assuming this took place before they came home. "Bathroom Discussion" (2:13) spends a little more time between the main characters once they got home from the wedding reception. The quality of these scenes is quite bad and looks like it came from a VHS tape. Finally, The Elements of Terror (9:18) is a promotional fluff piece that tries to push the new ´terror´ approach to the genre and tries to advertise the film as being far more capable and original than it really is.

Closing:

The best part of "The Strangers" is how incredible it sounds. The director and his team of sound editors and designers have crafted together one of the best sounding horror films ever. The visuals are also very impressive given the low lighting. This is a tour-de-force in audio and visual presentation and that about makes up for the shortcomings in the story. There aren´t many bonus materials to add to the value and given the ´middle-of-the-road´ nature of the film, this is one of those titles that is hard to recommend as a purchase. However, if you love horror films and have a home theater setup that can produce killer sound, then "The Strangers" might just be worth checking out. I fell in love with the sound of this film, but not the film itself. I give it a passing grade, but not by much.

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