Here is a movie that I really wanted to see in theaters but never got a chance to due to some unexpected life changes that hit on the very same day that the movie was to open, those changes being the decision by my wife to file for divorce, a divorce she wanted after receiving a double lung transplant, one which the two of us had been looking forward to for a long time, our fingers always crossed, and one which she always said would be the real start to our marriage given that shortly after we were married her health started to go downhill fast making it so we never really got to play the newlywed game.  Once the transplant happened, however, her family convinced her to get a fresh start on life, one that didn’t include me, and not wanting to stress her out because stress could cause rejection I signed the papers and gave her a nice easy

divorce.  So, needless to say, going out and seeing The Strangers got put on the backburners for a while and by the time I remembered that I wanted to see the movie, it wasn’t in theaters anymore, not even the dollar theater just down the street, one which my little brother and I had visited in late 2007 to see The Mist, which scared the crap out of him.  Several months passed and eventually the movie went to DVD, which I rented on New Years Eve knowing that I would have the house to myself for the night since my little brother was still in Iraq and my parents were going to a party (I moved in with them after my divorce because there was no way I could afford my own place).  I suppose I could have gone to the party with my parents, but I really didn’t feel like doing that, my mind wishing I could go back in time to the New Years a year earlier where my brother and I stayed up all night, one which happened to be three weeks shy of that wonderful phone call telling me that they had found lungs for my wife.  Anyway, I got home from a closing shift at work two hours before the countdown, which gave me plenty of time to watch the movie, which I started pretty quickly, a pizza from work and a soda from the fridge ready to go.    

The Strangers was a great horror movie, one which didn’t rely on endless buckets of blood and guts to get the viewers attention and probably had many theater audiences holding their breaths and hesitating to snack on concession items because they knew something was going to happen but didn’t know when, an event that rarely let up in a timely fashion once it did happen.  They did such a nice job with this one that I actually got chilled while watching it and even shouted once when one of my cats made a surprise leap into my lap (several months later when my brother was finally home from Iraq he too thought the movie was incredibly scary, the first real terrifying, bloodless thriller since Vacancy in his opinion, which I may have to agree with).  Even better, they are making a sequel, one which I will make sure to see in theaters.

Now, in the beginning of this movie they stated that it was a true story, but having done some reading on the web it seems the only truth to the story is that a stranger once started knocking on the door of the director in the middle of the  

night when he was younger asking for someone who didn’t live there and then disappeared.  Later it was found out that a home (or several homes, I don’t remember) were burglarized that night.  That said, I’m sure one could find a story similar to what is depicted in the, but as far as I can tell this movie doesn’t reallytell any specific story.  Don’t let that dissuade you from renting it, however.  It is a great horror movie, one of the best to come out in recent years, and deserves to be watched.