The Strangers Movie Review

From Sam Peckinpah’s “Straw Dogs” to Michael Haneke’s “Funny Games,” the home-invasion thriller has proved adept at eliciting the fear and dislocation that accompany the violation of our most sacred space.

“The Strangers” is no exception, raising the stakes with a bloody preview of the ending before flashing back to the horrors that precede it. But this is no splatter movie: spare, suspenseful and brilliantly invested in silence, Bryan Bertino’s debut feature unfolds in a slow crescendo of intimidation as a young couple (Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman, both terrific) arrive at a country getaway after a friend’s wedding.

While navigating a tense crossroads in their relationship, the pair are interrupted by a sinister threesome whose identities and motivations are concealed. Alternately innocent and threatening, the intruders bang on the door and manifest as masked, blurred shapes behind the unwitting lovers. But even as the campaign of terror escalates, the movie remains levelheaded, smartly maintaining its commitment to tingling creepiness over bludgeoning horror.

Claiming inspiration from true events, “The Strangers” builds tension with tiny details — a moved cellphone, a looping song on the record player — and empathy with victims whose intimacy is affectingly real. Like Nimród Antal’s recent “Vacancy,” this highly effective chiller suggests that a relationship in extremis is the most honest of all.