The Strangers
Blu-ray (Collector’s Edition)
Director: Bryan Bertino
Screenwriter: Bryan Bertino
Cast: Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, Glenn Howerton, Gemma Ward
Distributor: Scream Factory
R/Unrated | 86/91 Minutes
Release Date: March 6, 2018

2008’s The Strangers, written and directed by Bryan Bertino, was inspired by two real-life events: the Tate murders, a series of killings carried out by members of the Manson Family in 1969; and a string of break-ins that occurred in the Texas filmmaker’s neighborhood as a child. One night, while his parents were out, somebody knocked on the front door of Bertino’s house, and his little sister answered it. The strangers on the doorstep were asking for someone who didn’t live there. Later, Bertino found out that these uninvited guests would knock on doors throughout the area; if no one was home, they would vandalize the property and take what they wanted.

As for the mask-wearing, knife-wielding sickos in The Strangers, the fact that someone’s home doesn’t discourage the intruders; it emboldens them. After a long night at a friend’s wedding reception, James (Scott Speedman, Underworld) and Kristen (Liv Tyler, The Lord of the Rings trilogy) return to James’ childhood summer home in rural South Carolina. Just after 4 a.m., there’s a knock at the door. A young blonde woman (Gemma Ward), whose face is obscured by shadow, asks for Tamara. When James tells her that she has the wrong house, the woman leaves with an unsettling utterance: “See you later.”

This week’s Blu-ray deal over at Amazon is the Underworld Trilogy for only $26.99 (that’s 55% off the list price of $59.95).

The deal is valid through Saturday, January 29, 2011.

The Blu-ray set contains all three films: Underworld, Underworld: Evolution, and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, all of which starred Kate Beckinsale in the role of the vampire Selene.

The Strangers
Unrated Edition
Directed by Bryan Bertino
Starring Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman
Universal Home Entertainment
Release date:

Two Mormon boys riding their bikes through an eerily isolated neighborhood handing out religious pamphlets chance upon a house with its front door hanging open suspended in place by the occasional wind. Wanting to satisfy their curiosity the boys decide to take a peek inside the house, a decision they will certainly come to regret in the years to come for what their prying eyes and immature minds fall upon will forever scar their adolescent souls. Before them they bear witness to a literal house of horrors their parents never prepared them for: several dead bodies bearing traces of chilling brutality lay sprawled on the floors of the hallway and living room; a butcher knife soaked in blood sitting on a plain white kitchen countertop; a spent shotgun resting all by its lonesome on a floor like it never stood a chance; and the most telling and haunting image of all — lovely red rose petals strewn about the house in a display of love that was savagely displaced by the complete absence of any emotion over the course of one horrifying night. This is the same image that will come back to us at the end. It is a nightmare from which we can never fully awake.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the world of The Strangers.