The Strangers
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Listen Up: "The Strangers" by St. Vincent
For a couple of weeks now, I haven't been able to get the phrase "paint the black hole blacker" out of my head, and it's all because of St. Vincent. The singer — actual name Annie Clark — releases her sophomore album, Actor, today, and that line comes from the ethereal first track, "The Strangers."
Does "Based on True Events" Make You More Interested in a Scary Movie?
This weekend's release of The Haunting in Connecticut is supposedly based on the story of a real-life family that moved into a home only to find that it was formerly a funeral parlor and is now haunted.
When horror flicks are advertised as fictionalizing "true events," it inevitably sends me to the Internet for some answers. A lot of the time it turns out to be a pretty nebulous claim like in the case of The Strangers, which was marketed as being "inspired by a true story" but that turned out to be only semi-accurate.
What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday
All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue.
The Incredible Hulk
Last Summer I predicted that The Incredible Hulk might be the season's forgotten superhero movie, nestled as it was between the releases of Iron Man and The Dark Knight, and not having quite the existing fan base that Hellboy II did.
BuzzSugar's Must Haves For October
I love the Fall and October is the best, what with the changing leaves and Halloween and all. It's also a great time of year for entertainment, so I didn't have any trouble digging up some must-have items for my list. I've included an artist who should definitely be on in the background when the weather gets cold, a funny book to read by the fire (or heater), a scary movie to watch in the safety of your own home (with candy), and very cool TV-to-DVD choices.
Box Office: Kung Fu Panda Chops the Competition
Po the panda and friends kicked some box office butt this weekend, winning the No. 1 spot handily with an estimated $60 million over the weekend. Kung Fu Panda is the second-best opening DreamWorks Animation has ever had behind Shrek the Third.
The Strangers: Slow and Steady Gets the Scare
The Strangers director Bryan Bertino takes a simple storyline based in reality ("inspired," in fact, by true events) and tells it with such careful realism that our own basic human terror, usually lying dormant within us, rises inescapably to the surface. He has figured out a perfectly lethal recipe for horror movie success: take a large dose of realism, add a few scary things and then patiently wait for the fear to rise.
This movie is a great example of a horror/suspense film done well.
Movie Preview: The Strangers
I'm currently working on my full review of The Strangers, starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman but I'll go ahead and tell you now: it's so scary! I'm posting the full trailer here today to get you scary movie fans pumped up, and to remind you that there are some cool, smaller movies making their way into theaters nowadays besides the big blockbusters.
But OMG I cannot even watch this trailer!
First Look: Liv Tyler in The Strangers
Apparently this trailer is R-rated, though I can't say I see much of anything too racy in it. The preview for the horror film The Strangers, does get pretty scary toward the end, though, and I like both her and Scott Speedman, so I'll be interested to see this film when it comes out in October.
The plot outline is pretty basic: "A young couple cozied up in a vacation home are terrorized by three unknown assailants."
Other Search Results
Fox to Marry Strangers on Reality Show
Oh, Fox. The network that kept it classy with Married by America is at it again, this time cooking up a reality show in which couples don't meet till the moment they say their vows.
The show — aptly and honestly called I Married a Stranger — takes one single person fed up with the dating scene and presents his or her friends and family with a set of six possible suitors.
Strangers with Candy Crew Reunites . . . For Kids
I wouldn't exactly name Strangers with Candy, the 1999 Comedy Central series, as an example of child-friendly fare. And if I were looking to make an actual after-school special — not a Strangers-style spoof — I don't think creator Paul Dinello and star Amy Sedaris would be the first people I'd call.
But Nickelodeon is apparently way, way cooler than I am: The network has hired Dinello to direct Gym Teacher: The Movie, which will air on Nick in September.
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