I’ve mentioned this before, but the horror genre really is experiencing a renaissance. The slasher film is once more falling by the wayside, alas, but that’s a personal preference and not a big deal in the scheme of things. Plus, it always comes back to life.[1] My point, though, was that once or twice a year since earlier this decade, I’ll watch a mainstream, theatrically released horror film, and it will be scary. Which seems like it should be trivial, given the genre, but I mostly don’t get scared by demons and zombies and the like anymore, and my enjoyment for those kinds of movies is in the amusement value instead.

The Strangers falls solidly into the genuinely scary category, and all the more so because of its stark simplicity. A couple goes to a family vacation home in the woods late at night, and are terrorized by three people in masks who are always one step ahead of them in realistic ways, despite the couple not doing very many unrealistically stupid things while trying to figure out what is going on and protect themselves. The result is building, unrelenting tension that lasts until almost the final frame. Which, yeah, is what I’m looking for in my horror movie. So, yay, this one, and yay renaissance.

[1] I know, right?