The Strangers : Shropshire Star:

Attack is often the best form of defence but what happens when you are faced with protecting the people you love from a faceless adversary without scruples or motive? How do you fight back against someone, unmoved by emotion, whose sole aim is to inflict the most unimaginable pain? The Strangers imagines the battle of wits between a young couple and three masked strangers who invade their home in the dead of night.

For the first hour, writer-director Bryan Bertino’s debut feature is a riveting edge of seat thriller, cranking up the suspense until our knuckles are white with fear.

We watch with mounting dread as the couple creeps around the house, eyes wide and breathing laboured, unaware that the tormentors are hovering in the shadows.

Ambient sound effects such as a creaking floorboard or the distant barking of a dog heighten our unease.

A deafening knock at the door breaks the agonising silence and causes us to jump out of our skins as the nightmarish game of cat and mouse reaches its brutal climax, with the couple pleading for their lives.

‘Why are you doing this to us?’ whimpers the female victim.

‘Because you were home,’ coldly replies one of her attackers.

The Strangers opens with Kristen McKay (Liv Tyler) and her boyfriend James Hoyt (Scott Speedman) fleeing a friend’s wedding reception early.

Rose petals strewn throughout each room of their brick ranch house and an engagement ring burning a hole in James’ pocket confirm our worst fears.

‘Things didn’t work out the way I’d planned,’ whispers James in a voicemail for his best friend, Mike (Glenn Howerton), ‘I’m going to need you to come out here to get me.’ The couple sits awkwardly, raking over the dying embers of the relationship, until an urgent knock at the door.

‘Is Tamara here?’ asks a young woman, who subsequently disappears into the night, perhaps to visit a neighbouring house.

While Kristen runs a bath to unwind, James drives to the local store to pick up cigarettes.

Meanwhile, three figures - Dollface (Gemma Ward), The Man In The Mask (Kip Weeks) and Pin-Up Girl (Laura Margolis) - encircle the property, preparing to break in…

The Strangers is an impressive first effort from Bertino, demonstrating considerable restraint in terms of the lean script and direction.

Dialogue and incidental music are used sparingly, relying on emotionally wrought performances from the two leads to plunge us into the midst of this living hell.

Tension dissipates once best friend Mike arrives and the film’s logic buckles noticeably to ensure Kristen ends up back in the house, at the mercy of the deadly trio for the gratuitously violent finale, rather than running down the drive for help.

The identities of the attackers are never revealed, enacting their despicable plan almost without exchanging a single word, except for a chilling final remark.

‘It’ll be easier next time.’