It's not perfect, but it still works—still—as a good example of the genre; it's not hard to see, therefore, why it ended up becoming a franchise that continues to this day. [Full review in Spanish].

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 2, 2025

A taut and incredibly gripping horror story that distills its subgenre to its core elements.

| Oct 25, 2024

Not even Bertino’s impressive formal control as a first-time director can make up for how empty the material is and how absurdly familiar the whole thing proves to be

| Original Score: 1/4 | May 19, 2024

A lean and profoundly gripping horror movie that strips the home invasion subgenre down to its bare essential parts to drive home the intimate, primal terror of its premise.

| Oct 20, 2021

[UPDATED 2024 4K + BLU-RAY REVIEW] This anemic “torture porn” thriller isn't scary, just tedious.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Aug 31, 2021

Simple, effective and (most importantly) terrifying.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 30, 2020

It's all admirably restrained and, for the most part, effective.

| Mar 31, 2019

This one's a neat little chiller that creates fear out of the familiar: dark corners in the room, peepholes that show masked figures, walls that are incessantly battered with loud knocks, glass panes that reflect strange images.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 31, 2019

The movie is best before the mayhem actually starts: First-time writer-director Bryan Bertino gets right some priceless details as the couple try to deal with the evening's earlier fallout, and elevates his movie above other horror films.

| Mar 31, 2019

The movie achieves an okay level of tension, especially in the first half, because first-time director Bryan Bertino has absorbed his Texas Chainsaw Massacre lessons well.

| Mar 31, 2019

The formula of calm followed by shock is repeated until one tires of the technical polish of Bryan Bertino's directorial debut (with nods towards Funny Games and the French Them?) in the absence of coherent plot or character development.

| Mar 31, 2019

Some good chills in this intense offering from first-time writer-director Bryan Bertino.

| Original Score: B | Mar 31, 2019

Sometimes evil happens without explanation. Rarely is it shown in such plain, quiet, horrifying fashion. Don't watch this alone.

| Nov 9, 2018

Bertino's directorial smarts are on display from the first slow-cut montage of rural homes glimpsed from the window of a moving car. It's a passage suggesting free-floating, arbitrary menace.

| Mar 9, 2018

But I guess it's just hard for a movie about characters with bags on their heads to have any real teeth.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 21, 2014

Just get comfortable, sit back and smile at the slaughter - unlike Funny Games, at least this is bloodshed you can enjoy.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 14, 2012

Given the two dominant trends in recent American horror -- meat-grinder gore and remakes of Asian films involving creepy pale children -- this nasty but rather tightly made film almost counts as a return to classical virtues. Almost.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 17, 2011

Writer-director Bertino just wants to scare our pants off, and succeeds admirably.

| Aug 15, 2011

The simple 'cat and mouse' premise is given a low-key approach in Bryan Bertino's film, but this minimalist method is both the greatest strength and weakness of the project.

| Jul 14, 2011

There's no better feet-on-the-seat execution for the home-invasion genre than this. "The Strangers" twists the knife with scenes lasting a beat longer than normal to maximize dread and sound design excavating a hole in your cortex and nestling there.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 11, 2010