I may be a bit generous in giving The Strangers 3 nanas, but you know...I did like it. It's a fairly simple story line - a couple goes to a vacation house in the middle of the night when some masked folks start effing with them. Terror ensues.
One of the things that struck me about this film (and similarly, Ils) was the lack of character development on either side of the spectrum. As an audience, we're exposed to very little back story on our couple. It's evident from the get go that there is some tension between them, and we get to see a handful of flashbacks, but it is bare bones at best. I think it's the sort of awkwardness of the situation that adds to atmosphere once the creepy stuff starts happening. The creepy stuff, by the way, was something else I enjoyed. Sure, there is a definitive suspension of belief that three people can randomly pick a house and be able to maneuver about as if they built it themselves, but hey, who cares? I like to think that crazy people have some sort of super crazy powers anyway, so mental blueprints of a property they've just been staking out seems entirely feasible to me.
A complaint I read quite often about this film is how it's not an original idea. Well, what the hell is? We live in the decade of remakes, and people want to complain about a fairly common fear being revisioned for a film? How about all the good Asian flicks being made into 'merican versions, hmm? That seems like a much better complaint to have. (I may be biased, considering my grumpy disposition to remakes.)
Anyway, I did enjoy this film right down to the really uncomfortable ending. (That sounds messed up. I didn't enjoy the ending per se, but the rest was good.)