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When Strangers Appear
Columbia/Tri-Star // R // January 29, 2002
List Price: $29.95 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
Columbia/Tri-Star Home Video has done an admirable job over the past few years of digging into their back catalog and releasing a higher percentage of their stand-out gems than any of the other major studios. Though DVD aficionados have enjoyed some time with some of the best titles in CTHV's library, the unfortunate consequence is that an ever-increasing number of their releases are of the dubious quality of films like When Strangers Appear. In this USA World Premiere Movie-esque thriller, 7th Heaven heartthrob Barry Watson (and, for the record, when I refer to a male as a 'heartthrob', it's from an exterior perspective. No kidding.), following up on the fairly awful Teaching Mrs. Tingle, teams up with up-and-coming Aussie star Radha Mitchell. Just to quell any doubt about what Mitchell's most recent high-profile success happens to be, the film's tagline is "The star of Pitch Black is fighting back!"
That unengaging bit of text isn't a particularly accurate description of the movie, though. Radha Mitchell stars as Beth, who inherited both a diner and a motel in a desolate portion of Oregon from her father. She's desperate to leave this one Starbucks town behind, finding it rather difficult to deal with Dad's death and being sexually assaulted by the local backwater sheriff. It's not unusual for days to pas without a single customer rolling into the remarkably-well-maintained diner. After nearly being run-down during the lengthy walk to work, a crazed driver (Watson) reappears, battered and bruised, inquiring how far 85 cents will go at a restaurant so far off the beaten path. Before he can wolf down the immaculately arranged tomato and eggs, Jack scurries away as three surfers led by Peter (Josh Lucas) roll in during this monumentously busy afternoon. As the surfers impatiently make demands, seemingly incapable of waiting more than eighty nanoseconds for Beth to make a milkshake or grab cream from behind the counter, Jack cowers in the shadows. Wielding a butter knife, Jack whispers to Beth that these are the guys that have been tailing him for the past couple of weeks. Once they're again alone, Beth soon discovers that Jack has spent a fortnight tending to a nasty stab wound, and she turns to a friendly local surgeon who operates out of his own luxurious estate for a bit of help. When she's unable to get in touch with Eric the next morning and the police prove to be less than helpful, Beth finds herself batted between the surfers and Jack, unsure who she can trust.
What a truly generic, uninspired movie this is, though I suppose I should've been able to assume as much from its generic, uninspired title and the box art that actually uses the phrase "deadly game of cat and mouse". Oh, how I wish I were kidding. Much like Harold Becker's Malice, writer/director Scott Reynolds seems far more interested in misdirecting the audience than bothering to actually build anything approximating suspense. Much of what happens throughout the film either makes no sense or remains unexplained. For instance, why did Jack have so much electronic equipment, including a media conversion box of some sort, in his trunk, and what was its significance? If Jack is so terrified by these surfers, is walking alongside a major stretch of road the brightest idea? When Jack is in the police station and forced to open his bag, what's inside that made him so skittish about its discovery? Would the grease monkey at the gas station really be listening to a CD labeled "Junglebeats"? I feel a tinge of guilt spoiling as much as I have, but one portion bugged me so much that I can't resist the temptation to reveal more than I probably should. In the interest of fairness, I'll hide the following text, which you can read by selecting it with your mouse.
It's almost as if the requisite plot twists were conjured up as Reynolds went along rather than the meticulous planning one ought to expect. The MacGuffin in When Strangers Appear is the most clichéd object fathomable -- a compact disc. Apparently to downplay its importance as anything other than just an item to chase after, the Mystery Villain™ spouts off something to the effect of, "Want to know what's on the disc? Nothing much." Okay. The climax is the same as in every single other movie like this, with the heroine fighting for her life and the badnik meeting an explosive, wildly over-the-top demise. The last reel takes place at a gas station, if you'd care to gues what happens. Thankfully for Beth, though, spilled gasoline and ever-present vapors are only selectively combustible. Another unavoidable complaint is that Reynolds does about as spectacular a job of masking that When Strangers Appear was shot in New Zealand as Lucio Fulci when he attempted to pass of portions of Italy for New Orleans in The Beyond. That is to say, not very well-done at all. Though I'm clearly not lavishing When Strangers Appear with praise, this isn't an unwatchable movie. It's just derivative and poorly conceived, and I've seen this carbon copy sort of movie far more times than I'd care to count.
Video: The 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen image is decent enough, though not as stylized or jaw-dropping as the reference quality scope presentation of Mitchell's Pitch Black. Nuisances such as intrusive grain and edge enhancement aren't a concern, and speckling is limited to just a couple of minor sporadic blotches. Colors appear to be accurately reproduced, and in those couple of shots were hues seem a hair off, that's almost certainly due to the way the film was shot and not the transfer. The presentation is reflective of a modestly budgeted film shot in a style that differs slightly from traditional American fare. For the underdwellers, a "standard" 4x3 version is provided on the flip side of the disc.
Audio: The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is similarly okay. This is a movie far more heavily driven by dialogue than action, and accordingly, audio is generally anchored towards the front. The LFE is sufficiently boomy, though it's not called for too often. The rumble of the surfers' car shortly after Beth's visit to the doctor rattled the walls about as much as in any DVD I've watched to date. It's strange that a beat-up automobile skipping down the road would resonate so much more than the large explosions that would follow quite a bit later, but whatever. Dialogue is fine, not buried by other elements of the mix or in any way distorted. Since I've run out of much else to say, I'll just mention the couple of accompanying stereo surround tracks and subtitles in a mind-numbing seven languages. Apparently Columbia/Tri-Star is anticipating worldwide appeal for When Strangers Appear.
Supplements: Apparently there are trailers for the feature and four recommended CTHV stalk-'n-slash titles. When I tried to view the trailer for When Strangers Appear, I got an error that the video wasn't in NTSC and therefore not viewable on my player. More than 400 discs have made the rounds in my player, and that's definitely a first. Other than that, the only other extra is a filmography.
Conclusion: When Strangers Appear might make for an adequate passive experience, but I wouldn't say it's worth staying up to watch on Showtime, and it's absolutely not worth the hefty list price of $29.95. There are hundreds of movies with the same basic premise executed infinitely better, and there's little reason to bother with this.
Semi-Random Aside: I've gotten a couple of e-mails about reviews that are decidedly negative, but followed by a 'Rent It' recommendation. Obviously in the case of When Strangers Appear, I'm not actually recommending it as a rental. I guess I should explain the logic behind that, even though I'm sure it seems as if there is none. Around a year ago, I adopted the same policy as G. Noel Gross when it comes to less than spectacular movies and DVDs, refusing to outright recommend that people skip a movie. Still, I'm obligated to select one of the five stock recommendations here at DVD Talk, and 'Rent It' is the second most negative. I see the text of my reviews as much more important than arbitrarily selected star ratings and the like, and I try to make them more meaningful than whatever a two-word summary might offer.
That unengaging bit of text isn't a particularly accurate description of the movie, though. Radha Mitchell stars as Beth, who inherited both a diner and a motel in a desolate portion of Oregon from her father. She's desperate to leave this one Starbucks town behind, finding it rather difficult to deal with Dad's death and being sexually assaulted by the local backwater sheriff. It's not unusual for days to pas without a single customer rolling into the remarkably-well-maintained diner. After nearly being run-down during the lengthy walk to work, a crazed driver (Watson) reappears, battered and bruised, inquiring how far 85 cents will go at a restaurant so far off the beaten path. Before he can wolf down the immaculately arranged tomato and eggs, Jack scurries away as three surfers led by Peter (Josh Lucas) roll in during this monumentously busy afternoon. As the surfers impatiently make demands, seemingly incapable of waiting more than eighty nanoseconds for Beth to make a milkshake or grab cream from behind the counter, Jack cowers in the shadows. Wielding a butter knife, Jack whispers to Beth that these are the guys that have been tailing him for the past couple of weeks. Once they're again alone, Beth soon discovers that Jack has spent a fortnight tending to a nasty stab wound, and she turns to a friendly local surgeon who operates out of his own luxurious estate for a bit of help. When she's unable to get in touch with Eric the next morning and the police prove to be less than helpful, Beth finds herself batted between the surfers and Jack, unsure who she can trust.
What a truly generic, uninspired movie this is, though I suppose I should've been able to assume as much from its generic, uninspired title and the box art that actually uses the phrase "deadly game of cat and mouse". Oh, how I wish I were kidding. Much like Harold Becker's Malice, writer/director Scott Reynolds seems far more interested in misdirecting the audience than bothering to actually build anything approximating suspense. Much of what happens throughout the film either makes no sense or remains unexplained. For instance, why did Jack have so much electronic equipment, including a media conversion box of some sort, in his trunk, and what was its significance? If Jack is so terrified by these surfers, is walking alongside a major stretch of road the brightest idea? When Jack is in the police station and forced to open his bag, what's inside that made him so skittish about its discovery? Would the grease monkey at the gas station really be listening to a CD labeled "Junglebeats"? I feel a tinge of guilt spoiling as much as I have, but one portion bugged me so much that I can't resist the temptation to reveal more than I probably should. In the interest of fairness, I'll hide the following text, which you can read by selecting it with your mouse.
| At one point, beth and another character enter the surgeon's home, expecting the worst. This character is genuinely spooked as he goes from room to room and is horrified by a grisly discovery. Though this character is later revealed as the murder and is entirely nonchalant around Eric's bloodied corpse, I can't think of any conceivable reason why he would exhibit that sort of fear and disgust if no one is able to see whatever expression he might have. |
It's almost as if the requisite plot twists were conjured up as Reynolds went along rather than the meticulous planning one ought to expect. The MacGuffin in When Strangers Appear is the most clichéd object fathomable -- a compact disc. Apparently to downplay its importance as anything other than just an item to chase after, the Mystery Villain™ spouts off something to the effect of, "Want to know what's on the disc? Nothing much." Okay. The climax is the same as in every single other movie like this, with the heroine fighting for her life and the badnik meeting an explosive, wildly over-the-top demise. The last reel takes place at a gas station, if you'd care to gues what happens. Thankfully for Beth, though, spilled gasoline and ever-present vapors are only selectively combustible. Another unavoidable complaint is that Reynolds does about as spectacular a job of masking that When Strangers Appear was shot in New Zealand as Lucio Fulci when he attempted to pass of portions of Italy for New Orleans in The Beyond. That is to say, not very well-done at all. Though I'm clearly not lavishing When Strangers Appear with praise, this isn't an unwatchable movie. It's just derivative and poorly conceived, and I've seen this carbon copy sort of movie far more times than I'd care to count.
Video: The 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen image is decent enough, though not as stylized or jaw-dropping as the reference quality scope presentation of Mitchell's Pitch Black. Nuisances such as intrusive grain and edge enhancement aren't a concern, and speckling is limited to just a couple of minor sporadic blotches. Colors appear to be accurately reproduced, and in those couple of shots were hues seem a hair off, that's almost certainly due to the way the film was shot and not the transfer. The presentation is reflective of a modestly budgeted film shot in a style that differs slightly from traditional American fare. For the underdwellers, a "standard" 4x3 version is provided on the flip side of the disc.
Audio: The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is similarly okay. This is a movie far more heavily driven by dialogue than action, and accordingly, audio is generally anchored towards the front. The LFE is sufficiently boomy, though it's not called for too often. The rumble of the surfers' car shortly after Beth's visit to the doctor rattled the walls about as much as in any DVD I've watched to date. It's strange that a beat-up automobile skipping down the road would resonate so much more than the large explosions that would follow quite a bit later, but whatever. Dialogue is fine, not buried by other elements of the mix or in any way distorted. Since I've run out of much else to say, I'll just mention the couple of accompanying stereo surround tracks and subtitles in a mind-numbing seven languages. Apparently Columbia/Tri-Star is anticipating worldwide appeal for When Strangers Appear.
Supplements: Apparently there are trailers for the feature and four recommended CTHV stalk-'n-slash titles. When I tried to view the trailer for When Strangers Appear, I got an error that the video wasn't in NTSC and therefore not viewable on my player. More than 400 discs have made the rounds in my player, and that's definitely a first. Other than that, the only other extra is a filmography.
Conclusion: When Strangers Appear might make for an adequate passive experience, but I wouldn't say it's worth staying up to watch on Showtime, and it's absolutely not worth the hefty list price of $29.95. There are hundreds of movies with the same basic premise executed infinitely better, and there's little reason to bother with this.
Semi-Random Aside: I've gotten a couple of e-mails about reviews that are decidedly negative, but followed by a 'Rent It' recommendation. Obviously in the case of When Strangers Appear, I'm not actually recommending it as a rental. I guess I should explain the logic behind that, even though I'm sure it seems as if there is none. Around a year ago, I adopted the same policy as G. Noel Gross when it comes to less than spectacular movies and DVDs, refusing to outright recommend that people skip a movie. Still, I'm obligated to select one of the five stock recommendations here at DVD Talk, and 'Rent It' is the second most negative. I see the text of my reviews as much more important than arbitrarily selected star ratings and the like, and I try to make them more meaningful than whatever a two-word summary might offer.
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