Fear prevents James (Scott Speedman) and Kristen (Liv Tyler) from answering the door in The Strangers.

Rogue pictures / glenn watson

For his debut feature film, writer-director Bryan Bertino set out to do nothing more than scare the pants off an audience.

For most of The Strangers, about a couple who is terrorized late one night in a secluded house by three mask-wearing strangers, he succeeds wildly. Then reality sets in with a thud at the end.

But until then Bertino uses foreboding music (recorded by the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra, no less … no kidding!), ominous noises, the nighttime darkness itself and the increasingly panicky performances of Scott Speedman and (especially) Liv Tyler to help ratchet up the suspense.

Wisely, Bertino parcels out the terrors slowly. Even before the first insistently thudding knock raps on the door in the wee hours, Bertino has created a mood that something awful is about to happen. Like all good horror movie victims, Speedman’s James Hoyt of course opens the door. (Fortunately Bertino doesn’t insist that his victims continue doing stupid things to put them in further danger, though.) But it’s only a young woman, standing in the dark so we and James can’t see her face, asking, “Is Tamara here?”

Well, no. Tamara isn’t there. But unfortunately for James and his girlfriend, Kristen McKay (Tyler), who earlier that evening had crushed James’s dreams by rejecting his engagement ring, they are. And the woman at the door is only the first of increasingly scary encounters with The Strangers. For there are three of them — two women in plastic kewpie-doll masks and a man wearing a tailored white sack over his head with eyeholes cut out. And they’re planning more than just noisy knocks on the door or jangling the wind chimes outside to frighten the couple inside.

What follows is a contemporary spin on Alien movies — there’s something in the dark, possibly hiding around the next corner or maybe in the pantry, that’s out to get you. It’s an old horror movie theme, yet Bertino doesn’t let up and The Strangers quickly makes one feel anxious and squirmy, even as the characters on screen feel more and more anxious and squirmy as things grow increasingly threatening.

There is a limit to all this, however. One can only do so much with Tyler trying to hide from the Strangers who eventually invade the house and systematically rummage through it. Nevertheless, the sudden surprise appearance of one of the Strangers, popping into frame out of nowhere, is still good for a jolt.

Where The Strangers lets down the audience is in its ending. Who are the Strangers? Why are they terrorizing this seemingly ordinary couple?

Those looking for a traditional neatly wrapped up conclusion will go home disappointed, although those with a jaundiced view of the world may find the simple offhanded explanation enough. Bertino says he (very loosely) based his screenplay on a real, unsolved incident … so there you are. Look for The Strangers to develop a midnight-show cult following.

But where the film really falls flat is Bertino’s use of a hokey, overused horror movie cliché to close his film. Cut out the final 15 seconds and you might really have something.

***The Strangers

Starring: Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, Gemma Ward, Kip Weeks, Laura Margolis, Glenn Howerton.

Rated: R, contains intense suspense, gruesome violence, profanity.

mjanuson@projo.com