Most of us are well acquainted with the vampire movies made
in the past. Every so often a new film comes along that tries to alter the
understanding we have of these bloodsucking creatures. Take for instance the
glittery heart throbs found in the TWILIGHT series that had young girls longing
to be loved by the good looking vampire and dedicated horror hounds groaning at
the change to their beloved icon. THE STRANGER doesn’t really take on either
role as dictated by these films, giving us something else instead.
A stranger named Martin (Cristobal Tapia Montt) arrives in a
small northwestern town and stops at the home of Peter (Nicolas Duran) to ask
if his girlfriend is there. Peter informs him that she died several years ago
and a distraught Martin leaves. That evening Martin is sitting in a park when a
group of young troublemakers come upon him. Led by Caleb (Ariel Levy) they beat
him while Martin puts up no resistance, leaving him for dead. All the while
Peter, a talented spray paint artists/tagger, has watched from nearby.
Peter calls in the incident to the police and Officer De
Luca (Luis Gnecco) arrives on the scene. The only problem is that De Luca is
Caleb’s father and he recruits his son to help get rid of the body. Summoned on
another call, he leaves and tells Caleb to finish burying the body. A total
slacker, Caleb leaves it under a tarp. Having watched it all, Peter pulls
Martin from the hole in the ground and takes him home to help him.
When evidence at the gravesite leads De Luca to the
realization Peter has watched it all, he sends his son and the gang to take out
the boy and Martin. This sets in motion events they had no clue would happen as
Martin is actually a vampire tired of life. Peter is beaten within an inch of
his life and his home set on fire. Martin rises to help defend Peter, setting
Caleb on fire and nearly killing him.
With De Luca seeing that Peter has miraculously recovered
from the beating he had taken earlier, he forces him to do the same to save
Caleb. Now with both turned into vampires the story moves forward and an
eventual showdown between all involved is inevitable.
While adding something new to the genre the movie doesn’t
really do enough to maintain your interest from start to finish. It’s not that
it’s terrible it just feels like it spins in circles and ends up going nowhere.
The self-deprecating vampire wants to die and end the line of vampires he is a
part of and yet feels compelled to save Peter for a reason I won’t reveal here.
But in so doing he completely reverses his goal from what he intended, the
cycle has a chance to continue.
The effects work here is minimal when it comes to gore but
make ups wise very well done, especially the burn make up on Caleb after he
tries to incinerate Peter. The film is dark most of the time including day
shots which didn’t work for me. While this end results might be a step up from
a few terribly made low budget flicks in the end this one for me was okay but
not enough to recommend it with the exception of vampire flick fans.
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