Movies That Scare Me to Death: The Strangers

     I love scary movies!  I enjoy being scared, and I consider myself somewhat of a scary movie expert.  Repeated viewings of a movie usually lead to fewer scares or even moments of hilarity at the ridiculousness of it all.  However, there are a few out there that always make my heart pound.  I have to watch them with the lights on, and I can't watch certain parts because I know I won't be able to sleep if I do.  The Strangers is one of these movies.  I usually think of the classics as being better than what's been put out in the last several years, but The Strangers is a recent release that scares me to death.
     Released in 2008 and starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman, I remember seeing this movie for the first time in the theaters.  My sister and I were two of three people that came to see it in the middle of the day.  That evening we were going home to our parents' house who live out in the country.  This made viewing even more unsettling as we thought something like this could really happen to us. 
     Tyler and Speedman play Kristen and James, a couple who don't really know where they're heading in life because of an event I won't reveal to you.  They go to his parents' country home (Maybe?  I'm not really sure where they are exactly.) after a wedding and arrive early in the morning.  This is when things start to get frightening.  A girl comes to their door asking where Tamara is.  Her face is mostly hidden because the outside light is broken (Or is it?).  James goes into town to get more cigarettes for Kristen, and while he is gone Kristen begins to slowly be terrorized.  James returns to find Kristen completely freaking out, and of course he doesn't believe that anything bad is happening.  Why is that always the case?  Anyway, I really don't want to give too much away, but three people (two girls and a man) are slowly causing serious problems for James and Kristen.
     One thing that helps with the scares is the music.  Playing on an old record player are some unsettling songs, including "Mama Tried" by Merle Haggard.  I dare you to not get scared any time you hear that song after watching The Strangers.  It is also scary realizing that James and Kristen seem to be out in the middle of nowhere, but they also seem to be relatively close to civilization.  I've seen this movie several times, and I still can't figure out how the menacing trio got into the house.  Is the sliding glass door open or closed?  What are these evil people thinking?  Why didn't Kristen and James just barricade themselves somewhere with the gun and stay there?  What is Dennis from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia doing here?  Why did Kristen say "no" to James, and why is James pigging out on Blue Bell vanilla ice cream?