By Erik Luna
If audience reaction accounts for anything, the new thriller, “Straw Dogs”, does not disappoint its suspense-crazed viewers.
The movie utilizes many effective techniques to progress its intriguing storyline, such as foreshadowing and suspense. The suspense created by the main character’s unease is very noticeable and sets the mood for the movie.
James Marsden plays the lead, David Sumner, who is married to a famous actress named Amy, played by Kate Bosworth. Amy and Sumner moved to Amy’s childhood home and quickly started having trouble with the locals.
Sumner becomes uneasy with one of the locals, an ex-football coach, Tom Heddon, played by James Woods. Woods got under the viewer’s skin, prompting them to practically yell at the screen.
As Heddon establishes himself as the town drunk in the beginning of the movie, Sumner finds his wife’s former boyfriend Charlie, played by Alexander Skarsgård making a move on her. This starts up a series of unpleasant conversations between Sumner and Charlie.
This movie revolves around two separate storylines, but in the end, they combine to create a climactic ending.
Director, Rod Lurie uses foreshadowing to further the main characters’ psychological transformations, which seemed to intrigue the audience. Marsden plays on his emotions and his facial expressions quite brilliantly.
The film, which is a remake, strays quite a bit from the original movie’s storyline, but still leaves the driving force of the movie intact; the subtle psychological changes in humans.
Another creative tool used throughout the movie was sound. There were certain sounds that made scenes very cryptic, and even disturbing.
Some scenes in this movie are really disturbing and will leave viewers with their jaws dropped, unpleasantly cringing.
Lurie uses unusual techniques to bring the film to a close such as increasing the sound level to add a feeling of suspense.
The acting in the movie was good and the actors blended well with each other.
This movie explains exactly what can happen when people are pushed too far, and are forced to protect what’s dear to them. It’s an interesting story and it has a unique twist at the end.
“Straw Dogs” runs for 1 hour and 45 minutes, and it’s rated R for some explicit scenes, and some brief nudity.