Foxton96
Foxton museum exhibit
A reboot of the sheriffs car that was used in the 2001 movie, When Strangers Appear, shot entirely in and around Foxton during April-June 2000 on a $3 million budget and which was acquired by Ian Little after filming was finished and used as a static display for a few years at the Main St. entranceway to the Foxton trolleybus museum depot.
In a movie goof, the sheriffs squad car and a Jeep suburban utility vehicle (SUV) that was also used in the movie had the same license plate, supposedly Oregon VLP-077, the Jeep SUV featuring in a scene at the roadside diner which was constructed in Kere Kere Rd., just off the Foxton-Shannon road..
WHEN STRANGERS APPEAR MOVIE REVIEW
By Robert Cettl
(Robert Cettl’s review published on Letterboxd):
The rural film noir has become something of a minor sub-genre in American film. Directors such as John Dahl and J.S. Cardone have spun intriguing thrillers based on the desolate roadside fixtures of isolated areas, often populated by seemingly nomadic psychopaths and disillusioned heroes at the point of personal despair. These films are bleak, with people driven by an un-stated but desperate need for connection. They are placed near roads and tackle the notion of a stalled journey, where the road becomes the site of conflict. Often, these people cannot even make it to the open road and remain trapped, unsure of where to turn or how to escape. When they make the road, it is often full of lurking menace. It is this legacy of films that the New Zealand based When Strangers Appear seeks in part to evoke. New Zealand director Scott Reynolds has shown a proclivity for the notion of youth psychosis in his cult serial killer film, The Ugly, and in his latest thriller attempts to blend his interest in youthful psychopaths with the angst-driven despair of the 20-something so-called Generation X. Although the effort is there, the result is more a curiosity.
When Strangers Appear is set mostly around a roadside diner, not too far down from a motel. A young woman (Radha Mitchell) walks to work and opens up the diner. A dirty car pulls up and the driver watches. As she readies the diner, he enters, a dishevelled, unshaven youth (Barry Watson) who seems unbearably intense and pressured. She chats to him, but when another car pulls up, Watson hides. Three men, led by a rugged surfer (Josh Lucas) enter, eat and leave. Watson tells Mitchell that they are after him. At first she disbelieves but when he collapses, revealing a stab wound, she takes it on herself to care for him and takes him to a motel, where the three men are also staying. She takes him to a doctor for treatment, but later gets a call from the doctor that he believes the wound may be self-inflicted. She turns to Lucas, a man who may have more involvement than he lets on and who urges her not to go the police. Nevertheless, not knowing who to trust, she turns to a local cop (Kevin Anderson) with whom she has a troubled past. The doctor is now missing and it seems that someone may be a murderer.
The film starts out as the portrait of a young 20-something woman who seems bored and dissatisfied with her routine and is full of attitude. Her interest in strangers as a means of disrupting the boredom ultimately leads her into trouble as she realizes that she cannot trust anybody and that appearances are deceiving. Although this is certainly conventional and familiar material, the film does manage an irony which is at times effectively disconcerting, although until briefly at the end it never achieves the idea of absurdity and futility that it circles around. In structure, the film seeks to achieve the gathering momentum usually referred to as the snowball effect and as day becomes night seeks to immerse its characters in a world of shadowy uncertainty. It achieves this based on the audience’s expectation of schizophrenic behaviour. Thus, once it is revealed that one of the characters is apparently taking anti-psychotic medication, the film flirts with the idea of a drifting psychopath. The uncertainty over what to expect from a potentially psychotic killer is intended to destabilize the viewer and drive the momentum of the film through its expected series of twists. Although some of the twists are novel, the plot seems a hastily assembled addition meant to give some form to this idea of uncertainty.
In the moral order of films of this kind, curiosity and even compassionate involvement with strangers is a punishable sin and so the film sets out to give Mitchell a lesson for her initial know-it-all attitude. She must learn her place, the film asserts, and so takes her on a journey through mounting despair towards a supposed humility. The layers of uncertainty along this journey struggle for invention however, and by the time the mystery surrounding the strangers is revealed, it has become tired and pointlessly ridiculous as if the filmmakers are at a loss to fully explain it all and so reached out for the flimsiest of plot irrelevances. Thus, the film is more adept at creating uncertainty than it is at resolving it, although it seems needlessly to want to neatly do both. However, the circularity to the film’s final stages is momentarily a fine demonstration of the notion of an absurd universe and of people trapped forever in a repetitive cycle. Sadly, the film also dissipates this idea and the resolution fails to ring true to much of the preceding drama. Nevertheless, for much of the film, this is an involving if minor thriller that constantly promises how much better and tighter it could have been. What is unhurriedly and tautly developed at the outset is dissipated: just as the film is supposed to become more involving and suspenseful it feels merely rushed.
The visual transfer, although preserving a widescreen ratio, is something of a merely serviceable job. The film itself is too well (if flatly) lit to ever achieve any film noirish subtleties although it seems that it is deliberately bright at first in order to heighten the danger felt as day turns into night, a transition it only partly accomplishes (and must resort to flashbacks to structure properly). The picture is clear throughout but rarely achieves more than a downcast sense of atmosphere, although colours seem to be more pronounced as it proceeds as if perception has been heightened, particularly at night. This suggestion is also dissipated over time however to give an impression of flat technical competence. Even the cold weather fails to add much of a palpable presence. The landscapes however are suitably inhospitable although their otherworldly possibility is never utilized beyond a backdrop.
The sound transfer is again a matter of rote technical competence. It does however effectively use quiet and the sense of increasingly desperate voices. Aside from the score (especially the songs over both sets of credits), much of the film seems centred, even mono at times, although voices are crisp enough. The abruptness of certain sounds effectively disrupts the quiet and helps to build a modicum of tension to an otherwise lethargically paced film. Subtly shifting tones of voice carry the evolving uncertainty well but most of the film seems concerned with injecting sound into an initially quiet, boring and peaceful world, gathering aural momentum until a climactic explosion. At capturing this apparent intention, the transfer works well enough. It hopes to create a sense of uncontrollable propulsion, pausing only to reinforce the notion of danger as if retreating only to find calm and quiet increasingly impossible to maintain.
“WHEN STRANGERS APPEAR” MOVIE GOOFS
Errors in geography
- Even though the film is set in Oregon, USA, the Firestone ad on the side of the gas station refers to "tyres" not "tires". Beth also refers to the "car park", a term which is not used in the USA.
- The sign on the doctor's office says "Surgery". This is a term used in the UK, as well as New Zealand, for a doctor's office.
- The sheriff mispronounces the name of the state he lives in (Oregon).
Factual errors
- The motorway diner has not open,yet when the owner goes to check the till it is full of money.
- When the gas station attendant looks up at the wall from behind the register, the clock has no hands on its face.
- The cop's squad car and wife's SUV had the same license plate, supposedly Oregon VLP-077.
WHEN STRANGERS APPEAR (2001) YouTube trailer.....
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCHa5XZ1ixs
Foxton museum exhibit
A reboot of the sheriffs car that was used in the 2001 movie, When Strangers Appear, shot entirely in and around Foxton during April-June 2000 on a $3 million budget and which was acquired by Ian Little after filming was finished and used as a static display for a few years at the Main St. entranceway to the Foxton trolleybus museum depot.
In a movie goof, the sheriffs squad car and a Jeep suburban utility vehicle (SUV) that was also used in the movie had the same license plate, supposedly Oregon VLP-077, the Jeep SUV featuring in a scene at the roadside diner which was constructed in Kere Kere Rd., just off the Foxton-Shannon road..
WHEN STRANGERS APPEAR MOVIE REVIEW
By Robert Cettl
(Robert Cettl’s review published on Letterboxd):
The rural film noir has become something of a minor sub-genre in American film. Directors such as John Dahl and J.S. Cardone have spun intriguing thrillers based on the desolate roadside fixtures of isolated areas, often populated by seemingly nomadic psychopaths and disillusioned heroes at the point of personal despair. These films are bleak, with people driven by an un-stated but desperate need for connection. They are placed near roads and tackle the notion of a stalled journey, where the road becomes the site of conflict. Often, these people cannot even make it to the open road and remain trapped, unsure of where to turn or how to escape. When they make the road, it is often full of lurking menace. It is this legacy of films that the New Zealand based When Strangers Appear seeks in part to evoke. New Zealand director Scott Reynolds has shown a proclivity for the notion of youth psychosis in his cult serial killer film, The Ugly, and in his latest thriller attempts to blend his interest in youthful psychopaths with the angst-driven despair of the 20-something so-called Generation X. Although the effort is there, the result is more a curiosity.
When Strangers Appear is set mostly around a roadside diner, not too far down from a motel. A young woman (Radha Mitchell) walks to work and opens up the diner. A dirty car pulls up and the driver watches. As she readies the diner, he enters, a dishevelled, unshaven youth (Barry Watson) who seems unbearably intense and pressured. She chats to him, but when another car pulls up, Watson hides. Three men, led by a rugged surfer (Josh Lucas) enter, eat and leave. Watson tells Mitchell that they are after him. At first she disbelieves but when he collapses, revealing a stab wound, she takes it on herself to care for him and takes him to a motel, where the three men are also staying. She takes him to a doctor for treatment, but later gets a call from the doctor that he believes the wound may be self-inflicted. She turns to Lucas, a man who may have more involvement than he lets on and who urges her not to go the police. Nevertheless, not knowing who to trust, she turns to a local cop (Kevin Anderson) with whom she has a troubled past. The doctor is now missing and it seems that someone may be a murderer.
The film starts out as the portrait of a young 20-something woman who seems bored and dissatisfied with her routine and is full of attitude. Her interest in strangers as a means of disrupting the boredom ultimately leads her into trouble as she realizes that she cannot trust anybody and that appearances are deceiving. Although this is certainly conventional and familiar material, the film does manage an irony which is at times effectively disconcerting, although until briefly at the end it never achieves the idea of absurdity and futility that it circles around. In structure, the film seeks to achieve the gathering momentum usually referred to as the snowball effect and as day becomes night seeks to immerse its characters in a world of shadowy uncertainty. It achieves this based on the audience’s expectation of schizophrenic behaviour. Thus, once it is revealed that one of the characters is apparently taking anti-psychotic medication, the film flirts with the idea of a drifting psychopath. The uncertainty over what to expect from a potentially psychotic killer is intended to destabilize the viewer and drive the momentum of the film through its expected series of twists. Although some of the twists are novel, the plot seems a hastily assembled addition meant to give some form to this idea of uncertainty.
In the moral order of films of this kind, curiosity and even compassionate involvement with strangers is a punishable sin and so the film sets out to give Mitchell a lesson for her initial know-it-all attitude. She must learn her place, the film asserts, and so takes her on a journey through mounting despair towards a supposed humility. The layers of uncertainty along this journey struggle for invention however, and by the time the mystery surrounding the strangers is revealed, it has become tired and pointlessly ridiculous as if the filmmakers are at a loss to fully explain it all and so reached out for the flimsiest of plot irrelevances. Thus, the film is more adept at creating uncertainty than it is at resolving it, although it seems needlessly to want to neatly do both. However, the circularity to the film’s final stages is momentarily a fine demonstration of the notion of an absurd universe and of people trapped forever in a repetitive cycle. Sadly, the film also dissipates this idea and the resolution fails to ring true to much of the preceding drama. Nevertheless, for much of the film, this is an involving if minor thriller that constantly promises how much better and tighter it could have been. What is unhurriedly and tautly developed at the outset is dissipated: just as the film is supposed to become more involving and suspenseful it feels merely rushed.
The visual transfer, although preserving a widescreen ratio, is something of a merely serviceable job. The film itself is too well (if flatly) lit to ever achieve any film noirish subtleties although it seems that it is deliberately bright at first in order to heighten the danger felt as day turns into night, a transition it only partly accomplishes (and must resort to flashbacks to structure properly). The picture is clear throughout but rarely achieves more than a downcast sense of atmosphere, although colours seem to be more pronounced as it proceeds as if perception has been heightened, particularly at night. This suggestion is also dissipated over time however to give an impression of flat technical competence. Even the cold weather fails to add much of a palpable presence. The landscapes however are suitably inhospitable although their otherworldly possibility is never utilized beyond a backdrop.
The sound transfer is again a matter of rote technical competence. It does however effectively use quiet and the sense of increasingly desperate voices. Aside from the score (especially the songs over both sets of credits), much of the film seems centred, even mono at times, although voices are crisp enough. The abruptness of certain sounds effectively disrupts the quiet and helps to build a modicum of tension to an otherwise lethargically paced film. Subtly shifting tones of voice carry the evolving uncertainty well but most of the film seems concerned with injecting sound into an initially quiet, boring and peaceful world, gathering aural momentum until a climactic explosion. At capturing this apparent intention, the transfer works well enough. It hopes to create a sense of uncontrollable propulsion, pausing only to reinforce the notion of danger as if retreating only to find calm and quiet increasingly impossible to maintain.
“WHEN STRANGERS APPEAR” MOVIE GOOFS
Errors in geography
- Even though the film is set in Oregon, USA, the Firestone ad on the side of the gas station refers to "tyres" not "tires". Beth also refers to the "car park", a term which is not used in the USA.
- The sign on the doctor's office says "Surgery". This is a term used in the UK, as well as New Zealand, for a doctor's office.
- The sheriff mispronounces the name of the state he lives in (Oregon).
Factual errors
- The motorway diner has not open,yet when the owner goes to check the till it is full of money.
- When the gas station attendant looks up at the wall from behind the register, the clock has no hands on its face.
- The cop's squad car and wife's SUV had the same license plate, supposedly Oregon VLP-077.
WHEN STRANGERS APPEAR (2001) YouTube trailer.....
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCHa5XZ1ixs