Strangeland (1998) User Reviews

A sick low-budget horror film well worth seeing. I liked it.

[practiced_bravado · 4/10 · 19 December 2004]

I first rented this movie on the infamous day of September 11, 2001. Since then I've seen it a number of times. My only complaint is that it's too short. "Strangeland" would've be a complete piece of horror art at two hours. As it stands, the running time is only an hour and a half.

Ex-Twisted Sister member Dee Snider wrote, produced and stars in this 1998 shockfest set in a small Colorado town. He plays Carleton Hendricks, a crazed sadist who has psychotic ideologies on human evolution and a love for near-death experiences. Hendricks is no pushover, he's a pumped up six-foot "modern primitive". Someone who has tattooed and pierced their body to the very extreme. When he makes his first full appearance in the film, it is a truly terrifying sight.

Hendricks' main hobby in life is to share his "spiritual awakenings" with his kidnapped victims. He visits Internet chatrooms under the name "Capt. Howdy" and then invites people over to his house. They believe they're going to a party. Instead, they find themselves in a house of pain and suffering. Hendricks sows their eyes and mouths shut and tortures them by sticking blades and hooks in numerous parts of their body. If it sounds sick, it's because it is.

One of Hendrick's victims is Genevieve, the teenaged daughter of detective Michael Gage. Gage not only manages to save her, but arrests Hendricks as well. Four years later, Hendricks is released from a mental institution completely rehabilitated to the disapproval of the community. A group of rednecks led by Freddy Krueger himself, actor Robert Englund, decide to kill him. They fail and Hendricks reverts back to his old self.

The rest of the film I'll leave to you, only to say the conclusion is satisfying and will leave you in shivers. With the exception of Snider, the acting isn't too good, but it's serviceable. The direction is okay, too. There are some humorous parts in "Strangeland" and they are very funny. I also loved the soundtrack, it's awesome and worth buying if you love rock. Overall, this is a movie worth watching. If you love low-budget horror films with a sense of humor, check it out. You'll probably like it.

It's halfway meh

[dfranzen70 · 5/10 · 1 April 2015]

It was hard to expect a lot from Strangeland. Its star and writer is Dee Snider, formerly the frontman for the metal band Twisted Sister and not known for his acting. It's also a bloody horror movie, which can be hit or miss for even the most fervent of fans. Oddly enough, though, the result is a passable representative of the genre, with Snider's Captain Howdy a memorable, if underexplored, villain.

Two teenage girls, in the early years of the Internet, encounter someone calling themselves Captain Howdy in an online chat room. He invites them to a party, and naturally they accept. Seems legit! I mean, his profile information makes him look like a cool dude! What could possibly go wrong? A lot, turns out. The girls go missing, and soon teen Tiana (Amal Roe) is found in the trunk of her own submerged car, hands and feet bound and mouth sewn shut. Her friend Genevieve (Linda Cardellini) is nowhere to be found.

Genevieve's dad happens to be a cop named Mike Gage (Kevin Gage), and he and his rambunctious young partner try desperately to find Genevieve. It doesn't take them long, because all they have to do is visit the same chat room, and using the leet hacker skillz of cousin Angela (Amy Smart), find the name of the last person to whom Genevieve chatted, strike up a conversation, and away they go. Very little cat and mouse follows, and it isn't long before Mike finds the good Captain, who's as wacked as you'd expect him to be, what with the sadistic attitude (setting aside the facial tattoos and multiple piercings). Turns out the guy's really into S&M, such as putting pins through people's skin and suspending them from a ceiling or in a really small stand-up cage.

From there on out, it's a cat-but-mostly-mouse game. Captain Howdy is much more interesting than anyone else in the movie, even redneck Jackson Roth, played by Robert Englund. Mike Gage makes for a boring lead. Snider appears to be having a lot of fun, pontificating like a megalomaniacal Batman villain, and is a good fit for the movie. Kind of a shame that more Strangeland movies weren't made. They weren't made, by the way, partly because of the film's sluggish second half, in which Howdy appears to be running a race in which everyone else is crawling on their backs. Yes, their backs. And it's kind of a shame, because the character is so strikingly charismatic. Was Captain Howdy always insane? We'll never know

Uh....oookay!!!

[D.C.-2 · 4/10 · 7 May 2000]

Another horror film that has the potential to be good but fails miserably. The acting was mediocre but you don't expect great acting in horror films but this movie seemed to want to showcase the acting especially Dee Snider's and it failed. Characters like Gage's partner were useless. And the ending was pathetic. Talk about anti-climatic. The best things were Elizabeth Pena, who's too talented for a film like this, and the "We're not gonna take it" sign during the protest scene outside of Captain Howdy's house which cracked me up. Well maybe this film was about torture after all. I know it was torture to watch it. 4/10

"So much flesh, so little time."

[Backlash007 · 25 October 2001]

As a simple but interesting story, Strangeland is in the middle of good and bad. It borrows too much from other flicks, like Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs. Some lines ("What a rush?") are kind of terrible. And the Twisted Sister references that no one picks up on are laughable: the "we're not gonna take it" sign that the angry mob is holding and Dee's character "Capt. Howdy". Yes, it's in the Exorcist, but it is also a Sister song. On a good note, Dee Snider is a creepy looking character. The first time you really get a good look at him he's intense. And there are a few gross sadist scenes, one involving piercing an unwilling man in the most dreaded of all places. That part made me wince. And that's fairly hard to do. Also, I loved the fact that Robert Englund plays a character that is the exact opposite of his role in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Instead of playing the killer, he is the leader of the mob going to find the killer. Krueger fans will know what I'm talking about. It's a brilliant and appropriate piece of casting that genre fans should appreciate. Overall, the good outweighs the bad, and I would recommend watching it (at least once). You have to give Dee some credit, there are a lot worse movies out there.

Should be called Dee Snider's Predictable Vanity Project

[JohnSeal · 3/10 · 2 June 2000]

There are about ten minutes about half way through Strangeland when one suddenly sees the glimmer of an interesting idea. Themes of revenge and rehabilitation come into focus during Robert Englund's brief screen time. Sadly Strangeland then resumes its course as a thoroughly predictable and boring slasher film.

One of the worst movies ever made!

[Adam E · 1/10 · 14 February 1999]

I kinda had high hopes for Dee's new horror film. Then when the film came out and wasn't screened for the critics, I had a feeling it'd be junk, but after sitting through garbage like HOLY MAN and URBAN LEGEND, I figured I could take STRANGELAND, too bad I was wrong. This is on my top ten worst films, it's awful, not even fun on a campy level. The audience I saw it, two other teens, hated it obviously worse than my friend and I did, and they wisely walked out of it. I have no idea why we didn't. From the acting to the gore, everything about this movie was terrible, the pacing being the worst. Avoid this movie like the plague!

The most worthless film of the decade. The responsible parties should never be allowed to film again.

[annie-28 · 1/10 · 11 October 1998]

The most worthless film of the decade. The responsible parties should never be allowed to film again. I have no words to describe the lack of entertainment this film provides. You couldn't PAY me to watch this film again. Quite honestly, I think I would be a better person had I not seen it. If I called it offensive, I would fall into a category of emotionally frail extremists. I would say this film goes so far as to damage the industry. There are films that I refuse to watch, now that I feel they might be this tasteless. I feel like an idiot that I didn't have the good sense to walk out during any one of MANY moments I was compelled to do so. Yes, I saw the end and am ashamed for it, as should anyone else, including the writer. I am in awe...

There's worse ones out there

[slayrrr666 · 7/10 · 6 April 2006]

"Strangeland" isn't that bad if it features fears of yours.

**SPOILERS**

Genevieve Gage, (Linda Cardellini) is just the latest in a series of disappearances plaguing a small town. Her father Mike (Kevin Gage) just happens to be the detective on the case, and his partner Steve Christian, (Brett Harrelson) convinces him to check out a club that specializes in piercing and scarification, which is also the secret hideout for Captain Howdy, (Dee Snider) also known as Carleton Hendricks, who is the suspected cause of the disappearances. With the help of his cousin Angela Stravelli, (Amy Smart) Captain Howdy is caught and brought to justice. After a couple years in an insane asylum, he gets released back into the community, and a local militia group led by Jackson Roth, (Robert Englund) kidnap him and leave him for dead. When new evidence confirms that he may not be dead, Detective Gage tries harder than before to stop him.

The Good News: As it gets more and more commonplace for people to chat online and in instant messaging, the fact that this one was the first out of the gate to show the potential evils and dangers of the situation is a nice and original approach. Even though it deviates from it towards the end, the original set-up is pretty great. The ending is also pretty great and pretty exciting, with a great bit of action in there as well. Most of the focus on this film is the discomfort one gets when exposed to extreme forms of scaring and skin piercing, and it is a subject most get uncomfortable viewing. This is mostly played out in the psychical form of Captain Howdy, who does look pretty creepy. His look, though, drives the film, so I won't spoil it, but it is a really disturbing and shocking look that will definitely get you a little crept out the first time his full appearance is shown.

The Bad News: This film basically relies on the belief that extreme piercing, full-body tattoos and scaring are scary images for the average person. If none of them are scary or frightening, then most of the film's power will be lost. Besides that, there really isn't a whole else in the film. It's not a traditional horror film in the slasher sense, so for some it can be quite boring, as there's no real jumps, suspense or anything similar.

The Final Verdict: If any of the acts or ideas featured in this one are fears of yours, this could be a pretty scary film. If not, this can be a pretty dull experience. Otherwise, it's pretty middle of he road and pretty forgettable. Use your own judgment to determine if you will like this one or not.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Nudity, some Language, a brief sex scene, scenes of torture and extreme images of body modification

sucking sick

[ofjeworstlust · 2/10 · 23 March 2004]

Unbelievable. Great cast, fair acting, interesting plot.

But this movie has such graphic cruelties that are not tense or giving thrills, just pure disturbing unruhe.

*SPOILER*

Everyone could see coming the freak returns to his habits. And that Robert Englund was acting (was he?) like an idiot; forbidding your daughter to sleep with a football player, but him trying to kill an idiot and liking kiddypr0n is alright?!

The policeman who's daughter was kidnapped - anyone felt he was a cop and not an actor? Not me. This movie drags on and on with an ending that we see in other horror movies: if the returns were alright a part 2 could be made. Bad, really bad stuff. Might give creeps some inspiration...

Had to be there when it came out

[ginasturiale · 7/10 · 5 May 2019]

I watched this when I was about 14 (20 years ago) when the internet and chat rooms (especially for my age group) were beginning to enter every American home and accessible to the younger generations. I viewed it at a friend's house and remember the creepy feeling I had after it finished. I still remember all these years later, after only watching it once, specific moments that stayed with me. (Not unlike Kids or Requiem for a Dream where one viewing will haunt you forever.) The scene where a woman is tortured so cruelly that she screams and rips her lips open that had been sewed shut is still so vivid to me. It seems like the movie is getting a bad rap due to the graphic nature of the film, but that is exactly what the point was. So if you don't like gore it's simple, don't watch this movie. But if you like small budget horror flicks that have the potential to actually creep you out and leave a lasting impression, I would reccomend checking it out!

How can someone even think about this?

[celebrity_skin15 · 1/10 · 30 August 2000]

I don't recommend you watching this movie if you are easily offended. I'm not even easily offended and this movie made me frustrated. It's so disgusting. And it doesn't make sense. All the internet thing is so cliché, and the producer obviously didn't understand all the "internet rules". When you chat with someone you CAN track their IP address. Really? (see the sarcasm here). It was dumb. Pointless. And I didn't even watch the end. I could always say "this doesn't make sense, this neither..." This movie is pure crap at his best. Nice comment right?

There, that's better...try not to speak...

[i_undertaker1313 · 10/10 · 3 October 2005]

A lot of people give this movie a lot of crap, and all of it's really undeserved. People give this movie a hard time either because it's such a sick subject or they harp on some technical aspect of the movie no one else observes when they watch it. If, just by looking at the cover, you think this movie will make you uncomfortable...DON'T WATCH IT! However, you'd be missing out on one of the better cinematic experiences of the late 1990's, despite what anyone else says.

Dee Snider is wonderful here as Captain Howdy, the depths of insanity he plumbs to play this character has to be beyond words, and is much farther than any one of us would have to be willing to go. The acting here is wonderful. The film itself beautifully shot. The subject may be a bit too much for many to swallow, but it's still well worth your time. If you haven't seen this movie, check it out.

Underrated Sick Thriller

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 2 December 2005]

In a teen chat room, Genevieve Gage (Linda Cardellini), the teenager daughter of detective Mike Gage (Kevin Gage) is invited to a blind date by the cool Capt Howdy (Dee Snider). The guy is indeed a pierced a schizophrenic sick and sadistic maniac, and he kidnaps Genevieve and her friend Tiana Moore (Amal Rhoe). He submits the girls and other adolescents to tortures. When the body of Tiana is found, Mike hunts Capt Howdy and puts him in jail first and then he is sent to a mental institution. Four years later, Capt Howdy is considered rehabilitated and released from the asylum, against the will of the local population. After an incident, Capt Howdy abducts Genevieve again, and Mike promises to kill him.

The thriller "Strangeland" is very underrated in IMDb. Kevin Gage is weak in the lead role of Detective Mike Gage, but Dee Snider makes the film worth. With minor improvements and a different conclusion, Capt Howdy could be a cult character. The sick story is excellent, the special effects and the atmosphere are also great and this movie is better than, for example, the recent "Saw". Yesterday I saw "Strangeland for the second time, now on DVD, and I liked it again. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Mórbido Silêncio" ("Silence Morbid")

Schlock-O!

[Franklin-2 · 2/10 · 1 February 1999]

Films like this make me wish we could declare a moratorium on Hitchcock imitations! This a wretchedly boring, poorly made and insultingly stupid film in which Dee Snider stars as a "serial sadist" who picks up teens on the internet (though one of the teens looked to be in his 40s) and tortures them with forced piercings. For all the modern topics, it's really just a sixties psycho rip-off, so boringly shot it seems to be made by the "squares" Snider's Captain Howdy derides. Add to this some amazingly sloppy plotting-or has due process been suspended in Colorado, do they have a more lenient insanity plea than any other state, and is it customary for a police detective to investigate his own daughter's kidnapping there?

I Was Almost There

[drhackenstine · 10 September 2005]

Wholly wow, never thought I would see a horror movie that would have a story that would stagger around as badly as it happened in 1987's Grotesque. But here it is. A torture-loving maniac who seeks victims in chat-rooms and calls himself Captain Howdy (yep, The Exorcist) torments a detective when he takes his daughter. Then, the maniac is arrested, rehabilitated, let loose after four years (huh?) in a nuthouse, picked on by Robert England, hung by Freddy and his hick buddies, but then- he's not really dead. So maniac goes back to terrorizing said detective who arrested him in the first place, and promptly re-kidnaps his daughter. Yow. I enjoyed this movie. The pace is all over the place, but it never leaves you bored. Dee Snider (Twisted Sister, remember I Wanna Rock, or We're Not Gonna Take It? Hell, he was in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure) is the loon, who is obsessed with torture and flesh ripping, and you don't get to see him for the first 45 minutes, but when he does finally show his face, you say to yourself "oh yeah, Dee Snider". The first 45 minutes plays like a freaky detective horror thriller with main characters, then Robert England comes out of nowhere for about 20 minutes in a starring role-of-sorts. The movie is fun for the average fan. It's an assault on the senses, blended with cheese. Two good things at once. Features breasts punctured with torture devices, flesh hanging by hooks, and of course the Twistedest Sister of them all. Three stars.

they shoot horses don't they

[davphv · 1/10 · 31 August 2003]

Put this movie out of it's misery and burn the negatives. What am I saying? The whole movie was negative. Fortunately, only a very few would find this movie the least bit appealing. This is what the vast American majority would call too much sex and violence. It will probably show up on some non-premium cable channel someday just for the shock value, but after editing out the nudity (most of the violence will stay) all that will be left is 45 minutes of really bad acting interspersed with 45 minutes of commercials. There are just too many starving actors in Hollywood.

Pardon my French: PIECE DE LA CRAP!!!

[Beerdrinking Dog · 1/10 · 12 October 2001]

Anybody who first claims here he/she is 'a true horror fan' and than starts a story about this being a good film, should be taken out of their misery. People, this must definately be one of the most boring films ever made. I think I saw the r-rated version, since I can't remember seeing any of the "stomic turning torture" some folks mention here, but even if it had been there, this movie would suck harder than a Swedish pornstar. bad acting, no story, bad acting. Did I mention the terrible story? Listening to Dee Snider babbling a lot of semi-philisofical mumbujumbu about piercing and old rituals is the only real torture in this film...

Only thing good about this film is the remotely cool rock-soundtrack. Another 90 minutes scaringly well wasted. Avoid at all cost...

Incredibly Stupid

[qormi · 1/10 · 10 May 2013]

Pure trash...the acting was unbelievably bad. The actors who played the parents of a missing teenage girl are so inept, they can't even register the glimmer of an emotion that would indicate anxiety or concern. The man who played the villain was about as scary as Kevin Nieland doing the news on Saturday Night Live. How such an amateurish film was ever sold is beyond me. Then, there are the victims whose mouths are laced shut. Hello- --they're not shoes....Lacing one's mouth shut would entail a fair amount of bleeding and swelling....and once the victim was rescued and unlaced, she had no scars....One huge plot hole....the detective magically located the killer'd house...twice...without any explanation of how he found it...This movie was a complete bore.

Stay away from Captain Howdy.

[BA_Harrison · 7/10 · 7 May 2022]

Horror fans who also wanna rock will have a blast with Dee Snider's Strangeland, which sees the Twisted Sister frontman playing Captain Howdy, a metal-loving psycho with a penchant for body modification who uses internet chatrooms to lure unsuspecting victims to his torture chamber.

Filmed during the 'wild west' days of dial up, when the average Joe wasn't online savvy, Strangeland takes quite a few liberties with the technology of the time (downloading a picture took several minutes, so I'm pretty certain that video calls weren't feasible, and accessing the internet in a car was an impossibility), but the film is still a lot of twisted fun thanks to a solid central turn by Snider, whose tattooed and pierced Jame Gumb-style sicko is a memorable maniac, a great supporting cast which includes Robert Englund*, Linda Cardellini, Elizabeth Peña, and Amy Smart, and quite a few graphic scenes of mutilation. Kevin Gage plays police detective Mike Gage, who tracks down Howdy after his own daughter is abducted by the freak.

Decent horror films starring heavy rock/metal acts are so often crap (Jon Mikl Thor in Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare, Alice Cooper in Monster Dog, and all of Foo Fighters in Studio 666), but this is one of the better examples.

7/10.

*Inspired by Twisted Sister's song Horror-Teria (The Beginning), from their classic 1984 album Stay Hungry, Strangeland mirrors the premise for A Nightmare On Elm Street, which makes Robert Englund's presence a particularly nice touch.

My dog's poop is less crappy than this...

[Fairies__wear_boots · 1/10 · 11 August 2005]

What can I say about this movie that hasn't already been said... If anyone suggests seeing it, run as far away as you can as fast as you can. There were some moments that I enjoyed, for example, the various pop culture references. Well, that's really about it. I found myself compelled to count Captain Howdy's piercings, and asked at regular intervals, "Is it over yet? Why isn't it over yet? Do we have to watch the rest?" At the end, I was smiling from ear to ear because, yes, it was FINALLY over, and I knew that (as the body mod aspect of this movie disgusted my boyfriend) that I would never have to sit through it again.

Just how bad is it? It made Campfire Stories look like an Oscar-worthy piece of fine cinema.

body modification!!

[windypoplar · 7/10 · 22 April 2008]

Dee Snider's "Strangeland" had a long, strange trip. It really started with Twisted Sister songs, then Dee tried writing about a psycho clown, but "IT" had that idea, so Dee set about writing a horror film like "Seven". Hey, Dee! I liked this better than "Seven.

"Strangeland" is a really sick film. The protagonist, played by Dee himself, is a sicko named Carleton Hendricks aka Captain Howdy, a deviant with tattoos and piercings galore, he stalks young girls online and does really depraved stuff to them. Poor Geniveve Gage is the 1st victim. Note the actress! It ER"'s Linda Cardellini! What follows is really nasty, and scary, note the cauterization! But the film pulls a shocker early!

Later on, see Dee in Mr. Rogers mode! Perhaps the most frightening shot in the movie! Kevin Gage plays Gage and yeah he sucks. Actually other than Robert Englund, delightfully playing a righteous redneck, the acting stinks. And the director's idea of suspense is cutting to black every three minutes! Still the heavy metal soundtrack, featuring, Marylin Manson, Pantera, Coal Chamber, Megadeth, Twisted Sister and Snot is truly awesome. Buy it.

"Strangeland" offers some great stuff and certainly doesn't stint on the horror, though its not anywhere near as bad as I was led to believe. For you DVD fans, Dee's commentary is every bit as disturbing as the movie! A really good horror flick with some very interesting twits and turns. I really have to agree with Robert Englund, the truly frightening thing about this flick isn't the death, its the suffering.. Cool!

If you sew your eyes shut you don't have to watch this...

[OrdinarySun · 1/10 · 12 November 2005]

Wow...This movie really really sucks...'Nuff said.

The Story: A psychopathic internet predator stalks and lures young men and women into torturous traps...It goes like this, kidnaps people, they find him, he becomes a changed man and is released on the world yet again, reverts back to his old ways and starts the torture again....The story is stupid, it's implausible. The characters are stupid, they're implausible...Or at the very least way over the top. It's got some very violent imagery, and if you have a week stomach you might just want to stay away...But than again, even if you don't have a week stomach, you might want to stay away...It's that stupid.

The Cast: Dee Snider, Kevin Gage...If you're a die hard fan of Twisted Sister and Dee Snider, you might find this one interesting, since he's the writer and star of this film. His acting is laughably bad, and you can tell that he's the one that wrote the God-awful script. Kevin Gage...Well they say he's been in numerous other movies that I've seen, but I don't remember him from any of them...And you won't remember him from this...These two sadly, make the film...They don't make it good mind you...They just make it...

One to Five Scale: 1 It's bad...It's very very very bad...In fact it's so bad, that this movie should come with a clip loading pistol to play Russian Rullet with...

worth at least 6

[surfisfun · 10/10 · 21 October 2018]

I like it a lot at the time it came out(8+) I tough;t it was a good story.

Dee Snider good in the role underated.

Overhated.

--------------------------------------------------------------- 2023 : STILL A DECENT MOVIE. I wonder if a director cut is available, one that would show longer scenes of the piercings and other SnM stuff.

The first big half is great. Dee regression to a normal man is interesting . The movie ending is so so. It probably would have beneficiate from a bigger budget for the last third and better developpement to lead to the finale. Still, recommended for all metal heads, industrial gothic lovers, and a decent performance of Snider, a legend of early 80s glam metal rock! Its a shame the movie was not publicize and attended in 1988,.

Cheers.

Reccomended.

Graphic, disturbing

[preppy-3 · 7/10 · 14 August 2003]

A sick man named Carleton Hendricks (Dee Snider), cruises the Teen Chat lines as Captain Howdy. He poses as a teenage boy and invites other teens over his house to party. He instead knocks them out, strips them, sews their mouth closed and tortures them (mostly with needles). He captures the daughter of cop Mike Gage (Kevin Gage). Gage finds him, arrests him and he's institutionalized. Four years later he's released...totally cured. But a lynch mop (led, amusingly, by Robert Englund) attack him and hang him. He doesn't die but he snaps and Captain Howdy is back...

A very sick, disturbing, twisted horror film. Captain Howdy enjoys pain and torture and is trying to show the kids he kidnaps how to enjoy it also. The torture scenes aren't that explicit (you hear more than you see), but what you do see is very very sick. There's no humor and the (muted) screams of his victims sound way too real. I was cringing away from the TV during most of the scenes.

The acting varies. Kevin Gage isn't that good as the cop--he's not terrible but he could have been better. Dee Snider is very scary as Captain Howdy--his attack scenes are not pleasant.

All in all, not your typical horror film. I'll probably never see it again (this film really gets under your skin) but I recommend it to all horror fans--at least those with strong stomaches. I give it a 7.

I'd rather clean the cat box

[Geshtinana · 2/10 · 30 May 2006]

This gets my vote for "I'd rather clean the cat box" because it would be scarier and a more productive use of my time. The only redeeming feature is that the nasty- gory -torture bits are glossed over by the camera in comparison to more recent "cat box" worthy outings, which tend to dwell and dwell on the gore (e.g. Hostel).

I gave up at least 1/2 hour before the end since it was on TV and I could not fast forward through the boring bloody bits. The hunt by police detectives in the first half keeps the interest, particularly because the use of the internet is now so dated and yet so current in light of recent news. Finally, however, Strangeland is reminiscent of the most hackneyed and strained elements of old monster movies and appears to rely on solely on gory visuals to keep the viewer's interest. Strictly for those who enjoy human- on- human nastiness without much background.