THE STRANGERS

Over the years I have posted lots of stories about neighbour relationships gone wrong. If I was to review them all and try to find some universal truth I suppose it would all come down to patience, respect and communication. I think the best thing about starting this site is that so many people were able to share their own stories with others. I've lost track of the number of emails I received with comments about people being glad to have found others who are experiencing the same types of neighbour headaches.

Quite often the stories shared make you realize that you don't have it so bad after all, or that they could be a little bit unreasonable in their expectations.

I've even posted a few news stories I stumbled across about people who have attacked, tortured, or in some cases killed their neighbours over some perceived insult or offense. I am very glad I have never had (and none of my readers have ever shared stories regarding) any direct experience with something like that. The horror stories I found while surfing the web and posted here at least made my own neighbour pet peeves seem pretty insignificant. In most of these stories at the very least there was something that set the whole horrible event off, a loud stereo, a barking dog, a fence, etc. Perhaps there is some comfort in knowing that the acts themselves were not completely random. When something has no meaning at all, it becomes that more distrubing...

One such grim tale has inspired one of this summers possible sleeper hit movies, The Strangers (starring the always gorgeous Liv Tyler). The film claims to be 'inspiried by' a true story, most likely the famous Manson Family Murders from 1969 or the 1981 murder of the Sharp family in the California resort town of Keddie Cabin. In the film a young couple plan on spending a quiet and romantic week at a remote resort but instead find themselves under siege from a gang of psychopaths. The Strangers opens May 30th.