Of its eerie kind, “The Strangers” ( ) is a tight, scary, sick (in a good way), who's-in-the-house fright-fest featuring easy-to-take Liv Tyler. She possesses one of Hollywood's all-time screams (not to mention heavy breathing).

This 30-year-old actress' tonsils wail (she showed off the talent the other night on David Letterman's talk show, nearly breaking camera lenses).

The movie is about a couple in turmoil, just back from a wedding, spending the night at a house in the woods, he (Scott Speedman) surprising her with trails of rose petals, ready to pop the marriage question. Says she, “I'm not ready yet.”

Meanwhile, outside, there are strange folks who, at the most inopportune time, bang clamorously on the door. The strange ones are there, then they're not. And, of course, when Speedman takes off to the store for cigarettes, they're there and Tyler is (scream!) HOME ALONE!

“The Strangers” is a modulated, stylistic picture, a brisk 90 minutes of mayhem. By the way, what's that creepily sneaking up behind you? Somewhere, Liv Tyler is screaming, bloodcurdingly.

MAY NIGHTS

Money, wasted: Inferior “Speed Racer” production budget – $120 million

Talent, wasted: Emile Hirsch, intriguing star of “Alpha Dogs” and “Into the Wild,” blandly playing against a backdrop of special effects, “Speed Racer.”

Performance, best: Richard Jenkins, lonely widower, burned-out college professor (“I haven't done any real work in a long, long time”), finding a spark from the young immigrant couple squatting in his seldom-utilized New York City apartment, “The Visitor.”

Kids, great: Will Poulter and Bill Milner, middle-school-age, fatherless, British boys in the '80s, deciding to make a movie of their own based on Sylvester Stallone's bloody “First Blood,” “Son of Rambow.”

Supporting, funniest: Lake Bell and Rob Corddry, caustic best pals to battling Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher, “What Happens in Vegas.”

Word play: “What are you, like 80?” smart-aleck Shia LaBeouf to Harrison Ford, 65, once again the great adventurer, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”; “It's genetic. I can't help it,” consistently late Syrian (Haaz Sleiman), explaining he's “on Arab time,” “The Visitor”; “This has been my best day of all time,” one blissful, pre-adolescent boy to another becoming blood brothers and fledgling filmmakers, “Son of Rambow.”

Photography class: Set in 1930s India and beautifully shot by Indian director Santosh Sivan, it's a redeeming factor of the dull, historical, class-conflict drama, “Before the Rains.”

Return, welcome: Karen Allen, Indiana Jones' feisty former squeeze from “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” she and Mr. Jones have a thing going on, in otherwise lackluster “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”

Pee's and q's: Ashton Kutcher, urinating over a sink full of dirty dishes, “What Happens in Vegas,” joins Amy Poehler excreting clumsily in a bathroom sink, “Baby Mama,” starting a trend, of sorts.