Between 2008’s The Strangers and its 2018 sequel The Strangers: Prey at Night, the trio of killers composed of the Man in the Mask, Dollface, and Pin-Up Girl has become a staple of the horror world. And Lionsgate seems to understand that, as there are not one, not two, but three new The Strangers movies coming to theaters in the next year or so. The first, aptly titled The Strangers: Chapter 1, is already here.
Set “somewhere in Oregon,” The Strangers: Chapter 1 is about a young couple, Maya (Riverdale’s Madelaine Petsch) and Ryan (Froy Gutierrez from Teen Wolf), that is driving across the country from New York to Portland. A few hours outside of Portland, their car breaks down, and they are forced to spend the night at an Airbnb in the middle of nowhere. While they are settling in for their evening, they hear a knock on the door, and when they answer it, they are greeted with the three words that any The Strangers fan knows signal a night of terror:
“Is Tamara here?”
Directed by the legendary Renny Harlin (Deep Blue Sea, Exorcist: The Beginning), The Strangers: Chapter 1 is essentially a remake of writer/director Bryan Bertino’s The Strangers. While they do throw in a couple of cool twists (particularly in the third act to motivate the two additional chapters), co-writers Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland (the writing duo behind The Freak Brothers) stick pretty close to the 2008 original. There’s a little more setup, which results in Ryan and Maya meeting the salty and savory characters of the town before getting stuck there, so there are more “suspects.” And, because our heroes are from out of town, The Strangers: Chapter 1 feels more like a fish-out-of-water slasher movie than the home invasion thriller that the original is.
Since The Strangers: Chapter 1 is a remake, we’re going to compare. First, the bad. Harlin’s characters are more broadly painted, with much of their exposition delivered via spoken dialogue instead of through the visual imagery of Bertino’s. Both couples are in flux (albeit in very different ways), but Bertino lets the audience put together the reasons for the relationship tension themselves. With that work put in, it’s no surprise that audiences care more about Bertino’s Kristen and James than they do about Harlin’s Maya and Ryan. There’s an emotional investment there. Now, some of this is because audiences already know what’s coming, and some more of it is because Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler are better actors than Petsch and Gutierrez. But, mostly, Harlin’s leads feel one-dimensional. They feel like fodder for the killers.
Now, the good. Visually, The Strangers: Chapter 1 pays awesome tribute to Bertino’s film. Harlin and, by extension, cinematographer José David Montero (Open Grave, Apollo 18) keep the grainy, grindhouse look of the original, and play with the same now-you-see-them-now-you-don’t motif for the killers, which results in much of the same palpable tension. The audience never knows when a killer is going to pop up, or even if one is already sitting in the frame unnoticed. It’s a maddening game that keeps the audience both on the edge of its seat and on the tips of its toes. There are even some fun Easter Eggs for the attentive (yes, “Sprout and the Bean” plays on the phonograph, and it’s amazing).
Finally, the indifferent. Renny Harlin does inject some of his trademark humor into The Strangers: Chapter 1 to go along with the brutal violence. While it’s in no way as campy as, say, Deep Blue Sea, there are some laughs that seem out of place for a The Strangers movie. For example, in a scene where Maya and Ryan are escaping the house through a crawlspace, they encounter rats. One of them even hops onto Ryan’s back. It’s creepy, but comical. Out of everything that’s happening to them, these two are afraid of rats. No one can blame them, but no one can help but laugh, either.
For fans of The Strangers, The Strangers: Chapter 1 won’t let you down, as long as you can understand that it’s not a “new” story. It’s a worthy update of the original, even if it’s not quite as terrifying. Think of it in the same way as one of those Platinum Dunes horror remakes from the early 2000s. What’s curious is that there are still two more chapters coming up in the not-too-distant future, both of which were shot concurrently with this one. And since The Strangers: Chapter 1 is such a neat and clean remake, it’ll be interesting to see where Renny Harlin and company go from here. It may answer questions that are left over not only from this movie but from the original as well.
GRADE: B-
MPAA Rating: R for language, horror violence, and brief drug use
Release Date: May 17, 2024
Running Time: 1 hour 31 minutes
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