The Strangers: Chapter 1, 2024.
Directed by Renny Harlin.
Starring Madelaine Petsch, Froy Gutierrez, Gabriel Basso, Ema Horvath, Richard Brake, Rachel Shenton, Ella Bruccoleri, George Young, Janis Ahern, Pedro Leandro, Ryan Brown, Ben Cartwright, Florian Clare, Miles Yekinni, Rebecka Johnston, Stevee Davies, Brooke Lena Johnson, Brian Law, Rafaella Biscayn, Pablo Sandstorm, Sara Freedland, J.R. Esposito, and Milo Callaghan.
SYNOPSIS:
After their car breaks down in an eerie small town, a young couple is forced to spend the night in a remote cabin. Panic ensues as they are terrorized by three masked strangers who strike with no mercy and seemingly no motive.
All remakes, reboots, and spinoffs are pointless to some degree, but director Renny Harlin’s The Strangers: Chapter 1 (the other two installments in this trilogy are already filmed and set to release later this year) is a special level of uninspired lazy, unbearably boring, and all-around stupid. None of this is helped, considering that the original The Strangers operates on pure voyeuristic dread building to a chilling non-answer reasoning behind why the masked murderers at the center of the home invasion thriller are senselessly slaughtering their prey.
How can a filmmaker replicate that same spine-tingling fear and anxiety if many people will likely already know what’s coming? This film suggests that perhaps that is impossible. Renny Harlin and the screenwriting team of Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland have no interest in doing anything different (at least not until the ending, but we will touch on that later) beyond the tiniest of changes.
There are entire sequences that are lifted from the original and shot the same way, with little to no impact or effect this time. Just because a filmmaker is doing the same thing doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to have the same cinematic flair and momentum on screen, but it also leaves one wondering how much of this would still work, if any of it still would, without having any knowledge of this franchise.
Even though I chose not to rewatch anything related to The Strangers before watching this stab at a trilogy, I have seen that film. There is a difference between watching something again to appreciate the things that worked the first time (and noticing new details) versus a poor carbon copy imitation that musters up none of the same suspense. One sits there stone-faced, waiting for the terrorizing to start, only to be somehow bored. Then the film (only 90 minutes but somehow feels as long as Killers of the Flower Moon) reaches its variation of the big nonchalant reveal of why these titular strangers kill, which also lands with no sickening effect. A few moments later, the filmmakers finally decide to take the story differently before throwing up the “to be continued” graphic.
Bear with me here on this unexpected connection, but the conclusion of The Strangers: Chapter 1 brings to mind the failed Scarface video game, which saw Tony Montana survive the film’s climactic shootout and set out for revenge. It has always been one of the better ideas for a video game spinoff (marred by horrendous shooting mechanics, repetitive gameplay, and not much of a story beyond the concept), smart enough to start itself at the point of narrative diversion. The Strangers: Chapter 1 thinks that going a new direction during the final two minutes is enough of a justification to remake an entire film that, again, was primarily effective for its mysterious, unknowing, eerie factor.
Then there is the examination of this new direction itself, which softens a film where the entire point was once unapologetic cruelty toward the victims and a grounded sense of doom. Maya (Madelaine Petsch) and Ryan (Froy Gutierrez) are the terrorized couple here (forgettable performances that don’t match up to the original), finding themselves stranded in a passive-aggressive judgmental town looking down on her vegetarian lifestyle and his uncertainty about marriage, nonetheless giving them directions to an Airbnb when their car suddenly breaks down outside of a diner. From the jump, the characters make stupid choices (the film is at least consistent in that respect), testing our patience regarding even wanting them to survive (something I don’t recall the original doing.) Renny Harlin seems determined to squeeze in every horror movie cat-and-mouse chase sequence cliché in the book.
Simultaneously, Renny Harlin does demonstrate a functional knowledge of why The Strangers worked, wisely laying off the jump scares following the first act to allow stalking and hiding sequences to play out without them. There is the occasional clever shot, such as blood dripping from the ceiling with a competently acted slow realization from the couple that it’s not ketchup from the burger. However, The Strangers: Chapter 1 isn’t only missing a reason to exist, it’s missing thrills and a pulse. The only dread comes from knowing that we are getting Chapters 2 and 3 as soon as this year.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
Originally published May 17, 2024. Updated May 19, 2024.
