“The Strangers: Chapter 1”: A Fun Chapter With Strange Premise | Review

Every few months, it happens. Someone resurrects some horror franchise, whether in a remake, reboot, sequel, prequel, spin-off, or other invention. As a horror fan, I find myself divided time after time. On the one hand, feelings of nostalgia and a desire to see more of a familiar film series, sometimes even one I grew up with. On the other, complaints about the creators’ lack of originality, the cynical attempts to milk more money from horror fans through the familiar formulas that have proven themselves, and most importantly – the fact that these films, as a rule, tend to be far from successful (and I’m still).

I didn’t know what to expect when I heard they were making some new movies of “The Strangers.” The original film from 2008, starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman, is one of the last few decades’ best home invasion films. Exactly a decade later came “The Strangers: Prey at Night” (with Christina Hendricks, Martin Henderson, and Bailey Madison), which was enjoyable but not memorable. Then we heard about a new trilogy (!), of which “The Strangers: Chapter 1” is the opening movie, and I approached it not knowing what to expect.

After watching the first part, my confusion only increased.

What Is The Strangers: Chapter 1 About?

“The Strangers” from 2008 was about a couple (Tyler and Speedman) who arrive at a vacation cabin in an attempt to repair their relationship after the woman (bitch!) rejects her boyfriend’s marriage proposal. As they try to have sex, a knock on the door interrupts them, and someone mysteriously asks if Tamara is there. Later, the couple will fight for their lives against three masked killers whose identities and motives are not transparent or significant. The film presents the notion that nowhere is safe here and that there are people who abuse (a gentle word for “torture”) others for the sake of sadism. The most famous quote from it – and I apologize in advance for the spoilers, but this is a film from fucking over 25 years old – is “Because you were home,” the answer of one of the psychopaths to the question of why exactly they do it.

It is entirely inaccurate to say that “The Strangers” is the founding father of the home invasion subgenre, the seeds of which were planted, according to the conventional wisdom, in Sam Pekinka’s excellent “Straw Dogs” from 1971, starring Dustin Hoffman and Susan George. The film was quite unusual in the graphic violence it presented, including a rape scene that was not easy to watch, especially when the violence happens in a place that is supposed to be safe. The film was released in a year that produced several other violent films, some of which were masterpieces (“A Clockwork Orange,” “Dirty Harry,” etc.), which may have defined the direction that cinema went in for several decades.

“The Strangers” didn’t reinvent the wheel but was undoubtedly well-made, putting it on the mainstream horror. Its impressive box office success – about $82 million for a film with a budget of only about $9 million – contributed to the revival of home invasion films in a way that perhaps aligns with the discourse in American society about the outbreak of violence.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 Plot: We Have Already Seen This (in 2008)

“The Strangers: Chapter 1” presents more or less the same story, as you can guess from the fact that the film is based on a story by Bryan Bertino, who wrote and directed the original “The Strangers” movie.

Maya (Madelaine Petsch, the sexy redhead from “Riverdale” and horror thrillers “Polaroid” and “Sightless”) and Ryan Froy Gutierrez (from the TV series “Teen Wolf” and “Cruel Summer”) are celebrating five years of being a couple. The guy still hasn’t proposed, perhaps because he saw the franchise’s first film and didn’t want his girlfriend will act like a bitch and deny him. They go on a trip, almost have an accident, and end up in a small town in Oregon called Venus, which is ironic because there is not much love here.

The problem is that the people on Venus aren’t so friendly. They are suspicious of the vegetarian girl, the fact that the “strangers” are in a long-term relationship without getting married, or simply that they are strangers. After a meal at a shady restaurant, the couple wants to continue and discovers that the car refuses to start because horror movies have the worst cars ever.

The evil-looking mechanic claims that he can only fix the car the next day, strange children say something weird about religion, and in the meantime, another girl drives them to a relatively remote cabin that is offered for rent by a mysterious person, because the only hostel in this creepy town is under renovation. As they try to have sex, a knock on the door interrupts them, and someone mysteriously asks if Tamara is there. Later, the couple will fight for their lives against three masked killers whose identities and motives are not transparent or significant.

You know what to expect if you’ve seen home invasion movies and “The Strangers” from over a decade and a half ago. To make matters worse, like many other movies today, the film’s marketing campaign attempts to reveal too much. Alongside fairly original attempts to present the villains, especially when they stand and scare the public in public places, Lionsgate, in my opinion, made too many short clips from the film to their social media profiles. If you add the trailer, which, as is customary, reveals more than it’s supposed to, you realize that it’s pretty hard to get here without prior knowledge.

Here’s “The Strangers Part 1” trailer, revealing too much from the movie:

The Strangers Chapter 1: A Film Of Multiple Identities

As you may have already realized, it’s hard to understand what “The Strangers: Part 1” is trying to be. On the one hand, this is the first part of a trilogy, the first hour and a half of about four and a half hours of films that were shot simultaneously!

All three films are directed by the experienced Finnish Renny Harlin, whose extensive and rather impressive resume includes blockbusters (such as “Die Hard 2”, “Cliffhanger” and “Deep Blue Sea”) and several horror films (“A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master”, “Mindhunters,” “Exorcist: The Beginning” and more). Even before the film was released, we learned that Madelaine Petsch would continue in the sequel, and even a photo from the film’s set was released, which could be a spoiler for the fact that she will survive the movie.

There is potential to create an extensive saga with more depth than the first film. Think, for example, of recurring and developing characters, the possibility of understanding the motives of the masked pursuers a little more, or, mercifully, of providing some emotional depth to the heroes. The problem is that this doesn’t happen in the new retake of “The Strangers,” at least in the first part. It sticks too closely to the original, including a similar narrative structure and identical scenes (did someone say, Tamara?). It does it less effectively, and we get a pale imitation of what was successful or has become outdated since then. It’s probably no coincidence that home invasion movies today often include a particular twist, such as a combination of genres (monster movie, vampire movie, comedy, action movie, etc.) that is supposed to create a more current and sophisticated film. Everything is too familiar.

In the case of “The Strangers: Chapter 1,” on the other hand, it’s unclear whether the film is trying to be a renewal, a remake, or a reworking of the 2008 version and in what directions it could develop. In other words, it’s complicated to judge a film that is only the first in a trilogy and that ends in a way that hints at a sequel – don’t miss the scene briefly in the closing credits – and even with the caption “To be continued,” which I thought was left on TV screens in the 90s (they might still use that. I don’t watch too many TV series).

To truly appreciate the “The Strangers” trilogy, we’ll have to wait a few months, two more movies, and a few more hours of screen time. Until that happens, we get a home invasion movie that’s pretty standard and anything but “up-to-date and sophisticated.” Still, The movie works in parts. “The Strangers: Chapter 1” offers some good moments, and the actors do a good job overall, even if they don’t always have reasonable dialogue to work with.

The movie does have some suspense in parts, especially around the initial encounter with the intruders, which traditionally includes character observation scenes (Petsch said she asked to add the scene where one of the masked characters watches her while taking a shower because of the unpleasant feeling she gets when closing her eyes in the shower), quick cuts of characters running behind the protagonists, figures appearing from the shadows, people in masks standing eerily outside the house, strange noises that probably have nothing to do with the fact that the heroes are in an old house, and so on.

We get a few jump scares and a dash of gore, which is always a positive in films of this type. On the other hand, the characters don’t develop or gain too much sympathy for them; like most horror films, they make some stupid and illogical decisions. In addition, most of the scares are very predictable and, therefore, ineffective.

Who Are You, The Masked Killers?

Shortly before the film was released, the posters of the villains (or, if you will, the masked killers) were released. In this aspect, too, there is more than a certain resemblance to the first film. We don’t know much about Scarecrow, Dollface, and Pin-Up Girl in the movie. As characters who don’t express themselves normally (one of them makes some weird syllables and psychotic movements) or reveal themselves, it’s pretty obvious. In fact, I might be racist about creepy masks because, in part of the film, I find it hard to distinguish between the two female intruders.

I suppose one of the central dilemmas of horror filmmakers is how to explain violence. There’s undoubtedly something scary about violence or even sadism that seems random because it shows that no one is safe, and especially – no place is safe. In many films, they’ve tried to introduce a motive that makes the story tighter. In contrast, in others, the motive seems so trivial or illogical that it undermines the credibility of the entire script. I’ve come across too many films where the “Who is it? Who is it?” scene has ended like a standard episode of “The Masked Singer,” Meaning we discover that the character revealed is unrelated to anything and that the clues leading up to it were so stupid that it’s a shame we even saw it. In the movie so far, we have no idea who are the killers in “The Strangers: Chapter 1”, and maybe we will never know.

There’s no definitive answer here, and every choice has pros and cons. The problem begins in the moments when it seems like the reason for the antagonists’ lack of motivation is related, to one degree or another, to scripted laziness. Is that the case here? It’s hard to say: kind of like how we solve a person’s terrible act that he did “because he’s crazy.” When the heroine asks why the bad guys are doing this to them, the answer corresponds with the original (“Because You Were Here”). We must ask whether a film of random violence and a life-and-death chase can stand today independently and certainly develop into an entire trilogy. If we judge the first film, the answer is no, and in a film that’s supposed to open up a “new” cinematic world, this is a problem.

It’s possible that in future films of the new trilogy, we’ll learn a little more about the killers or their motives because the film laid some groundwork in the direction of xenophobia, religion, cults, and so on. On the other hand, as long as it sticks to the “because you were here” line, which assumes that there are people who simply enjoy abusing others for no specific reason, there’s a chance that the groundwork laid here is just a deception, or to be cynical: attempts to extend the film’s screen time a little. By the way, the film’s credits list two characters suspected of being “masked killers,” Ghostskull and Witchface, who, as far as I remember, did not appear in the final product so you can expect more Strangers in the upcoming films.

Should You Watch The Strangers: Chapter 1?

The simple answer is that it depends on what you expect. The film, which was produced on a budget of about $8.5 million and has so far grossed about $48 million, is far from being of high quality: just look at the negative reviews it’s receiving and its current IMDB score (which stands at 4.7 out of 10, as of this writing), to understand that.

On the other hand, it did have some reasonable moments. It’s hard to say it’s hard to watch, and I believe the trilogy can develop into something significant. I’m lowering my expectations. Concerning most home invasion movies, I expect a movie that can take me through an hour and a half without too much brainwashing, commitment, or logic.

The answer may be somewhere in between, and the right thing to do is wait for the rest of the movies to come out and then binge for a few hours. Maybe after this viewing, we’ll understand what the current version of “The Strangers” is trying to be.

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