The Strangers: Chapter 1 review.
The strangest thing about The Strangers: Chapter 1 is its existence.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
The Strangers: Chapter 1
Directed by Renny Harlin
Screenplay by Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland
Starring Madelaine Petsch, Froy Gutierrez, Rachel Shenton, Gabriel Basso, Ema Hovath and Ella Bruccoleri
The Strangers: Chapter 1 Review
I had never seen 2008’s The Strangers when the Renny Harlin helmed series was announced. That continued to be true when the first trailer for Chapter 1 dropped a few months back. Despite not having seen the Liv Tyler/Scott Speedman version it was immediately clear that this new movie appeared to be remaking it. All the things I knew (or thought) were a part of The Strangers happened again in that trailer. I finally watched 2008’s The Strangers in preparation for the release of Chapter 1. It turned out to be a mistake…robbing any potential enjoyment from the new release. A problem that can only be blamed on Chapter 1 itself.
If you’ve seen The Strangers…go ahead and skip this review. Skip Chapter 1 too while you are at it. Because you’ve (mostly) already seen it. None of this is to say that it’s difficult to understand why the movie exists. It’s quite simple. They want a franchise. More importantly, they want to make sequels to the 2008 classic. The problem with that thought is that it’s been 16 years since it came out. Retelling the story was deemed necessary to build to those sequel ideas. Which means, essentially, we have to sit and watch the same movie again with different actors.
Moments may change…but the beats are the same. One thing becomes very obvious while watching Chapter 1…and that’s what Chapter 2 is going to be about. We see the town surrounding the doomed cabin in the woods…meet the local townsfolk. That doesn’t happen in The Strangers because that movie is about the randomness of evil. Chapter 1 is a setup for a sequel to investigate who these masked killers are.
One of the best moments in the original movie comes from the killers unmasking themselves in front of their victims. It tells them that all hope is lost…and this is the end. Viewers don’t see their faces…but the characters do. There is no unmasking in Chapter 1. It might seem like an artistic choice or an oversight, but it is done on purpose. When Liv Tyler wakes up at the end of the original…she knows who just put her through hell. Any continuation of her story would have to include that aspect of the story. By leaving the identities of these masked murderers a secret to new series lead Maya (Madelaine Petsch) …future installments can go in a different direction.
You can anticipate Chapter 2 (filmed simultaneously with this and a third movie) delving into the mystery of who these people are. We’ve surely met them already. Perhaps the nice girl from the diner who drives the potential victims to their airbnb. Maybe the mechanic’s assistant who might have screwed with their vehicle to necessitate their overnight stay in the first place. Or maybe the sheriff played by Richard Brake who has no dialog but sticks out like a sore thumb with his recognizable face. To be fair…maybe he’s just going to help lead the investigation in Chapter 2…a meatier role befitting his talents either way.
These are the reasons that Chapter 1 exists. The reason it doesn’t work is that The Strangers does. Harlin shoots a fine-looking picture. His cast is fine. The characters make completely imbecilic choices…but that’s the nature of the game. You could even argue that some of the suspenseful sequences here are stronger than in the original. But they don’t work. Once you recognize that this is a full-on remake of the first movie…nothing that happens before the ending can feel intense. You know where it’s all going because this has all happened before.
Chapter 1 also suffers from a one step forward, one step back issue in its (slight) alterations to the plot. It removes the oddest choice made in the first film. We’re presented with a happy couple that is happy to be together instead of the strangely specific choice to feature a couple stuck in a cabin together after a failed marriage proposal. This version still manages to get to talk of marriage…but in a way that isn’t so weird it makes you feel uncomfortable to be in a room with the characters. In doing so, however, it also excises the best scene in The Strangers. Namely…when Glenn Howerton meets his shocking and untimely end from a surprising source. Chapter 1, of course, shoehorns in a similar concept. Only without any buildup, emotion, or payoff.
Both of those aspects of the original get a lot of attention in our latest episode of the Scare Value Podcast. I’d recommend listening to it over buying a ticket to The Strangers: Chapter 1. Unless you’ve never seen The Strangers. If that’s the case…maybe Chapter 1 will work just fine for you. Maybe, when the next two chapters are released, it will work for everyone. When we can step back and see the big picture of the new trilogy…maybe reliving nearly every step of the 2008 movie will make perfect sense. That’s an awful lot of maybes banking on a series that begins with nothing new to say.
Scare Value
You rarely see a movie do itself as little favors as The Strangers: Chapter 1 does for itself. It boils down to a remake that no one asked for with nothing new to say about anything. It exists solely to set up an original chapter next time around. Maybe that will be interesting. But it won’t change the fact that anyone who has seen the original movie having no use for this one.
1.5/5
The Strangers: Chapter 1 Link
In theaters now – Fandango
