They Don’t Need a Reason.
They Don’t Need a Reason.
Directed by Renny Harlin (Deep Blue Sea, Die Hard 2), The Strangers: Chapter 1 strives to lay the groundwork for a new prequel trilogy but lacks the depth and originality to intrigue fans. With a 90-minute runtime, the film moves at a steady pace and holds your interest throughout, yet, it fails at almost all of its attempts at suspense, acting more as an unnecessary remake than an origin story. Filled with non-stop cliches, one-dimensional characters and a disjointed plot Chapter 1 is a letdown in almost every aspect and doesn’t make enough of an impact to launch a new set of films.
We’re introduced to Maya and Ryan (Madelaine Petsch, Froy Gutierrez) whose romantic road trip takes an unexpected detour to a small town in Oregon. They’re forced to spend the night at an Airbnb deep in the woods after their car breaks down at a diner filled with aggressive townsfolk. The young couple is soon in for an evening of hell as they fight for survival against three masked strangers.
Marketed as a prequel, The Strangers: Chapter 1 is more accurately a beat-by-beat remake of the 2008 film except it’s missing the ingredients that made the first film a genuinely harrowing experience. While the setting evokes tension and fear, the screenplay is uninspired, relying on predictable jump scares and played-out horror tropes. The only new element this installment brings to the table is the introduction of the sinister locals in the first act, but their inevitable role in the terror is an obvious and schlocky twist. The original’s subtlety is what made it a groundbreaking genre classic. Here, the execution falls short on multiple levels, and there are far too many predictable scenes. (You would think the odds of having a piano at the cabin that both the protagonist and antagonist can play the same song on are quite low.) Instead of having the couple rent an Airbnb for a weekend getaway, there’s an unrealistic chain of events that plants them in this setting. These cringey moments fail to transport audiences into the grisly events at hand.
Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez give decent performances with the lackluster material, but their characters are wooden and lack chemistry. The stilted dialogue is far from how a real couple would interact with each other. Their reactions to the horror taking place also feels subdued at times. For example, when Scarecrow is breaking down the door with an axe and they decide to sit on the ground spectating, or when they encounter the first stranger in the house and chalk it up to smoking too much weed. They make so many dumb decisions for plot convenience that it’s an insult to expect audiences to root for them. While their motivations remain unclear, there are some creepy visuals of the three antagonists who don the notorious masks. Still, they don’t haunt the viewer quite as effectively as in the original (or Prey at Night for that matter). One of the major problems with The Strangers: Chapter 1 is the lack of eerie stillness and the claustrophobic home invasion atmosphere that is encapsulated so effortlessly in Bryan Bertino’s version.
With a stripped-back story like The Strangers, a lifeless script and clunky dialogue can quickly cause the film to flounder. Most aspects of the film are far-fetched and used simply to move the plot along. Without injecting anything new or interesting into the mix, director Renny Harlin’s first chapter is off to a shaky start and one begins to question where the next two films will take us. After viewing an imitation of the 2008 film without the scares and charm, here’s hoping things will only improve from here.
