The Strangers: Chapter 1 - A Lackluster Reboot
The 2008 original, The Strangers, capitalized on the fear of randomized violence, and it did so with great success. The film showed a hapless couple who, while spending the night in an unfamiliar location, fall victim to three masked lunatics for no reason at all. With The Strangers: Chapter 1, director Renny Harlin and writers Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland attempt to refresh the franchise, but unfortunately, they do so with palpable cynicism and a paint-by-numbers screenplay that cribs liberally from The Strangers.
The Strangers: Chapter 1’s portrayal of rural America is unflattering and inaccurate.
The film follows Maya (Madelaine Petsch) and Ryan (Froy Gutierrez), a New York couple who are both woodenly beautiful and averse to self-preservation. Car trouble forces them to make a rural detour on their road trip to Portland, Oregon, and they land in an Airbnb in a small town where all the locals hate them for being city slickers, or vegetarians, or whatever. After some stale foreplay, the franchise’s signature baddies play cat-and-mouse with the couple all night long. Some of the chaos is original, but most of it is - as our idiot protagonists must be after their long, bumbling ordeal - tired.
The Strangers: Chapter 1’s attempts to pay homage to the original fall flat.
The problems begin right after the opening titles, when we’re informed that 1.4 million violent crimes occur in America each year. Nope! The exact same figure is dropped at the beginning of The Strangers, and - spoiler alert - violent crime rates have changed since 2008. In fact, they’ve significantly improved. The filmmakers may excuse this fear-mongering by saying that Chapter 1 is supposed to be a prequel to The Strangers, but it’s not. It can’t be, unless the characters in the original film have been officially retconned as weird hipsters who use outdated technology. This movie contains product placement for a smartphone banking app. The plot hinges on the existence of Airbnb!
The film’s portrayal of rural Americans is unflattering and inaccurate.
What’s the best modern home invasion horror film? Is it The Strangers: Prey at Night, which offers a novel setting, more dynamic protagonists, and a climactic sequence set to “Total Eclipse of the Heart”? I’d happily take two more of those. Instead, we’ve got this - and The Strangers: Chapter 1 is the first film in a Petsch-led trilogy. Please join me in hoping that we can only go up from here.
The Strangers: Chapter 1 is a lackluster reboot that fails to deliver.
Verdict
The Strangers: Chapter 1 might freak you out if you aren’t old enough to remember The Strangers, but where its predecessor was subtle and interesting, Renny Harlin’s reboot chooses to be ridiculous and boring. If this film is notable for anything, it’s how stupid the main characters are. Whether depicting small-town America as a sinister freak show or ripping its best moments directly from the original, The Strangers: Chapter 1 actively resists novelty. If you really need to see a milquetoast couple get their shit rocked, watch The Strangers. Better yet, for way less fear-mongering and way more dynamic leads, just watch The Strangers: Prey at Night.
