The Strangers: Chapter 1 2024 Movie Review
Some horror movies are meant to scare viewers out of themselves, providing an escape into underworlds with otherworldly creatures and things most believe could never actually happen. Ghosts, werewolves, aliens, and the like give a fun kind of fright. They make the world seem like a simpler and less scary place. But there’s another type of horror film, the kind that reminds people how big and terrifying this world really is. These are the kinds of films that remind audiences of the concepts of chaos and our own mortality–that anything can happen to anyone, no matter how careful they are.
The Strangers was that kind of film. It introduced audiences to a new kind of terror in the genre: random acts of violence. For the most part, before The Strangers, victims in slasher flicks had it coming when they broke slasher movie rules; characters must be virgins, don’t engage in substance use, don’t split up, don’t investigate, etcetera, etcetera. But The Strangers changed the game. It showed that real life isn’t a movie, there are no tropes to guide people. One night, on a night like any other, a masked murderer can just show up to a home and kill whoever’s inside. It’s a more than unsettling dose of reality.
Although it became a cult classic after its release, The Strangers is now due for an expansion. Its sequel, The Strangers: Prey at Night, received mixed reviews, with some critics calling it clichéd and subpar compared to the first film. Now, Lionsgate is working to revive the franchise into a rebooted trilogy, going back to the beginning of the story. With a high-quality team of expert horror creators and producers, the new Strangers will expand its story world and dive deeper into its characterization. The new project is intended to invite both new audiences and established fans into a bigger, more terrifying world than the first two films could build. Set to release in 2024, here’s everything we know so far about The Strangers: Chapter 1.
From master director Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger, Die Hard 2, The Exorcist: The Beginning) comes a new trilogy of terror. In Chapter I, Madelaine Petsch (TV’s “Riverdale”) stars as a young woman starting a new life with her fiancé. Suddenly, during a road trip stop in a remote vacation rental in the woods, they become the prey of a mysterious gang of masked strangers who attack without warning or reason. What begins as a fight to stay alive becomes one woman’s journey of courage and cunning in this horror series bridging three compelling films.
Although The Strangers has stuck to a specific plot formula, the point of this new trilogy is to broaden The Strangers’ “storyverse” and explore a more in-depth character study. It’s an opportunity for this slasher film franchise to take things to a new level, operating in the same pioneering position as the original 2008 film, which completely changed future horror with its new “it could happen to anyone” concept.
During the film’s panel at NYCC, it was revealed that all three films will take place in the time span of just a few days and that the third film will explore the origin of the Strangers from the original film.
