Film review – The Strangers Chapter 1

My notes on The Strangers Chapter 1

The trailer sold this as ‘how the Strangers came to be the Strangers’, but don’t expect any of that here.  The trio who turn up in masks to menace innocent clods are exactly the same as they were in the other two films to which this is now the first part of a prequel trilogy which I doubt anyone is amazingly enthused about.  An interesting little ‘answer’ movie called Extracurricular made a decent stab at showing the Strangers story from the other side of the masks, so that’s off the table anyway.

Bryan Bertino’s 2008 film was like an Americanised version of David Moreau and Xavier Palud’s minimalist French horror film Ils/They, though it added a few years to the ages of the menaces besetting a couple (Scott Speedman, Liv Tyler) in an isolated house.  Johannes Roberts’ ten years on sequel The Strangers Prey at Night was brisker and at least broke out of the torture porn misery mode by killing off its trio of psychos.  This prequel brings in Renny Harlin – who made an Elm Street, a Die Hard, an Exorcist and (ah) Luokkakokous 3 – to no discernible effect.  Harlin was once a purveyor of quality schlock – Deep Blue Sea, Mindhunters, The Long Kiss Goodnight – but has slid down the budget scale, though he’s kept busy lately and still obviously has suspense skills, so he can knock off a budget remake of The Strangers with ease if without a sense of any special reason this should exist.

Frankly, Chapter 1 is got out of the way in the first few minutes as a city suit (Ryan Brown) is axed in the Oregon woods (played by Slovakia) by Scarecrow Double (Matus Lajcak) … and the primary feebs are Maya (Madelaine Petsch) and Ryan (Froy Gutierrez), stopping off at an isolated airbnb when their car suspiciously breaks down in a small town as they unwisely interrupt their road trip to Portland to get a meal.  We have a reel or so of urban idiots rubbing yokels the wrong way which could easily slot into a Cabin Fever or Wrong Turn sequel – Maya asks for vegetarian options in the diner, Ryan admits they’ve been together five years but aren’t married, the Sheriff is played by Richard Brake (who has so often played psychos it’d be a twist if he weren’t the killer – which he might not be, since there are two more of these bastards to come).  Then, at that house in the woods, all the stalking beats from The Strangers displayed in the trailer are ticked off – creepy girl with shadowface asking for Tamra, slaughtered chicken dripping blood, lots of masked-maniac-behind-unwitting-fool shots, showings for the hard-to-distinguish Dollface Double (Olivia Kreutzova) and Pin-Up Double (Letizia Fabbri), needledrops for ‘Nights in White Satin’ and homey cowboy songs, axe attacks, crawlspace escapes, a weak defence even after they get hold of a shotgun, etc.  It has a ludicrous coda – though no more ludicrous than many a now-hallowed 80s slasher – and an unwelcome ‘to be continued …’ caption.