- The Strangers: Chapter 1
- Directed by Renny Harlin
- Written by Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland
- Starring Madelaine Petsch and Gabriel Basso
- Classification 18A; 91 minutes
- Opens in theatres May 17
While best known for his character-driven action blockbusters of the ‘90s (Die Hard 2, The Long Kiss Goodnight), Finnish director Renny Harlin is no stranger to horror. One of his earliest directing credits is 1988′s A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, and he was also the filmmaker tasked with stepping in to retool Paul Schrader’s Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist into the more commercially viable fourth instalment in The Exorcist film series, The Exorcist: The Beginning, in 2004
And now with The Strangers: Chapter 1, Harlin is again at the helm of a prequel to a beloved film – Bryan Bertino’s 2008 home-invasion thriller The Strangers. Filmed simultaneously alongside The Strangers: Chapter 2 and Chapter 3, all starring Riverdale’s Madelaine Petsch, there has been little mystery surrounding this inaugural chapter.
Much like its predecessor, Chapter 1 sticks to a bare-bones approach to story. One night, long-time couple Maya (Petsch) and Gregory (Gabriel Basso) find themselves stranded in a small town after their car breaks down. Left with no choice but to spend the evening in a local hunter’s remote cabin in the woods, the city-dwelling couple come to be terrorized by three masked strangers.
Harlin makes use of all the conventional trappings of the genre: the creepy gas station attendant who stares a little too long, the all-too-helpful car mechanic in grubby overalls, the stand-offish waiters in the oh-so-small-town greasy-spoon diner. Rather than reinvent the wheel, Harlin and his writers offer up an almost-too-easy companion to the original film (as well as its sequel, The Strangers: Prey at Night), keeping a pared-down approach to story and environment. The majority of the action here takes place within the confines of the home, utilizing creepy reflections in mirrors, false jump scares and the frailty of doors, windows and floors to underscore couple’s vulnerability.
In The Strangers: Chapter 1, a couple is terrorized by three masked strangers after they find themselves stranded in a small town when their car breaks down.Supplied
Likewise, the prequel is happy to languish in The Strangers’ now trademark horror nihilism – the boogeyman here, as in previous films, is a seemingly ordinary trio of people with no apparent motive, rhyme or reason, and certainly no mercy. While it’s not as much of a slow-burn of psychological torture as Bertino’s original, Chapter 1 sticks to the course and doesn’t let up on its lead characters once.
Accompanied by a winking, retro soundtrack that attempts but does not fully succeed in reaching the more campy entertainment of the 2018 sequel The Strangers: Prey At Night, Chapter 1 feels like a compromise between the vision and tone of the original film and the subsequent, more satirical second entry. Harlin follows the general patterning of the first film’s scares, amping them up in number to align with a more commercialized vision.
While the first Strangers film had a certain indie charm that made it both a sleeper hit and eventually a cult film, Chapter 1 is a wholly Hollywood endeavour, increasing its pacing as well as making it clear that this is just the introduction to its newest horror relaunch. Whereas both of Bertino’s films are able to stand both alone as well as alongside each other in their differing visions, Harlin’s prequel is content to offer up scares that align more with the consumability of multipart box office outings such as David Gordon Green’s recent reboots of the Halloween and Exorcist franchises.
It is a shame that, in a world chock full of reboots, prequels and every manner of attempts to capitalize on existing IP, commercial directors approach their movies as lead-ins for future quarterly offerings, rather than give each instalment its own due both artistically and narratively. While definitely an easy watch, Harlin’s film will leave fans of the original wanting more than Chapter 1′s somewhat uninspired and par-for-the-course delivery. For better or for worse, Harlin at least has a couple more chances at swaying audiences with his second and third entries.