The Strangers Chapter 1

Let us travel back to the year of 2008. I remember this specific year for a number of reasons and especially in the music year of 2008. This was the year when i for the very first time saw British rock band Stereophonics live in Stockholm after being a fan of them since their 1997 debut album Word Gets Around. This was for their Pull The Pin worldwide tour and let me just say that one of the songs from that album called My Friends is a brilliant live song. If you need to get the audience feel more alive this is the song you should be playing. Let us continue with the music of 2008 and i remember listening to the debut album Workout Holiday from the American rock band White Denim at a local record store. It sounded something like a mixture of The Strokes and White Stripes and since i have always been a fan of The Strokes that did make me curious. Even though i prefer The Strokes i will say this, i can not deny that the band White Denim are talented musicians and i do enjoy a couple of songs on this debut album, especially the song Heart From Us All. Is this album worth checking out? If you happen to enjoy The Strokes or similar bands there is a possibility you might enjoy this album. Also check out their 2011 studio album D which in my opinion is their best studio album so far. Let´s move forward and continue talking about the year of 2008 and now let´s get into the movies of this year. 2008 was the year when we had the really good Swedish horror film Let The Right One In, perhaps the best Swedish horror film ever made so far. This was the year when we also got the 4th Indiana Jones movie simply called Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. I know this film have divided a lot of Indiana Jones fans over the years but i enjoy it for what it is, a throwback of old school action adventure films. 2008 was also the year when the psychological horror film The Strangers was released in cinemas worldwide and became a huge hit. On a budget of 8 million U.S. dollars it made over 80 million U.S. dollars in ticket sales. I did enjoy this film and especially the chemistry between actress Live Tyler and actor Scott Speedman and as a psychological horror film i think it is a well made film on such a limited budget. When the sequel The Strangers: Prey At Night came out in 2018 i thought it was ok, not as good as the original film but i can accept it for what it was trying to do. So here we are in 2024 and The Strangers franchise continue with a new relaunch called The Strangers Chapter 1 from legendary director Renny Harlin ( director of Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger and Cutthroat Island ). Before i checked this film out i did read some other reviews out of curiousity and they seemed very mixed. So i decided to go into this film with an open mind, just in case i might actually enjoy it. Is this a solid horror film or is The Strangers Chapter 1 a film that didn´t need to been made?

Maya Lucas ( Madelaine Petsch ) and her boyfriend Ryan ( Froy Gutierrez ) drives across the country, celebrating their five years anniversary. Lost, they stop in a small town in Oregon called Venus. The locals disturb them and their car breaks down. The town´s mechanic, Rudy ( Ben Cartwright ), agrees to fix their car the next morning and they are forced to stay the night in an Airbnb. Suddenly they get an unexpected visitor knocking at the door, asking for an unknown person. Things are about to become even more strange from here.

If i understand this film correctly this is not supposed to be a remake of the 2008 film The Strangers but should be seen as a relaunch of The Strangers franchise and two more chapters are on the way. For those who have seen the original film i can tell you right now that The Strangers Chapter 1 will not give you a completely different version of the original film. This is basically the same film with a couple of changes, using pretty much the same basic ideas as the original film. The first question that comes to my mind is, if you are going to do a relaunch of a franchise why not try add something unexpected into the plot to make it more interesting? This is one of the big issues i have with this film since i am beginning to wonder if we really needed this relaunch if it doesn´t add something interesting? We all remember how bad the 1998 version of Psycho was right? The Strangers Chapter 1 is not as terrible as that film but i do feel that this film feels more like it was made just to cash in on ticket sales instead of making a good horror film. Because they clearly thought that people who enjoyed the original film will hopefully want to see this relaunch ( i would imagine that´s what they are hoping for, unless they thought this relaunch would find a new audience ). Who knows maybe the other 2 chapters that are coming will be more interesting. Let´s get into the something positive at least and that is director Renny Harlin didn´t make every scene the same as in the original The Strangers. That´s the mistake director Gus Van Sant did with his Psycho remake trying to reshoot every scene to look like the original Psycho film from 1960. I think this film would have been a more interesting if they made the film inside the small town diner that we see in the beginning instead of a cabin. Small changes can give a film a different look. Ok so let´s move to something negative and i have to say the acting in not good in this film. There is no character you really care for and there is no real character development. The horror scenes feels very predictable and uninspiring. I used to love director Renny Harlin´s films in the 90´s and i even enjoyed his 2004 crime slasher Masterminds with Christian Slater, Val Kilmer and LL Cool J. The Strangers Chapter 1 may not be his weakest film so far but it definetely shows he needs to find more interesting stories to tell than films such as this. I really hope Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 will change my mind. See the original film instead and skip this one, unless you really want to see it.

Rating: DD