‘The Strangers: Chapter 2’ Review
Stars: Madelaine Petsch, Gabriel Basso, Froy Gutierrez, Ema Horvath, Ella Bruccoleri, Richard Brake, Brooke Johnson, Rafaella Biscayn, Rachel Shenton, Pedro Lenadro, Florian Clare, Joplin Sibtain | Written by Alan R. Cohen, Alan Freedland | Directed by Renny Harlin
Masked killers Scarecrow, Dollface and Pin-up Girl return for this slasher sequel, the second part of Renny Harlin’s The Strangers trilogy, following 2024’s opening chapter. The entire trilogy was shot back-to-back (in Slovenia, location fans), so fans can be assured that the release of Chapter 3 won’t be dependent on the box office success of The Strangers: Chapter 2. Which is probably just as well.
The first film, like Bryan Bertino’s 2008 original and Johannes Roberts’ 2018 follow-up The Strangers: Prey at Night, was largely a home invasion movie, with the action largely being confined to a single location. The sequel expands the action, as Chapter One’s Final Girl, Maya (Madeleine Petsch) wakes up in hospital, having survived the initial attack and immediately has to flee for her life, as she realises her three garishly masked assailants are intent on finishing the job.
Harlin is no stranger to clichés, and so Maya escapes into a series of time-honoured creepy locations, including a misty forest, a morgue and a stable, all of which have convenient jump-scare-friendly hiding places for the killers to routinely jump out from. Unfortunately, the film’s most original moment, in which Maya is suddenly attacked by a massive wild boar that comes out of nowhere, is also the most laughable, thanks to some extremely dodgy CGI effects and the nagging feeling that Harlin is attempting to pay weird homage to The Revenant.
Another key difference to the previous chapters is that The Strangers: Chapter 2 attempts to stir up some interest in the true identities of the killers, partly through a series of poorly staged flashbacks with not very good child actors – the “explanatory” scene with the baby wild boars (“I’ve taught them to do what I say”) is laugh-out-loud terrible – and partly through introducing a number of potential suspects in the present day, including familiar TV faces like Gabriel Basso. The problem is that firstly, there is simply no reason to care, and secondly, there are way too few suspects in the frame, so it’s almost insultingly easy to guess.
In fairness, Madeleine Petsch gives an impressively physical performance and the film deserves credit for being largely dialogue-free, which at least makes it stand out a bit. It’s just a shame that the stalk-and-slash scenes are so dull. It also doesn’t help that by reducing the characters in peril to just one Final Girl, there isn’t much opportunity for any actual slashing in what’s supposed to be a slasher movie.
In short, The Strangers: Chapter 2 largely feels like it’s treading water until the third chapter. It doesn’t even end on a decent cliffhanger – instead, there’s an extended trailer for Chapter 3 to whet your appetite for the next instalment. At least that looks a bit more lively than Chapter 2.
** 2/5
The Strangers: Chapter 2 is in cinemas now.
