The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024)
Rating: *1/2
Starring:Madelaine Petsch, Ryan Bown, Matus Lajcak
The way I see it, the most important thing to remember about remaking a movie is to tell the story of the original through a different set of eyes. Find the best parts that people love about the source material, keep them and then come up with something familiar yet original around it.The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024) may have missed a note or two about this.
Couple Maya (Madelaine Petsch) and Ryan (Froy Gutierrez) were driving to Seattle for a job interview when their car broke down, forcing them to stay overnight at an AirBnB. The two talk and cuddle, think about what the future holds for their relationship, kiss, have dinner, all of the sugar you'd expect a happy couple does. The diabetes is soon interrupted by knocks on the door and a figure in the shadows asking for someone named "Tamara". When they answered no one of that name lives there, the figure leaves and everything seems alright. For a while.
When Ryan decided to ride back to town and check up on the garage that's fixing their car, Maya is left alone to chill until she started hearing creepy lullabies being hummed somewhere, as well as getting the gooseflesh after spotting more shadowy figures lurking about. It isn't long then that all the eerie and crazy sh*t begins to happen upon her and her lover as three masked figures prowl the house, playing a demented game of cat-and-mouse with murder in mind.
Admittedly, The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024) does look easy on the eyes in terms of visual quality and production but, sadly, that is all I could say that this movie did right as everything else is a real misfire; for one, the new main couple feels cheap for how thinly they're written, lacking any depth or relatable flaws to help raise the stakes once the masked goons start attacking them. We see them get terrorized and maybe feel a little scared for them, but it just doesn't have a hard enough gut punch to make their predicament distressing. Petsch and Gutierrez did give their all to play their roles with a tad more spark to them, but the effort just wasn't enough to effectively work a thin script and we're basically left with a caricature of a doomed horror movie couple.
As for the slasher attack itself, The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024) is more or less a loose, beat for beat retread of the original movie's home invasion assault with minor differences. We see the couple run and the strangers making chase. Ryan finds a weapon only to kill someone by accident. The two then getting split up during the chaos only to be hunted down and brought back to the AirBnB for a recreation of the iconic final scene where the strangers stab them with a knife. The film try spicing things up by setting most of the action out in the woods and have the strangers act more like hunters looking for prey than creeps toying with their victims, but it also made the mistake of building potential suspects by introducing a nearby town full of creepy townies who eye the unmarried couple as if the two are conjoined in the arse. With this, the creep factor is just gone as there's no lingering mystery to who could be behind the masks as we're now provided a small community full of them, killing off the scare tactics of a random house attack and setting the plot back to tired horror trope of unwelcoming small towns.
And that's what's frustrating about The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024); it has the opportunity to try a different angle towards the titular murderous trio and their killing spree, but the film would rather play safe and retell the same movie with nearly nothing new added. It lacks life or dread. It's tired and recycled. The whole thing is just dull. A beautifully shot yet dull backwoods slasher. Hopefully Chapter 2 and Chapter 3, which are supposed to be released either later this year or at the next, would do better.
Bodycount:
1 male hacked to death with an axe
1 male shot on the head with a shotgun
1 male knifed in the gut, bled to death
Total: 3
FAQs
obviously, and I highly recommend if you enjoy the premise of this franchise. Both films are allegedly based on real life stories, but in the case of “The Strangers,” inspired would probably be a more appropriate word and based is generous if the Manson family's murders are the foundation for the film.
Will The Strangers: Chapter 1 be streaming? ›
The highly anticipated horror film, "The Strangers: Chapter 1," featuring "Riverdale" star Madelaine Petsch, is now available for home viewing. Fans can purchase or rent the film via Amazon's online movie store, although this availability comes with certain regional restrictions.
What happens in Stranger's chapter 1? ›
Ryan mistakenly shoots the Airbnb's owner, killing him. They attempt to escape with his vehicle, but get T-boned by Scarecrow's truck. Maya runs into the woods but Ryan is unable to move as his leg is stuck. Maya calls 911 but the call fails due to a lack of service.
Do they survive in The Strangers: Chapter 1? ›
Maya is then stabbed in the stomach and kicked to the floor to bleed out, but the strangers have to flee as they hear police sirens in the background. They make a getaway in their car as the police arrive. The ending of The Strangers: Chapter 1 sees Maya waking up in hospital, after surviving her brutal injuries.
Is The Strangers: Chapter 1 rated R? ›
'The Strangers: Chapter 1' Rated “R” for “Horror Violence” and “Language” - IMDb.
What serial killer was The Strangers based on? ›
The Strangers - Inspired by the Manson Family and Keddie Cabin 28 Murders.
How long does it take to read the strangers? ›
The average reader will spend 1 hour and 57 minutes reading this book at 250 WPM (words per minute). How long will it take you? To find your reading speed you can take one of our WPM tests. Are you a student?
Is the strangers a series? ›
The Strangers film series consists of American psychological horror films. Based on an original story by Bryan Bertino, the plot centers around three masked psycho-sociopathic home invaders that prey on the innocent owners.
Where can I watch the first strangers? ›
Prime Video: The Strangers - Chapter 1. A young couple in a remote cabin are terrorized by three masked strangers who strike with no mercy and seemingly no motive in the first entry of this horror feature-film series. Rentals include 30 days to start watching this video and 48 hours to finish once started.
Is The Strangers: Chapter 1 gory? ›
Parents need to know that The Strangers: Chapter 1 is the third movie in a home invasion horror franchise that started in 2008—but it's also the first film in a new standalone trilogy. It's more of the same, with lots of killings, dead bodies, guns and shooting, stabbings, bloody wounds, pools of blood, and threats.
Though not a direct remake, The Strangers: Chapter 1 should be viewed as a relaunch of the franchise. It follows a similar storyline to the 2008 release and even teases the true stories that inspired The Strangers original movie.
Is The Strangers 2024 a prequel? ›
As I've mentioned elsewhere, it's a bit amusing to have a third installment in a film franchise that's titled “Chapter 1”. Yet here we are with “The Strangers: Chapter 1”, a prequel to the 2008 original film that was written and directed by Bryan Bertino.
Is The Strangers: Chapter 1 a sequel? ›
Where was strangers chapter 1 filmed? ›
The journeyman director, who's most known for Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger, Deep Blue Sea and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, is back on the big screen with The Strangers: Chapter 1, the first film in a trilogy that he's already shot across 52 days in Slovakia.
Will there be The Strangers chapter 2? ›
It is the second installment of a new trilogy of films, and the direct sequel to The Strangers: Chapter 1. It is expected to be released in late 2024.
Is The Strangers Part 1 based on a true story? ›
While the film, written by Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland, and its forthcoming sequels are not based on a true story, director Harlin, 65, tells PEOPLE his own scary home invasion experience "informed" his approach to the subject matter.
Is Stranger Things 1 based on a true story? ›
Stranger Things is not based on a true story but rather on a conspiracy theory called the Montauk Project. The Montauk Project is a conspiracy theory that claims that the US government has been conducting covert projects in Montauk, New York.
Is The Strangers book based on a true story? ›
The Stranger is a fictionalized account of the massive real-life manhunt for the killer of 13-year-old Daniel Morcombe, who was abducted on Queensland's Sunshine Coast in 2003 while on his way to buy Christmas presents for his family at a local shopping mall. He was later murdered.
Is The Stranger TV Show Based on a true story? ›
While the names have been changed, this did actually happen in real life. The Stranger is based on a tragic true crime case involving the murder of 13-year-old schoolboy Daniel Morcombe, and the decision to use the case as inspiration for the movie has caused controversy.
