'The Strangers: Chapter 1' Runs the Original Film Through a Generic Filter [Review]

​I’m a fan of director Renny Harlin’s early work. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4? Made Freddy a rock star. Die Hard 2? Yippee-ki-yay. Deep Blue Sea? One of the best shark movies there is. So, it pains me to report that Harlin’s The Strangers: Chapter 1, the first in a reboot trilogy expanding on Bryan Bertino’s 2008 chiller, The Strangers, flies much too closely to the original, making for a familiar tale without its own identity. Devoid of the nihilistic terror that festered throughout Bertino’s film, replaced with generic scares galore, it’s the sort of dull rehash that begs the question…why even do it in the first place?
 
Maya (Madelaine Petsch) and her boyfriend Gregory (Gabriel Basso) are on their way to Portland where she has a job interview set up that could change their lives. But after stopping in a small town for food, they return to their car to find it won’t start. Lucky for them, one of the locals just happens to have a cabin they can stay at until the thing is fixed. Out in the woods and miles away from anyone, the place doesn’t seem so bad…until a trio of masked strangers break in, there for no reason other than--
 
Well, you may already know, because it’s the same motive established in Bertino’s original Strangers a little over ten years ago, but with slightly different—and far less effective—wording. One of the many problems plaguing Harlin’s The Strangers is that it leans so far into its predecessor that anyone who has seen that film will find few surprises here. The first ninety-pages or so of a larger script, writers Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland seem to be keenly aware of the soulless, body snatcher-like first part they have written and are afraid to have the audience notice, so they fill it with minute differences to distract from that fact. Surprise, surprise, it doesn’t work. Removed is the couple on the rocks conflict from the original, substituted here with a happy, care-free duo that fail to engage despite serviceable performances from Petsch and Basso. None of the changes allow Harlin’s film to stand out on its own merits as we’re dragged towards a conclusion any Strangers fan knows is coming.  

Chapter 1is less its own film and more of a dull copy run through a generic filter. Let’s be honest, the success of Bertino’s Strangers didn’t necessarily come by originality, but by the filmmaker’s ability to inject a palpable, nihilistic dread all throughout. Without that, it’s just another run of the mill home invasion film, and that’s exactly how Harlin’s outing feels. It lacks the patience of the original, throwing the killers in our faces right away rather than building up to that perfect, terrifying moment to introduce them. Bland jump scares fail to get the pulse pounding. Whereas Bertino’s film captured the intense horror of a home invasion, Harlin’s killers roam around the cabin like potential buyers attending an open house. There’s no urgency. Not that they need any, considering characters can’t manage to run five feet without tripping over a rock.
 
Say this for Harlin’s reboot; the filmmaker has been at this a long time and his experience shows on a technical level. Close attention is paid to the production design, giving the cabin a decrepit, sinister vibe. Shots are well-framed enough to establish a basic tension. And my god, how I wanted to weep at night scenes where we can actually see what’s happening. Despite that, Chapter 1 is mostly absent of the thrills some have come to associate with the franchise, what little there is coming in brief flashes before returning to the same mundane “chills” you’ve seen in films like this a thousand times before.
 
The Strangers: Chapter 1 is dreadful enough on its own, but what’s most frustrating is the audacity in announcing a full trilogy before waiting to see if audiences even respond to this effort. The final nail in the coffin for Harlin’s first chapter is that it feels like pure setup…which might be okay if it were a TV pilot and not a redux of one of the more popular horror films from the aughts. Outside of vague implications that there is something beyond the trio of killers happening in the small town where the film is set—there’s a pair of Mormon boys who do their best Shining twins impression, for instance—Harlin’s first chapter has nothing new to offer. Nothing fresh to say. If anything, it’s an indictment on the trend we’ve found ourselves in of endless remakes, reboots, requels and pre-announced trilogies, dragging the corpses of IP through the gravel until the flesh has ripped off and they’re nothing but bones…even then pushed to keep on singing and dancing.
 
Perhaps Chapter 1 will work better once stitched together with the next two into one big supercut, as Harlin has indicated. Perhaps not. The better question is, will anyone even be interested in the next part after such a derivative and uninspired introduction? Will they still care after what is one of the most laughable “to be continued” moments to ever appear in a final frame? Time will tell. For now, just remember the stranger danger lessons you were taught as a kid. If you must approach The Strangers: Chapter 1, proceed with caution. You’ve been warned.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 stalks theaters May 17th from Lionsgate. 

By Matt Konopka