The first film was initially met with mixed critical reception upon its release, though it made a large profit at the box office. Continuing this marketing technique, a "based on a true story" tag was also included at the beginning of the sequel. Though the first film was marketed as "based on a true story", this was a misdirect as the filmmaker stated that he wrote the concept from a series of break-in burglaries that took place in his neighborhood when he was growing up, as well as borrowing elements from the Manson Family Tate killings. Based on an original story by Bryan Bertino, the plot centers around three masked psycho-sociopathic home invaders that prey on the innocent owners. Audience members will be too busy sighing at the screen to be scared.The Strangers film series consists of American psychological horror films. Before long, characters are all making stock horror movie decisions, and there’s no amount of effective craftsmanship that can sell stupidity. ![]() The cast all perform adequately, with Hendricks in particular proving effective, but it’s just difficult to really invest in what happens to any of them. There’s also a bizarre attempt to cash in on recent slabs of 80s nostalgia from Glow to Stranger Things (the title treatment in the credits looks remarkably similar to the latter) and despite the film being set in modern day, the soundtrack is littered with power ballads, all of which ruin any suspense being built up in the accompanying scenes. The violence starts earlier, there are more redundant jump scares and the expansion of the focus from a couple to a family and a house to a mobile home park makes the tension less precise. ![]() Since 2008, horror has become even more profitable, a Friday night staple at the box office, and while the original was allowed patient pacing, the sequel feels tailored to a younger, bloodthirsty audience. ![]() But he’s not got a great deal to work with and what the film crucially fails to do is fill us with that same dread that made its predecessor so gut-wrenching. It may sound like faint praise but it’s well-lit, something that can’t be said for so many scary movies, and Roberts tries to stage the film’s key sequences with an artful eye. It’s far from the cheapo sequel one might expect and, if anything, there’s a slicker sheen here than there was to the original. The director, Johannes Roberts, who scored a surprise hit last year with the shark thriller 47 Metres Down, shows a comforting adeptness from the first frame. Unlike franchises overexplained to breaking point, the sequel repeats the no-frills plot of the first outing with no further depth – which means that as a film, it needs to work as an engine, primarily, to scare us into submission. Photograph: Brian DogulasĪnyone who can still remember what happened after that fateful knock in the first film will have a pretty strong idea of what’s to come and whether it’s an experience they’d care to endure again. They head to a secluded mobile home park and within hours, their peaceful getaway is interrupted by a knock on the door.Ĭhristina Hendricks and Bailee Madison in The Strangers: Prey at Night. Before she’s sent to boarding school, the family, along with their more rule-following son, Luke (Lewis Pullman), decide to take a brief vacation to make the most of their time as a foursome. Kinsey (Bailee Madison), a rebellious teen, has pushed her beleaguered parents, Cindy (Christina Hendricks) and Mike (Martin Henderson), too far and they’re taking drastic action. It’s a retread of sorts, structurally similar, the elements all in place but second time around, there’s something significant missing: the scares. It means that a lucrative younger audience who might be unfamiliar with the original won’t feel intimidated by joining a franchise too late and for genre fans who prefer to keep their villains in the dark, it results in a lack of overwritten backstory. The inevitable development of a Strangers sequel (it made $82m from a $9m budget) has been plagued with setbacks and now, 10 years later, it creeps into cinemas, marketed largely as The Strangers and acting as a standalone film.
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