“Allegedly, The Strangers: Chapter 2 is scheduled to hit cinemas later this year. It cannot possibly be as awful as this one. I may have to rethink my life choices if it is.”
I concluded my review of The Strangers: Chapter 1, one of 2024’s worst films, with these words. Now I have to serve those words on a plate to myself. The Strangers: Chapter 2 has only now hit theatres, a year after its predecessor plagued our cinemas. Supposedly the delay was due to reshoots, scheduled to address the criticisms levelled at Chapter 1. They couldn’t have been listening too closely because The Strangers: Chapter 2 is indeed as awful as the first. Pitifully, the only portion of my words that ring true is the need to rethink my life choices.
Chapter 2 picks up where Chapter 1 left off, with Maya Lucas (Madelaine Petsch) waking up in hospital. In the previous film, she and her boyfriend Ryan (Froy Gutierrez) were the victims of a home invasion in which three masked strangers spent the night tormenting them, before stabbing them and leaving them for dead. These strangers target people randomly, simply because they can, which gives their faceless figures more menace, but still does little to elevate the material above anything other than voyeuristic sadism.
The town in which Maya was staying gets wind of her survival, which means that The Strangers learn of Maya’s condition and location. Thus, they break into the hospital – where virtually nobody else seems to be staying or working – to finish the job. Thus the film becomes one big chase sequence in which Maya must evade capture and murder at the hands of the Strangers.
This marks a fundamental issue with Chapter 2. Serving as little more than a bridge between Chapters 1 and 3, the narrative is one big chase with no meaningful character or story development. There are detours in the form of different locations and new characters being introduced, many of whom get murdered mere moments after they appear. But the film is approximately 75 minutes of Maya being chased into various rooms, hurt in ways as graphic as they are weightless, and generally being tormented for our entertainment – the movie foolishly assuming that we viewers are all as callous as it is. Again, to rehash words from my review of Chapter 1, a bunch of violence occurs and then the movie is over.
So sloppily is this exhibition of sleaze strung together that all theoretical suspense, and even basic continuity, get lost in the endeavour. The further Maya runs away, the more her stitches – a consequence of her injuries from the last film – threaten to split. But because the film never once shows her getting these stitches done, it leaves us to fend for ourselves, relying on us having already seen Chapter 1 to understand what’s happening. An injury on Maya’s forehead changes in bloodiness, and even position at one point, during the chase. If the film showed how Maya obtained this injury then this critic can’t recall where.
Perhaps this is because the film insists on cutting away during the worst of its kills, such as when the Scarecrow character drives an axe into a bystander’s chest, the actual contact between flesh and steel happening offscreen. This gives the film, which prides itself on the ferocity of its tormenting, a degree of cravenness as it fails to commit to its own bit. Instead we get Petsch, an otherwise underrated actor, showcasing her range of over the top facial expressions in place of the intended gore. All the while The Strangers give off the impression of being indestructible – one Stranger gets stabbed right in the knee with a farmer’s pitchfork, only to be seen walking and running in their very next scene. Presumably she and Monty Python’s Black Knight have the same belief of what a flesh wound is.
Alfred Hitchcock once said of suspense that it’s the waiting and not the end result that drives our anxiety in horror and thrillers. Director Renny Harlin appears to have some understanding of this, but he drags out the suspense to ridiculous lengths via long, uncut takes full of silence and empty hallways. The continuous waiting for something to happen becomes tiring rather than nerve-wrecking, made worse by the fact that many of these scenes involve Maya quietly walking towards the noises she has heard, and thus actively putting herself in danger for the requirements of the scares. It swiftly exhausts one’s patience, and more obnoxious members of the audience may be inclined to yell suggestions like “move your ass lass” at the screen.
One exception to the lack of character development, weirdly, comes in the form of The Strangers themselves, specifically the two identified as Pin-Up Girl and Scarecrow. Peppered between the sequences of toothless death scenes and boring suspense-building are flashbacks to the childhood of Pin-Up Girl as a schoolgirl. We see how her treatment at the hands of her peers inspired certain lore surrounding The Strangers, such as the mystery of Tamara, and ultimately led her into a life of murder.
For outsiders to The Strangers franchise, these are poorly lit, awkwardly placed flashbacks with unconvincing acting. But those who are savvy to The Strangers and its tropes will likely be outraged. Say what you will about the quality of The Strangers films, but their gimmick – inspired by the Manson murders – was the lack of motive from the titular killers. The point was that there was no point, giving these otherwise goofy characters some fairly sinister dimensions. By having flashbacks, which lend a degree of purpose to their killings, the film is fundamentally undermining its own shtick. It somehow makes these already hollow antagonists even less compelling. The Strangers: Chapter 1 was terrible, but it at least stayed somewhat true to the philosophy of the franchise, something its sequel fails to do while also being just as putrid and just as flimsy as a narrative.
Even more seasoned critics than myself may be left wondering what there is to say about The Strangers: Chapter 2 beyond a series of negative adjectives. There are only so many ways one can describe a film as cruel, exhausting and inept as this one as cruel, exhausting or inept before they simply lose the will to live. Here’s hoping The Strangers: Chapter 3 has some semblance of story or competency, but, based on the brief teaser at the end of my screening for this film, I’m not counting my chickens.
1 star
The Strangers: Chapter 2 is now in theaters.
Learn more about the film, including how to get tickets, at the official website for the title.
You might also like…
‘The Strangers: Chapter 1’ Review: A Sleazy Nothingburger of a Slasher