The Strangers – Chapter 2 Review

Last year, Lionsgate and manager Renny Harlin delivered 1 of the worst-received fearfulness movies of 2024 with The Strangers: Chapter 1, which attempted to relaunch the Strangers franchise with the archetypal successful a planned trilogy. That movie was lambasted by critics and fearfulness fans for being a hollow retread of the archetypal 2008 film, with bare characters, sloppy direction, and a deficiency of the franchise’s signature violence. Now, everyone progressive has repeated the feat with The Strangers – Chapter 2 (or, to beryllium much accurate, kept doing the aforesaid feat, since they changeable 3 films back-to-back), which is already shaping up to beryllium 1 of the worst-received fearfulness movies of 2025. Heaven assistance america erstwhile Chapter 3 launches adjacent year.

In lawsuit you’ve forgotten, Chapter 1 ended with Maya (Madelaine Petsch) successful the infirmary aft surviving her brushwood with the eponymous masked killers. Her fiancé Ryan (Froy Gutierrez) wasn’t arsenic lucky, having bled retired earlier the ambulance arrived. Chapter 2 picks up precisely wherever the archetypal movie near off, with Maya inactive recovering from her ordeal and waiting for a bailout from her sister Debbie (Rachel Shenton). But erstwhile Sheriff Rotter (Richard Brake) reveals to a diner afloat of section patrons that Maya survived the night, Scarecrow, Dollface and Pin-Up Girl tempest the infirmary successful hunt of their intended victim. What ensues is fundamentally 1 agelong pursuit country arsenic an full film, with lone a mates of tiny breaks arsenic Maya desperately tries to find a mode retired of town.

Maya (Madelaine Petsch) returns from Chapter 1.

If you thought the overwhelmingly antagonistic absorption to the archetypal movie would effect successful changes to the sequels, well, it truly is much of the same. Although the filmmakers did bash immoderate further photography connected Chapters 2 and 3 aft Chapter 1’s merchandise to code instrumentality feedback, the world is Harlin and co. changeable each 3 films simultaneously, which means they volition inevitably stock galore stylistic similarities and a halfway originative ethos. Sadly, said ethos is simply a woefully bland instrumentality connected what was already a not large slasher franchise. The characters are inactive empty, the absorption is inactive sloppy, and though this installment does thankfully get rather a spot bloodier, it’s obscurity adjacent capable to marque up for the information that the communicative being told implicit the people of this trilogy apt could person been conveyed successful 1 movie alternatively of three.

The biggest indicator of this is that aft 2 films, Maya is inactive not overmuch of a character. She becomes vaguely much textured by her experiences, and Petsch does a bully occupation expressing her tortured weariness aft being successful combat oregon formation mode for truthful long, but Maya’s lone discernable traits are inactive “loves Ryan” and “would similar to not get stabbed to death.” Her lone struggle is external, meaning successful this movie her feline and rodent crippled with the killers. There is nary interior conflict that drives her actions, nary flaws oregon doubts to research successful her miniscule interactions with the banal caricatures populating the town. Her narration with Ryan successful the archetypal movie was likewise devoid of tension, but alternatively of utilizing Ryan’s lack arsenic an accidental to springiness Maya much dimension, Chapter 2 conscionable piles connected the trauma and hopes that’s enough.

Rather than processing its protagonist, Chapter 2 makes the bizarre determination to effort explaining the actions of 1 of its villains, Pin-Up Girl. In a fistful of eye-rolling flashbacks to her childhood, Chapter 2 charts her improvement into a psychopathic murderer arsenic a miss connected the playground, wherever she goes done horrific trials similar “a classmate stepped connected her sandcastle” and “the lad she liked helped different miss erstwhile she fell disconnected her bicycle.” I’m not kidding: These are unironically utilized arsenic Pin-Up Girl’s “start of darkness” moments, which culminate successful an escalation to homicidal unit that is simply excessively silly to instrumentality seriously. But it lone gets worse erstwhile you retrieve that it’s antithetical to the series’ foundation. The full thought of The Strangers is that they are virtually that: strangers, with nary individuality and nary logical motivation. They kill, arsenic Pin-Up Girl says successful the archetypal film, “because you’re here.” So trying to get into the caput of the antagonists would beryllium misguided adjacent if the execution wasn’t hilariously inept.

It didn’t person to beryllium this way. The cardinal creatives progressive successful this trilogy are not untalented. Renny Harlin has proven himself a susceptible manager successful the past; The Long Kiss Goodnight is simply a large enactment comedy, helium turned successful 1 of the champion non-Jaws shark movies with Deep Blue Sea, and helium brought immoderate existent benignant to what could person been bargain-bin productions similar Cliffhanger. But immoderate passionateness for the trade Harlin erstwhile had has intelligibly been lost, with his absorption successful some Chapter 2 and its predecessor being arsenic level and inert arsenic fearfulness movies tin reasonably get without being outright incoherent. Madelaine Petsch acquits herself reasonably good fixed however overmuch of the runtime doesn’t impact dialogue, adjacent if Maya ne'er becomes much than a vas for the crippled to hap to. With amended scripts and a stronger originative vision, a Strangers movie hinged connected these 2 could person been something.

But 2 movies in, this trilogy is simply a disaster. Even the fistful of moments wherever Chapter 2 concisely sparks to life, similar Maya tending to her wounds successful the woods oregon battling Pin-Up Girl wrong of a moving vehicle, ne'er magnitude to thing worthy emotionally investing in. When the movie ends successful what feels similar the mediate of a scene, it archetypal comes disconnected arsenic a mercy. But past the credits see a trailer for Chapter 3, and it tin lone consciousness similar a threat.