In something that is more of an interesting experiment than an actual event worth celebrating, director Renny Harlin and screenwriters Alan R. Cohen & Alan Freeland announced they were taking what began as a single, very long horror script and dividing it into three parts. All of them have now been filmed, with The Strangers - Chapter 2 releasing this week and Chapter 3 set for release sometime next year.
Something of a reworking and expanded version of the original film that began in 2008, the latest continues the survival story of Maya (Madelaine Petsch), whose partner was killed in the last film by three masked home invaders who seemingly picked the young couple at random. The randomness of these attacks was always the great fear perpetuated by these movies: the killings are brutal, relentless, and could happen to anyone because they aren't targeted.
In Chapter 2, Maya is in the hospital, but her three would-be killers want to finish the job, so they come after her everywhere she runs and hides. The local authorities—the sheriff (Richard Brake) and his deputy (Pedro Leandro)—are useless, and there is every indication that they aren’t eager to solve this case because it would reveal that these killings have been going on for years and they’ve never been able to solve or stop the crimes. Maya is helped by a young nurse at the hospital, who is the only one who believes her story and even lets her stay at her place with her roommates. That includes red herring Gregory (Gabriel Basso), who might as well be wearing a t-shirt that reads “SUSPECT” across his chest.
What I appreciate about Chapter 2 is that is takes us out of the confines of a home-invasion thriller and gets us out into the community and the forrest that surround the town. Hell, there’s even a sequence in which Maya is viciously attacked by a woodland creature (I’m not saying what type, because it’s too funny to spoil). And every time it appears Maya is about to get rescued by any number of new characters, the Strangers find her and deal with anyone trying to interfere in their murderous quest.
Interestingly, the movie also attempts to give us something of a backstory for the three killers, which we discover goes back into their childhoods. We find out where the idea for the babydoll masks came from, and we also learn that their first killing wasn’t random at all. That revelation betrays the random quality of the mythology, but perhaps we’ll be shown later how the random approach began.
The film has a couple of decent jump scares and bloody, if fairly standard, kills that should keep starving horror fans engaged to a point. And Petsch is one of the strongest and most game scream queens we’ve had in quite some time. But the truth is, original horror of late and even certain franchise sequels have been so strong recently that we need something more than just a so-so second chapter to raise our spirits and expectations of what comes next in this series. Am I curious? For sure. Am I giddy with anticipation? Not exactly.
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