The Strangers: Chapter One | Film Review

After their car breaks down, a couple who are forced to spend the night in a remote cabin find themselves at the mercy of masked assassins.

I was really looking forward to this one! Initially I didn't love the first two movies, or the premise in general, but I've seen them both multiple times since then and have really grown to love them, so I was really glad to hear that more were being made.

Unfortunately, this one wasn't as good as either of the other two.

But it started really well. The tense, sinister atmosphere was present from the very beginning, and we got to know the characters right away.

In saying that, though, the characters themselves quickly became frustrating to watch. They didn't really have distinct personalities and the unrealistic, bad decisions they made left me rooting more for the masked assassins.

Because of this, when the characters actually start being terrorised, I didn't care too much what happened to them, which made me less interested in the story as a whole.

The film was also not particularly well written. The sequence of events made no sense and a lot of the characters' actions were clearly done to fit with the weird events, rather than to authentically portray someone in this situation.

My biggest gripe with the film, though, is that it was so close to the original. If the plan was to reboot the original film, then that should have been made clear. But if it wasn't, then it was way too similar, and not half as well done.

And then there was the ending, which sets up for more movies. But because I cared so little about these characters, and it's clear that this film was not made as well as the first two, why would I want to see more?

Overall, I was really disappointed in this film. I wanted to see something new come out of the Strangers universe but this ended up feeling like a remake that didn't need to be made. Because I like the premise, I probably will watch another film if one comes out, but it's not something I'm particularly excited for.

4/10