2008’s “The Strangers” and its sequel “Prey by Night time” thrived on a easy, chilling idea: anybody might select to assault you, for no motive, at random. The killers’ solely rationalization was “You had been residence.” That ambiguity was terrifying. Enter Renny Harlin’s “The Strangers: Chapter 2,” a second installment within the reboot trilogy that tries to construct towards some grand finale—and even provides backstory on the killers—however collapses below its personal weight. When the movie plastered “To be continued” throughout the display, I groaned. It means I’ll be again right here subsequent 12 months, enduring this another time.
Not less than “Chapter 1” understood its personal limitations and sparked curiosity about the place the collection may go. “Chapter 2,” nonetheless, reveals there was no plan to inform a compelling story. Reasonably, it trudges alongside on the slowest doable tempo, riddled with baffling plot decisions and nonsensical logic. At one level, there’s a CGI sequence involving a…boar? Like a literal wild animal that, in flip, the filmmakers attempt to hook up with the larger narrative image. No, I’m not joking.
The movie picks up with Maya (Madelaine Petsch), recovering within the hospital after barely surviving her run-in with the masked intruders. Her fiancé isn’t so fortunate. Maya has little time to course of earlier than the killers return to complete the job. Early hospital-set cat-and-mouse scenes present sparkles of promise, however as quickly as Maya makes her approach into the Venus, Oregon wilderness, the place belief of the native townsfolk is briefly provide, all the things involves a stuttering halt.
What follows is basically one lengthy, drawn-out chase. Farmers, paramedics, and random townsfolk seem solely for disposable kill photographs, placing Maya by way of countless torment that feels extra mechanical than earned. As a center chapter, “Chapter 2” needs to be fleshing out the larger image. As a substitute, writers Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland, circle again to questions we’ve already had answered. Face-to-face showdowns with the killers? We’ve seen it. Any new mythology? Nonetheless absent. It’s irritating how little Harlin and firm appear invested in giving this materials any actual depth.
The result’s a movie crammed with white noise: stalk-and-slash sequences that develop repetitive virtually instantly. By the lifeless ultimate act, even the solid seems exhausted. A quick tease for “Chapter Three” doesn’t spark intrigue a lot as dread, additional suggesting the filmmakers haven’t any clear thematic route or momentum. And the choice to stretch these films into a virtually 300-page screenplay? Yeesh. The brilliance of the unique movies was their thriller and lack of rationalization. By pulling again the curtain, this trilogy is losing the scariest factor it had going for it. Tamara please don’t come residence.
THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 2 is now enjoying in theaters.