{"id":43822,"date":"2024-05-18T07:19:01","date_gmt":"2024-05-18T11:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=43822"},"modified":"2024-05-18T07:19:01","modified_gmt":"2024-05-18T11:19:01","slug":"the-strangers-chapter-1-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2024\/05\/18\/the-strangers-chapter-1-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"The Strangers Chapter 1 (2024)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>2008\u2019s \u201cThe Strangers<\/a>\u201d was simple. It (and its painfully underrated sequel) was effective because it was simple. It relied on psychological torment where the strangers felt like perversely intrusive predators preying on a couple already in turmoil. When they arrive there\u2019s the collective \u201cWhat else can happen to us?\u201d that we feel emanate through Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman\u2019s characters. With \u201cThe Strangers: Chapter 1\u201d all of that nihilism, that sheer sense of pure evil preying on the vulnerable is lost in favor of what is pretty much just a lazy remake of Bryan Bertino\u2019s original film.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After their car breaks down in an eerie small town, young couple Maya and Ryan are forced to spend the night in a remote cabin, on the way to their anniversary vacation. Panic ensues as they are terrorized and stalked by three relentless masked strangers who strike with no mercy and seemingly no motive.<\/p>\n

While being much too premature for a remake treatment, \u201cThe Strangers: Chapter 1\u201d is retrofitted by director Renny Harlin to be much more than its parts. Rather than simply being a plausible incident that could happen anywhere, \u201cChapter 1\u201d leans in to the ever dreaded \u201cExpanded Universe.\u201d This means that Renny Harlin not only sets up a lot of foreshadowing but there\u2019s also elements of \u201cThe Strangers\u201d world that\u2019s been there before the movie began, and it\u2019s likely going to be explained, and over explained in the planned second and third chapters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Strangers\u201d was so great because it told us nothing about the masked psychos, but \u201cChapter 1\u201d not only seems to give them more to do, but it also subtly sets up character traits that feel so programmed in as a means of expanding upon for the future installments. None of this works, because while it should really be destroying all sense of comfort and our perceived ideas of safety, \u201cChapter 1\u201d just simply embraces the cliches left and right. There\u2019s the young very sexy couple, making terrible decisions, having zero idea about safety precautions when traveling.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There\u2019s the introduction of a small town filled with country bumpkins, all (or any) of whom could be the film\u2019s trio of psychos. And to make things worse the film\u2019s couple have zero chemistry. It\u2019s not to say Madelane Petsch is a terrible actress, but her character has little to no dramatic weight or stakes, nor does co-star Ryan Gutierrez. Meanwhile, Harlin seems to be incapable of devising any actual frights, side stepping a lot of the psychological warfare, and opting more for tame jump scares rather than creeping terror. Pair that with the fact that both protagonists make some of the dumbest decisions ever conceived of in a horror film, and it\u2019s a frustrating experience.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a shame someone as seasoned as Harlin devises a horror film so void of anything resembling mood, atmosphere, or suspense, but he drops the ball hard. I don\u2019t know what the future Chapters have in store for fans, but if \u201cChapter 1\u201d is any indication, we might just be witnessing the massacre of three once potential horror icons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2008\u2019s \u201cThe Strangers\u201d was simple. It (and its painfully underrated sequel) was effective because it was simple. It relied on psychological torment where the strangers felt like perversely intrusive predators preying on a couple already in turmoil. When they arrive there\u2019s the collective \u201cWhat else can happen to us?\u201d that we feel emanate through Liv […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[477,703,835,1012,1087],"class_list":["post-43822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-horror","tag-mystery","tag-remake","tag-survival","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43825,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43822\/revisions\/43825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}