Renny Harlin reboots the 'cult franchise' of slashers about masked maniacs 'The Strangers' for some reason, but in 2024, no one cares anymore.

At the center of the plot of the film 'The Strangers: Chapter 1' is a young couple — Maya (Madelaine Petsch) and Ryan (Froy Gutierrez), who set off on a road trip across the country from New York to the Pacific coast. By fate, they end up in the provincial town of Venus, Oregon, where their car breaks down under mysterious circumstances. They are forced to spend the night in a cabin in the woods, and their company (against their will, of course) will be three strangers in masks.

In general, the phrase 'cult franchise' in the film's promotional campaign is quite deceptive. Yes, there was a brisk slasher from 2008 starring Liv Tyler, commercially successful, liked by Stephen King himself, but later overshadowed by louder representatives of the genre from the 2000s. Then, ten years later, a sequel with the subtitle 'Prey at Night' appeared, which recouped its budget but without such a stunning result. And now someone needed to reboot this film series. They aimed for a trilogy right away!

At the helm of the new 'Strangers' is Renny Harlin, a multiple nominee for the Golden Raspberry Award, whose filmography, although it includes beloved works like 'Die Hard 2' and 'Deep Blue Sea', is dominated by outright failures and B-movie hackwork. What dictated the choice of director is unclear.

The key problem with the new 'Strangers' is that they in no way rethink the original. It's the same story about masked maniacs hunting a couple in love. The differences in the plot are literally cosmetic, which loses any artistic value of the remake. For example, in the 2008 version, the action took place in the father's country house, while in the 2024 version, it's a rented Airbnb cottage. Modernized, indeed! And then they only changed names; even the chronology of the confrontation with the uninvited guests remained the same.

However, watching 'The Strangers: Chapter 1' will be boring not only for fans of the old film but also for new viewers. The film is terribly predictable and banal, as if made from a ready-made manual of common clichés and tropes. For example, if the characters are quietly sneaking past the antagonists, one of them will inevitably pierce their palm with a nail. And you know it will happen even before it does. The characters themselves, following the good old genre tradition, sometimes behave extremely illogically.

In the era of post-horror, such films, incapable of social subtext, postmodern irony, or deconstruction, are marginal by definition. Let's be honest, even in 2008, 'The Strangers' looked extremely ordinary and hackneyed, and the disarming motive of the criminals ('Because you're home!') that made the film famous was borrowed from Michael Haneke's 'Funny Games'. But that film had one undeniable plus — throughout its runtime, it managed to gradually build and then maintain such a level of tension that every creak and knock was terrifying. But Harlin's remake is simply boring to watch, which for a horror film is a death sentence.

Roman Kovalev

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