The Strangers: Chapter 1

“Because you were home” is one of the more ominous lines in horror filmdom. A rudimentary reply to a victimized woman as she wonders why these sadistic maniacs in babyface masks chose to torture them. In 2008, these words rang with monstrous force in our ears. Now, director Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2) aims to bring them back to life with the first of a planned trilogy in The Strangers: Chapter 1.

Maya and Ryan (Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez) are on a romantic cross-country trip when they unfortunately decide to stop by a small, eerily uncomfortable town for a bite. It’s that quaint Americana that you or I would take one look at and hit the gas, never touching the brake again as we peel out. But Maya and Ryan are horror movie characters, and they do not want to appear rude by running for the hills.

Once they leave the diner, their car has obviously been tampered with, and a pair of backwoods mechanics suggest a local Airbnb to hole up until morning when repairs can be made. Again, you or I know this drill: grab an Uber and find a Hilton. But not our Maya and Ryan, they choose to make the best of it.

As darkness falls, three strangers begin taunting and assaulting our duo, complete with babyface masks. What plays out is a virtual play-by-play remake of the original Bryan Bertino film (listen to our Inspired By A True Story podcast where we discuss the truth behind the fiction of those first two films), with the only notable exception being that these characters make consistently ridiculous choices throughout.

The Strangers is a film that is supposedly driven by characters trapped in an inescapable situation, but unlike the original film, it never feels that way. I lost count at how many times one rational decision or common-sense argument would essentially end the film. There are so many reasonable exits from this situation that we, the audience, start cheering for these strangers to win as they are essentially taunting morons. Even when our heroes have an assailant dead-to-rights, they still make a ludicrous choice that further dooms their crusade.

Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez do the best with what they have to work with, Petsch in particular holds the screen with ease. Unfortunately the weakness and complete absurdity of the script and uninspired direction coupled with generic scares essentially takes all of the growth horror movies have made in recent years, pops it in a DeLorean, and drives it all the way back to 1983 in all the wrong ways. The audience needs a reason to root for these two, and with every additional idiotic choice, we all come to realize they are already ghosts walking.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 is a poorly realized remake of the first film. Maybe Parts 2 and 3 will break off from the repetitiveness and create something unique. But if we are solely basing our thoughts on this film, Maya and Ryan did this to themselves.