Film Review – The Strangers: Chapter 2 (2025)

      The Strangers: Chapter 2, 2025.

      Directed by Renny Harlin.

      Featuring Madelaine Petsch, Richard Brake, Rachel Shenton, Brooke Lena Johnson, Froy Gutierrez, Florian Clare, Janis Ahern, Pablo Sandstrom, JR Esposito, Sara Freedland, Pedro Leandro, Jamie Taylor Ballesta, Ema Horvath, and Gabriel Basso.

      SYNOPSIS:

      Upon discovering that one of their victims, Maya, has survived, the three masked killers return to complete their mission. With no escape and no allies, Maya finds herself in a fierce struggle for survival against psychopathic assailants who are eager to eliminate anyone who obstructs them.

      The Strangers: Chapter 2 begins with a statistic detailing the frequency of home invasion murders and the typically random motives behind them. This concept served as the core of Bryan Bertino’s original film, which was both frightening and disturbingly realistic. Given this context, it’s perplexing that director Renny Harlin’s unnecessary remake (written by Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland, although the film feels so lacking in character development that it seems to have been made without any script) emphasizes this statistic only to fall short in crafting a narrative that offers justification for the killings, the odd small-town setting, and the now embarrassing backgrounds of the masked murderers.

      It's a common critique to say that a filmmaker misunderstands the source material. In this case, that critique is not only relevant but should be emphasized and capitalized. Honestly, what is the purpose of remaking a beloved horror film (and distorting it into three parts) where the chilling fear stems from the absence of a motive, only to create a narrative focused on eerie small-town mysteries and twisted motivations?

      This might be forgivable if The Strangers: Chapter 2 excelled in the cat-and-mouse thriller aspect. However, since the first chapter faltered, there’s little reason to expect improvement, but hypotheticals can still hold value. Even so, this movie impressively lacks suspense and tension. Many chase scenes feel like observing someone play a survival horror video game or a Telltale-style interactive narrative.

      Madelaine Petsch’s character, Maya (her fate even altered from the grim ending of the original), is shown wandering through vacant buildings for extended periods with minimal action occurring, resembling a scenario where players must navigate to escape or select appropriate survival tactics and decide when to engage. While this might seem intriguing theoretically, it ultimately resembles watching someone engage with a vastly tedious horror game.

      This issue alone is severe, yet the film further extends its runtime by repeating similar scenarios; Maya must attempt to get into a car or be rescued by supporting characters multiple times, leading to the same outcome and forcing her back to square one in her fight for survival. If she enters a vehicle during Chapter 3, I might need to exit the theater. It’s one thing to be tiresome; it’s another to be consistently repetitious and dull. There’s a brief attempt to break this cycle that ends up feeling absurd, making one long for the predictable familiarity to return.

      With Maya fleeing around town after her escape from the hospital (where the masked killers breached in pursuit), this allows for some interactions with other locals, including a suspicious sheriff played by Richard Brake, a peculiar group of women assuring her of safety in their apartment (despite their male housemates sitting beside her in the backseat of the car, clearly oblivious to how uncomfortable this scenario might be for a woman being hunted), along with flashbacks revealing the killers' childhoods. While there is a bit of mild intrigue, it again contradicts the fundamental premise of this trilogy.

      The conclusion of The Strangers: Chapter 2 and its juxtaposition is almost comically pathetic. The entire project feels tragic, with the minor saving grace being that Renny Harlin demonstrates technical competence in crafting a coherent story, even if not a single genuine character exists (Madelaine Petsch somehow manages to deliver a decent performance despite the meager material she’s given). That illustrates how low the standard has fallen. The threatened Chapter 3, hinted at in the ending credits as supposedly forthcoming, may still struggle to meet that low bar.

      Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★

      Robert Kojder