Stars: 2/5
The new “Strangers” movie is a bastardization of the original cult classic at best.
“The Strangers: Prey at Night” is a sequel to the 2008 original film “The Strangers.” The original film tells the story of a married couple who are hunted by three masked killers, only to meet a dire fate.
The sequel follows a family of four – mother, father, sister and brother – who are spending the night in a family member’s trailer before they send the daughter off to boarding school. However, the family’s “night in” is over before it begins, with the three masked killers beginning the horror almost as soon as they arrive to the facility.
“Prey at Night” starts murdering its characters too quickly. We do not get enough time with the star of the show, “Mad Men” actress Christina Hendricks. She is the first of the main characters to be slaughtered, leaving you with the three lesser-known cast members. The original film perfected the craft of building suspense, but in the sequel, we see blood before it gets the chance to affect us.
The film would’ve done better in keeping either a well-known or unknown cast. With a few recognizable faces, you have expectations about who will live and who will die. And, when those expectations aren’t met, it’s unsurprising but also unsatisfying. I’d much rather see the acting talent of Hendricks than that of the film’s main survivor,  18-year-old actress Bailee Madison. There’s supposed to be realistic trauma, but Madison’s acting is just as cheesy as her smaller roles in teen dramas like Freeform’s “The Fosters.”
No matter the actors involved, the sequel feels like any other horror movie. The movie focuses on cheap jump scares and fails to reach true horror — something the original film does perfectly. The movie is filled with formulaic plot lines and meat-puppet gore in the worst ways possible.
The message behind the the original “Strangers” movie is simple: senseless crime exists. Even though they touch on it in the sequel, it fails to get as strong of a point across. It plays on the same tactics, but it lacks the craft of a true slasher flick. The original plays on the buildup and suspense of the situation, but the new film chooses quantity over quality in its scares.
The sequel tries to appeal to a larger audience. It’s an obvious money-grabber, even though it still grossed millions less than the 2008 film. I wasn’t old enough to experience first film’s theatrical release, but at least it seemed like an independent cult classic rather than a box office blunder.
I will cut the sequel some slack. The film only had a $5 million budget in comparison to the original’s $9 million, and it still does hit the basics when it comes to scaring the audience. However, the greatest part of the first “Strangers” film is not what it does – it’s what it doesn’t.
The first “Strangers” movie doesn’t give the audience what they want. It’s no happy ending, and you aren’t able to feel as fulfilled as you do after watching the sequel. But, the original is fearless and that’s more than I can say for the 2018 film.