Review: THE STRANGERS – CHAPTER 2 Spins Its Wheels Until CHAPTER 3
It was hard to feel excited going into The Strangers – Chapter 2 considering how lackluster Chapter 1 was and unfortunately, this is not a situation where low expectations have led to a pleasant surprise. Chapter 1, while not a one-to-one remake of Bryan Bertino’s highly effective and intense The Strangers from 2008, used its basic framework for a new iteration that felt notably hollow and vapid compared to the original. Still, with that set-up story out of the way, and an entire trilogy to tell, there was room for something more interesting in the follow-up. But screenwriters Alan R. Cohen, Alan Freedland and Amber Loutfi and director Renny Harlin instead deliver an installment that is decidedly uninspired, essentially spinning their wheels in this go-round until the already-shot Chapter 3 is released.
Pulling a bit of a Halloween II initially, The Strangers – Chapter 2 picks up in the immediate aftermath of Chapter 1, with Maya (Madelaine Petsch) still in the hospital from what she went through when we last saw her. But soon, the Strangers come calling again, sending Maya out of her hospital bed and into a chase that essentially lasts for the entire movie, as she continually tries to escape her very determined attackers.
And look, a movie described as one big chase sequence isn’t inherently a bad thing at all and, in the right hands, can obviously be a very exciting, unrelenting experience. But as with Chapter 1, most everything here feels rather dull and missing the energy needed to sustain interest. The initial chase through the hospital feels like it goes on forever, lacking almost any genuine atmosphere or tension. Even in moments and even specific shots that should feel unsettling, such as when we see the hulking Scarecrow-masked killer through a window, trying to find Maya as she hides in an adjoining room, it just kind of flatly plays out.
Early in his career, Renny Harlin delivered a horror sequel packed with style and fun, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, before making several highly entertaining and exciting 1990s action films, including Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger, and The Long Kiss Goodnight. Remembering those highs makes it all the more disappointing that Harlin seems to really be phoning it in with these new Strangers movies, which lack any real flair or memorable moments.
Maya runs from location to location, with the Strangers catching up to her once in a while, with occasional interruptions from various suspects, red herrings, and “Hey, what’s going on here?!” type characters there to add to the body count. If these sequences actually delivered in terms of suspense, wit, or cool kills, that would be one thing, but it’s all pretty pedestrian. Yes, there are a couple of well done jump scares thanks to some decent sound design providing a good jolt and once in a while, a bit of genuine tension sneaks in (oddly/amusingly, including in two different scenes set in two different bathrooms Maya finds herself trying to escape from) but by and large The Strangers – Chapter 2 is just kind of boring.
The one bright spot here is Petsch. She gives a highly physical performance, as she spends pretty much the entire movie on her own and on the run, with very little dialogue, and Petsch fully commits, bringing at least a bit of genuine pathos to the film. An early scene, as she breaks down crying over the death of her fiancee in the last film, feels appropriately raw. And she sells some of Maya’s more harrowing moments, including one in which she needs to do a painful bit of medical self-care.
The fact that The Strangers – Chapter 2 has so little plot also can't help but add to the feeling that we’re only getting this particular movie because, damn it, a trilogy is what was promised when these films were all shot together, and so they needed to complete this contractually obligated middle installment whether it justified its existence or not or if they had enough story for it. Maybe that accounts for a baffling, runtime padding sequence in which Maya encounters a very different threat of the animal variety in the forest that she’s running through, whose inclusion in this movie feels totally out of left field.
It’s been difficult to feel excited by the idea of turning The Strangers into any sort of whodunnit when part of the original film’s appeal was the idea of these awful acts being done by total strangers, with no explanation given for their actions – something also carried over to the silly yet effective The Strangers: Prey at Night in 2018. Chapter 2 on the other hand pretty much immediately reveals exactly who one of the masked killers is, not that it’s particularly shocking or thrilling, and then spends several scenes throughout the movie flashing back to them as a child, giving them an origin story in the process. And while none of it is all that clever, it does at least break up the monotony of the film, adding some other elements to it beyond the pursuit of Maya.
Suffice to say, it’s not enough to make The Strangers – Chapter 3 feel any more enticing beyond simply knowing that it will, presumably, offer some sort of actual closure. But Chapter 2 is so pedestrian and does so little to move Maya’s story along that it ultimately feels like a weak episode of a TV show rather than an actual full motion picture. And look, it’s totally understandable that many people don’t know about these new movies all being a trilogy shot at the same time, but I also think it’s a testament to the whole random “okay, I guess that’s enough for now” feeling of how The Strangers – Chapter 2 ends that when it cut to the words “To Be Continued” appearing on screen, rather than any sort of excitement from the audience, the one loud reaction in my theater was one woman’s baffled “What?!”
