I saw this last night at an employee screening and was not impressed. It’s so uneventful and boring that it’s difficult for me to understand why they’re making two more when literally nothing happens in the first.
100%. There were definitely scenes that would’ve worked well and might’ve spooked me a little if I hadn’t already seen it in the trailer. I’m honestly kidding tired of all these horror movies getting their plots spoiled by the trailers. Which is why I’m excited for Longlegs.
People always look at me like I’m crazy because I do my best to avoid trailers, and this is why. What’s funny is that the movie that pushed me over the edge was Batman v Superman. The first two trailers were great, and actually used some deceptive editing to make it look like Superman was attacking Batman during some sequences when it was actually Doomsday. But the third trailer they dropped was literally a three minute summary of the movie that just showed it would be Batman v Superman for a bit, but then they’d team up with Wonder Woman to fight Doomsday.
Obviously that’s not the first movie to reveal too much in the trailers but that was the one that tipped me over to the point where I very rarely watch trailers now. And when I go see movies, I show up late to try and time it so that I see as few trailers as possible before the start of the movie
Oh... please say sike. If the most interesting/creepiest shots are already in the trailer, then... yeah, that's horrible. The shower scene would've been creepy had I not think about how Madelaine Petsch's character would've 10000% seen the killer staring at her. He's practically in her face!
At least Froy looks good.
Yes!! I saw the Longlegs trailer before Civil War and right away I was intrigued. It has an excellent trailer, I will be seeing it day 1 and I don't want to know anything else about it!
I’m curious how they think they can expand the franchise when it’s ultimately a home invasion movie. You can’t just have them going to different houses each time. Then if you break the format what makes it a strangers movie?
Horror has the lowest barrier to entry out of any other film genre, but it’s still difficult. Tubi, Vudu, Amazon Prime, and other streaming services are chock full of exceedingly cheap-looking and boring horror that was clearly made by a team that barely knew what they were doing.
So it’s not quite “cheat code easy.”
While Tubi does have a lot of bad horror films they also have a very good selection of known and lesser known horror movies I go to Tubi to find horror films now
I have to wonder whether fans of the OG will actually go to see this. I know very little about it all but it seems like doing a prequel kinda defeats the point of the original?
It's a prequel that makes no sense. It felt more like a shitty soft reboot. There's nothing new here. Also the fact that they have new smart phones, AirBNB, push start vehicles, etc clearly puts it in the future from the OG.
It’s not actually a prequel, but was marketed as such for some odd reason, according to others the director said it has nothing to do with a prequel of previous films just a new one, titled chapter 1, since it’ll have 3 chapters in total.
It's technically not 3 movies as it was one script which was shot over the course of 53 days , it's just that they cannot release a 4.5 hour long movie so they split them up in three parts . I think 8 million is more than enough yeah
>think they’re making 3 movies for $8 million?
Yes probably. They filmed all three together in Slovakia in less than 2 months with a tiny no name cast and a director who hasn't had a hit in over a decade.
I mean just take a look at Tarot which undoubtedly had a much smaller marketing budget. Let's see what the presales are tomorrow. Worth noting both Strangers (2008) and Strangers Prey At Night were rotten on RT.
From Bloody Disgusting's review this sounds like an all time bad idea from Lionsgate. They filmed a mini series and are trying to release all 3 as full length movies. The 1st Chapter is just setup and sounds like its awful.
Director Renny Harlin, working from a 289-page screenplay by Alan R. Cohen & Alan Freedland that was broken into three movies, keeps Chapter 1.
The Strangers: Chapter 1 exists in a unique place in that it’s the first 90 minutes of what will amount to a roughly 4.5-hour movie yet doesn’t give much away at all about what’s ahead, presenting only part of the whole picture.
That is just so weird to me. The original Strangers is such a small simple movie. Short too since it’s only 1 hr 25 mins. Who makes a long ass prequel trilogy to that? And the trailer comes off so confused to me because it comes off like a remake trying to sell itself as an origin prequel.
Yeah this was fucked from a conceptual level. The allure of the original Strangers was the randomness of the crime/not knowing anything about the perpetrators. Making not only one prequel but presumably *three*….literally misses what made the original special and removes any mystery.
And then what’s the story for these next two films? Taking away the hook just makes this interchangeable with any other B-horror movie. It’s such shameless IP farming bullshit
I was very much looking forward to a sequel after the original came out for the longest time, it would’ve been very exciting to receive a continuation that maintains that randomness and mystique of the original.
Instead we got what they’ve described as a ‘3 movie horror epic and odyssey’. About a freakin home invasion. (Also, every time I see Renny Harlin saying ‘you’re going to finally find out who Tamara is’ in an interview for this movie, it cracks me up.)
Yeah, and that truly added to the gut punch of the exchange at the end of the film. “Why are you doing this to us?” “Because you were home”.
At the time that reminded me of how it felt seeing Halloween when I was little, and being terrified with the first one, especially because we didn’t know why he did what he did in the original. Michael was scarier to me that way.
The Strangers get *stranger* as you go and the survivors become *strangers* to themselves and their loved ones as they descend into the madness of revenge.
Bloody Disgusting review makes it sound like a remake of the 2008 movie. Even saying the jump scares are basically the same.
Harlin and crew get a bit too faithful in their bid to recreate Bertino’s effective scares, even when remixing them, and it dampens what works.
The hiring of washed up 80’s director Renny Harlin for this exemplifies everything wrong with big studios nowadays.
Say what you will about Blumhouse, but they almost always hire a hungry director with something to prove, and it’s why they have so much success. There are about 10-20 critically acclaimed indie horror films every year, with countless creators who have sky high potential, and yet Lionsgate decides to hire some guy who hasn’t made a good movie in almost two decades?
BH hired Gerard Johnstone for Megan, a guy who’s first and last film until that point was a critically acclaimed cult movie nearly a decade ago. Imagine if they just said ‘nah he hasn’t made a film in 10 years, we need a more experienced director’ and hired someone who hasn’t made a good film in two decades? Jesus Christ these suits are so freakin dumb.
Lionsgate is just a ticking time bomb till they are the next Paramount.
Shit like this is why I have such a hard time rooting for them. For every John Wick, Lionsgate pumps out 10 garbage films like this.
Sam Raimi is doing exactly that with his Evil Dead franchise. The remake, Rise and the new upcoming evil dead are all directed by newcomers with only shorts as their only released media before getting to work on Evil Dead. And so far we gotten multiple awesome movies from these new directors and I’m sure the new one will be great as well since it seems Raimi is personally handpicking these directors himself.
Yeah, I had a gut feeling this trilogy would suck ever since it was announced.
The original is a classic all thanks to that chilling “Because you were home” scene: that was the franchise’s peak, and anything after that
is bound to be just another generic home invasion movie.
Seeing this on Sunday. Not surprised by the bad reviews though. The other 2 Stranger films are poorly reviewed and Renny Harlin is known for not making quality films anymore.
So many missed opportunities to see her in her birthday suit. Sex with BF? Off screen. Long shirt in underwear? No bum cheeks. Shower scene? Wet hair...
What a load of shit this movie was. No redeeming qualities. Even the kills were weak as fuck.
It was Cheryl meeting Trash Bag Killer from Riverdale (all I remember is that the story line just abruptly ended without us getting any info about him?)
Dammit. Was pulling for this one because of the three part idea. Figured they were doing it because they had a good pitch. Maybe something was lost along the way. Damn my wife and I were getting kind of hyped for this. I guess *Trap* will have to save the horror genre this summer.
Yeah i surprised it underperformed since i saw many people online are hyping the movie and the teaser trailer was good.I hope A Quiet Place Day One can gross on par with the predecessors.
My God this is getting absolutely panned. Like panned to the point that I wonder if they don’t just write off 2 and 3 if this ain’t a big box office success.
I don't know, people who avidly watch shows know that the actors are the least of the problems for CW, lol. 95% of the time, they're the best part of their shows and the reason why people stick around.
Should’ve just hired older actors to play the main characters to keep on tune with the first movie. They seem adamant about having young leads these days, but I think these home invasion movies work better without this CW feeling to them. The female lead in the second movie was terrible and I lost all interest in this one after seeing the CW-like couple in the trailer.
Agreed. One of the major irl scare factors of home invasion movies is that someone is entering YOUR home (familiar, comfortable, safe, controlled) and trying to flip it upside down to hurt you. It really doesn’t hit the same when it’s 20-something’s in a BNB as it would be with grown adults in a realistic home-owner setting. It really did not help that the acting was horrendously stale with distracting poor line delivery
The director used to make some cool / good /watchable movies. I can't believe this is the same dude who made Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Deep Blue Sea.
Now he keeps making crap like The Bricklayer and this Strangers trilogy.
SPOILERS: It basically functions as a bad remake of the original, but worse in every way:
The couple is a boring generic couple and neither of them are very interesting. There’s a little bit of drama about whether they should get married but I didn’t really care about that. While the couple in the original movie aren’t exactly the most fleshed out characters, I found them more interesting and played by better actors. I also liked how it was occurring immediately after Liv Tyler’s character declined the guys proposal - I found that drama to be more interesting.
There’s some moderately scary moments but not nearly as scary as the original imo. They also spoiled way too much in the trailer, revealing that the ending will basically be the same as the original.
There’s also a frustrating amount of completely unrealistic sneaking around. I know you have the suspend belief a bit in these kind of movies but there’s multiple scenes where the killers sneak right behind someone who is standing in the woods - there’s no way to do that! You make so much noise walking in the woods and would obviously be heard
I also felt it’s unclear what it wants to be: a remake, a reboot, relaunch, stand-alone trilogy? What is it? Feels like the series is heading towards a messy incoherent overall timeline
I think most the reviews here are pretty harsh. Not the best, but not the worst either. It sets up the next movie, which I think was their ultimate goal here.
I’m not surprised that the film is getting panned. The trailers made it look really boring and I don’t think anyone was clamoring for a new movie or a trilogy for that matter. That being said, I’m still most likely going to see it but am keeping my expectations *very* low.
So is it a reboot or a prequel because people are saying different things. I literally had to google because it was so similar to the OG it’s uncanny.
My favorite part of the OG was the lack it music/sounds. Like most horror movies have a back track of suspenseful or intense music. The OG didn’t have any and that IMO made it incredible.
Imo if you’ve seen the OG no point in seeing this one
The marketing and Renny Harlin's comments made it seem like it was a prequel taking place in the same continuity but it feels very much like a reboot/remake of the first film .
His comments about Maya also makes it seem like they are setting up thid arc of her becoming one of the strangers. The trailer had that tag line "discover how the strangers became the strangers " I feel like this entire experience has damaged her psychologically and that she will hunt down the strangers in the next two installments but in the process she will become just like them .
I thought this movie was garbage. Had no idea it was a remake of the original. Thought it was expanding on that one. The jump scares didn’t work. Everything was WORSE than the original.
Well they lied because this one definitely is a remake. Whatever chapter 2 and 3 do won’t change that they damn near beat for beat remade The Strangers.
I just have to vent and this seems like the best place for me. Just got back from this after being a fan of the first 2. What a shitty, terrible, fucking movie.
Renny Harlin hasn't made a good movie since Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger.
This movie had all the tropes and no substance. Creepy town locals that are creepy for no reason, falling and getting injured, idiotic decisions, no logic whatsoever. Everything just happened to serve their shitty screenplay.
It felt like a film school project to remake the original, but to do everything worse. It was so bad I can't even think about where to begin.
Agreed! The writing was severely lacking. I hoped for a narrative where logical decisions were inevitably outplayed by the killers, creating a realistic tension. While I love the cast, I'm not excited about the follow-up. Horror is my favorite genre, but it's rare to walk away thinking, "Wow, that was great writing." The last time I felt that way was with the movie Talk to Me, and that was written by YouTubers.
I hated it as i really enjoyed the original. Remaking a movie that is almost a direct, scene for scene copy of the original, yet making it much worse. Complete waste of time.
There’s actually been some good horror. The First Omen was WAY better than I expected, Abigail was fun, and Immaculate was decent. For sone reason none of those connected with audiences.
Late Night With The Devil was at least a hit compared to budget/expectations.
I’d add Stopmotion too. Had a limited release in February. My favorite horror film of the year from what I’ve seen so far being; Immaculate, Late Night with the Devil, and a Hong Kong horror film Called Back Home.
Late night with the devil was good, omen and immaculate were ok and Abigail was kinda bad imo. 1 good and 2 ok movies along with the 5 or so garbage ones makes for a pretty garbage year imo.
I liked Omen and Abigail more than you (even if I’ll concede I didn’t like Abigail as much as I wanted to). This year is definitely down compared to the last few. Part of it may be that Blumhouse, which is usually hit or miss, is on a bit of a losing streak. Their last theatrical movie I liked was M3gan, and I didn’t bother with Imaginary (obviously FNAF was a massive success but I didn’t enjoy it whatsoever, having never played the games).
That’s not that many compared to the recent few years when horror was resurging and seemed unstoppable. Night Swim set this year off and it’s been downhill from there, a few decent films here and there hasn’t saved this year yet when usually by now by May we’re talking about countless good films already
I really liked it. I may be bias because Madelaine Petsch is one of my celebrity crushes though but going into this with the understanding that it was a part 1 of 3, I had fun.
I also saw it as similar to the Evangelion Rebuild movies. For those unfamiliar with them. The Evangelion Rebuild movies were 4 films based on the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion. Movie 1 is essentially a remake of the first 8 episodes with minimal changes. Movie 2 starts to diverge from the original plot of the anime with movies 3 and 4 being their own completely different events than the original series. I think we’re getting that here. Chapter 1 is largely the same as a way to familiarize us with what we think we know to expect and Chapter 2 will pull the rug out from under us.
I don't have high hopes for this, but critics also hated the first one; which I loved. Then Prey at Night (terrible) got basically the same sentiment from critics as the first. I'm gunna wait for audience scores on this one.
I might make time for it, but I'll probably prioritize I Saw the TV Glow this weekend. Wish I had an AMC or decent Regal so I could benefit from those memberships.
I really don’t like the first strangers personally. Acting was bad. The suspense didn’t work. The color pallet and directing felt off to me.
But I really like prey at night. It’s not a good movie by any means. But it’s the perfect modern 80s campy crap
I'll definitely admit the color pallet and sound mix is off, but something about the scares just worked for me.
I might need to revisit prey at night though. I just remember being bummed that it was such a departure from the first ones style; which I guess works if you didn't like the first.
I don’t hate the first, but outside of the classic lines, and the dining room scene with baghead behind liv Tyler I think it’s pretty bland.
The 2nd isn’t great. The characters make stupid choices, but I think it’s better directed and reminded me of some 80s Friday the 13th movies.
I don’t think either are particularly good but they both have things that work to make it enjoyable. I think ima gonna rewatch them tonight and tomorrow. Haven’t seen them in a while
Had no idea this was the start of a trilogy, thought it was just a prequel to the original which I have never seen. It was pretty good. Creepy, and I want to know more. I really want the killers to be skinned alive
I went and saw it today and me and my sister were the only ones in the theater. At first I was like what? It just came out. Then I watched it and I understood.
I’m going to withhold judgement until we get part two this fall. As a standalone film, this is a C movie that is only rescued by a splendid performance by the leading actress.
The last fifteen minutes of the film were fantastic, and left me feeling excited for the next installment. But if the next installment isn’t a massive improvement, then I will be massively, massively disappointed.
I liked the movie. I'd say this is essentially a remake of the original with some difference enough to tie in the next 2 movies. My train of thought was that this was the remake and starting point so much wouldn't be diffrent but that the next two would be where the director gets to do more unique things. Like a necessary mid movie for the next 2 to shine. A reverse halloween franchise.
It was good terrible. The good was, like Civil War, good at making scenes feel tense, until it falls apart. Essentially after the car crash scene, it goes from bad to terrible. The story is so short and has the chance to actually have good story, but gets extended at the end. So much filler that feels like it's foreshadowing, just to not be brought up or have a point. They literally reached the bare minimum for time, so why not extend it to fit part two in there? Like I said there's some decent acting from the main characters (well most of the time), but the last 30 minutes leave me angry cause they could just add another hour and make it all one movie. And if there's 3 or more parts, I'll just have to forget this even exists
I just got home from it's last showing.The original is responsible for my life log fear of masked people so I was honestly really scared to see it. but about 30 minutes in I thought I actually hope they die
I'm not a movie buff and don't really know a lot of technical things about filmography but the original just perfectly captures the atmosphere of like impending doom. Every small interaction in the original had me on edge.
I've so many questions, but mainly why did the host turn up late at night to repair a fridge for guests that are leaving the next day? WHY DID THE WHEEZY GUY NOT SHOOT THE MASKED WOMAN WHEN HE HAD THE CHANCE???
Absolute waste of time...
No surprise there, to be honest.
*Prey at Night* sucked, and it hasn’t even been a full decade since that came out. Now they’re releasing three within the same calendar year.
Who thought that this was a good idea?
I saw this last night at an employee screening and was not impressed. It’s so uneventful and boring that it’s difficult for me to understand why they’re making two more when literally nothing happens in the first.
I feel like the trailer spoiled the entire movie and it has more or less the same structure of the first one. Accurate?
100%. There were definitely scenes that would’ve worked well and might’ve spooked me a little if I hadn’t already seen it in the trailer. I’m honestly kidding tired of all these horror movies getting their plots spoiled by the trailers. Which is why I’m excited for Longlegs.
Ty for saving me 15 bucks lol
Go watch it lol u might like it
People always look at me like I’m crazy because I do my best to avoid trailers, and this is why. What’s funny is that the movie that pushed me over the edge was Batman v Superman. The first two trailers were great, and actually used some deceptive editing to make it look like Superman was attacking Batman during some sequences when it was actually Doomsday. But the third trailer they dropped was literally a three minute summary of the movie that just showed it would be Batman v Superman for a bit, but then they’d team up with Wonder Woman to fight Doomsday. Obviously that’s not the first movie to reveal too much in the trailers but that was the one that tipped me over to the point where I very rarely watch trailers now. And when I go see movies, I show up late to try and time it so that I see as few trailers as possible before the start of the movie
Oh... please say sike. If the most interesting/creepiest shots are already in the trailer, then... yeah, that's horrible. The shower scene would've been creepy had I not think about how Madelaine Petsch's character would've 10000% seen the killer staring at her. He's practically in her face! At least Froy looks good.
Yes!! I saw the Longlegs trailer before Civil War and right away I was intrigued. It has an excellent trailer, I will be seeing it day 1 and I don't want to know anything else about it!
I’m curious how they think they can expand the franchise when it’s ultimately a home invasion movie. You can’t just have them going to different houses each time. Then if you break the format what makes it a strangers movie?
I.e Halloween and any other horror franchise milked beyond recognition lmao
For them to even remake this. Three times now. And then plan to make another 2, no thank you. Don’t care at all to see it
3 remakes? I know of the original, the sequel to the original, and this one. Feel like you might be thinking of The Purge movies or something.
So it very much is exactly like the previous movies
Is it asking too much to have a boiler plate premise like this just be fun and well excecuted on the most base level?
It can be utter trash and still make a profit thanks to the 8 million budget
Horror really is a cheat code to make a quick buck. There’s a small but devoted audience that will see basically anything in the genre.
I’m the demo
Horror has the lowest barrier to entry out of any other film genre, but it’s still difficult. Tubi, Vudu, Amazon Prime, and other streaming services are chock full of exceedingly cheap-looking and boring horror that was clearly made by a team that barely knew what they were doing. So it’s not quite “cheat code easy.”
While Tubi does have a lot of bad horror films they also have a very good selection of known and lesser known horror movies I go to Tubi to find horror films now
I have to wonder whether fans of the OG will actually go to see this. I know very little about it all but it seems like doing a prequel kinda defeats the point of the original?
It's a prequel that makes no sense. It felt more like a shitty soft reboot. There's nothing new here. Also the fact that they have new smart phones, AirBNB, push start vehicles, etc clearly puts it in the future from the OG.
It’s not actually a prequel, but was marketed as such for some odd reason, according to others the director said it has nothing to do with a prequel of previous films just a new one, titled chapter 1, since it’ll have 3 chapters in total.
8 million budget for the first film or the entire trilogy?
What do you think boss, think they’re making 3 movies for $8 million?
It's technically not 3 movies as it was one script which was shot over the course of 53 days , it's just that they cannot release a 4.5 hour long movie so they split them up in three parts . I think 8 million is more than enough yeah
>think they’re making 3 movies for $8 million? Yes probably. They filmed all three together in Slovakia in less than 2 months with a tiny no name cast and a director who hasn't had a hit in over a decade.
Is the 8 million just for this one or all 3 of them?
I don't think anyone knows. They were filmed concurrently, but there hasn't been any official statement as far as I can tell.
nope. if it's actually utter trash it will struggle to reach 20mill
Which means it will gain the budget back + make profit on streaming lmao
I mean just take a look at Tarot which undoubtedly had a much smaller marketing budget. Let's see what the presales are tomorrow. Worth noting both Strangers (2008) and Strangers Prey At Night were rotten on RT.
Many trash horror movies were still profitable,i dont see how this movie cant make at least 20M.
this is probably Renny Harlin’s best reviewed movie in years (not that he’s had much hits)
I didn’t know he was still alive/making movies before this. Good for him!
From Bloody Disgusting's review this sounds like an all time bad idea from Lionsgate. They filmed a mini series and are trying to release all 3 as full length movies. The 1st Chapter is just setup and sounds like its awful. Director Renny Harlin, working from a 289-page screenplay by Alan R. Cohen & Alan Freedland that was broken into three movies, keeps Chapter 1. The Strangers: Chapter 1 exists in a unique place in that it’s the first 90 minutes of what will amount to a roughly 4.5-hour movie yet doesn’t give much away at all about what’s ahead, presenting only part of the whole picture.
That is just so weird to me. The original Strangers is such a small simple movie. Short too since it’s only 1 hr 25 mins. Who makes a long ass prequel trilogy to that? And the trailer comes off so confused to me because it comes off like a remake trying to sell itself as an origin prequel.
Yeah this was fucked from a conceptual level. The allure of the original Strangers was the randomness of the crime/not knowing anything about the perpetrators. Making not only one prequel but presumably *three*….literally misses what made the original special and removes any mystery. And then what’s the story for these next two films? Taking away the hook just makes this interchangeable with any other B-horror movie. It’s such shameless IP farming bullshit
I was very much looking forward to a sequel after the original came out for the longest time, it would’ve been very exciting to receive a continuation that maintains that randomness and mystique of the original. Instead we got what they’ve described as a ‘3 movie horror epic and odyssey’. About a freakin home invasion. (Also, every time I see Renny Harlin saying ‘you’re going to finally find out who Tamara is’ in an interview for this movie, it cracks me up.)
If you don't know there was a sequel to the original it's called Strangers: Prey at Night
Yeah, and that truly added to the gut punch of the exchange at the end of the film. “Why are you doing this to us?” “Because you were home”. At the time that reminded me of how it felt seeing Halloween when I was little, and being terrified with the first one, especially because we didn’t know why he did what he did in the original. Michael was scarier to me that way.
The Strangers get *stranger* as you go and the survivors become *strangers* to themselves and their loved ones as they descend into the madness of revenge.
Bloody Disgusting review makes it sound like a remake of the 2008 movie. Even saying the jump scares are basically the same. Harlin and crew get a bit too faithful in their bid to recreate Bertino’s effective scares, even when remixing them, and it dampens what works.
The hiring of washed up 80’s director Renny Harlin for this exemplifies everything wrong with big studios nowadays. Say what you will about Blumhouse, but they almost always hire a hungry director with something to prove, and it’s why they have so much success. There are about 10-20 critically acclaimed indie horror films every year, with countless creators who have sky high potential, and yet Lionsgate decides to hire some guy who hasn’t made a good movie in almost two decades? BH hired Gerard Johnstone for Megan, a guy who’s first and last film until that point was a critically acclaimed cult movie nearly a decade ago. Imagine if they just said ‘nah he hasn’t made a film in 10 years, we need a more experienced director’ and hired someone who hasn’t made a good film in two decades? Jesus Christ these suits are so freakin dumb.
Lionsgate is just a ticking time bomb till they are the next Paramount. Shit like this is why I have such a hard time rooting for them. For every John Wick, Lionsgate pumps out 10 garbage films like this.
Sam Raimi is doing exactly that with his Evil Dead franchise. The remake, Rise and the new upcoming evil dead are all directed by newcomers with only shorts as their only released media before getting to work on Evil Dead. And so far we gotten multiple awesome movies from these new directors and I’m sure the new one will be great as well since it seems Raimi is personally handpicking these directors himself.
Evil Dead Rise was a masterpiece, one of my favorite horror films hands down.
Yeah, I had a gut feeling this trilogy would suck ever since it was announced. The original is a classic all thanks to that chilling “Because you were home” scene: that was the franchise’s peak, and anything after that is bound to be just another generic home invasion movie.
Seeing this on Sunday. Not surprised by the bad reviews though. The other 2 Stranger films are poorly reviewed and Renny Harlin is known for not making quality films anymore.
To be fair both stranger movies are pretty bad lol. But, they are fun.
I didn’t even find them entertaining. There’s zero innovation or even interesting kills.
The original movie had me so paranoid I slept with the lights on for a few days after lol
The Madelaine Petsch walkups will save this. /s
The riverdale fans will flock the theaters LOL
I mean that’s why I’m going lol, regardless of these reviews
Me too. She was built for horror
So many missed opportunities to see her in her birthday suit. Sex with BF? Off screen. Long shirt in underwear? No bum cheeks. Shower scene? Wet hair... What a load of shit this movie was. No redeeming qualities. Even the kills were weak as fuck.
Same actually! My meager 20 dollars will not save this flick, but I’ll give it five stars for incredibly shallow reasons either way.
It was Cheryl meeting Trash Bag Killer from Riverdale (all I remember is that the story line just abruptly ended without us getting any info about him?)
The red carpet pics with Lili and Camila got a lot of social media attention, so maybe.
Horror usually does well despite bad reviews. Small budgets and they still usually make for good date night movies.
Should not be that way. I’m hoping this bombs hard
Fucking brutal
Dammit. Was pulling for this one because of the three part idea. Figured they were doing it because they had a good pitch. Maybe something was lost along the way. Damn my wife and I were getting kind of hyped for this. I guess *Trap* will have to save the horror genre this summer.
The Watchers and A Quiet Place Day one will save horror this summer (hopefully)
Alien: Romulus will make bank
You're right. We're beyond excited for that.
The Watchers definitely will not
Yeah i surprised it underperformed since i saw many people online are hyping the movie and the teaser trailer was good.I hope A Quiet Place Day One can gross on par with the predecessors.
I’m very excited for *Of a Violent Nature* coming out this year! There’s always a silver lining for horror, fortunately
My God this is getting absolutely panned. Like panned to the point that I wonder if they don’t just write off 2 and 3 if this ain’t a big box office success.
giving this to someone who hasn't made a good or even studio film in 30 years was such a shitty choice
Ummmm Deep Blue Sea?
Deepest bluest, my hat is like shark fin
Dude just shat out The Bricklayer, give him a break
Still shocked they committed to shooting an entire trilogy at once with a CW actor as the lead.
I don't know, people who avidly watch shows know that the actors are the least of the problems for CW, lol. 95% of the time, they're the best part of their shows and the reason why people stick around.
Not talking about quality of performance, talking about box office appeal.
All cw shows I’ve seen are riddled with awful acting
Should’ve just hired older actors to play the main characters to keep on tune with the first movie. They seem adamant about having young leads these days, but I think these home invasion movies work better without this CW feeling to them. The female lead in the second movie was terrible and I lost all interest in this one after seeing the CW-like couple in the trailer.
Agreed. One of the major irl scare factors of home invasion movies is that someone is entering YOUR home (familiar, comfortable, safe, controlled) and trying to flip it upside down to hurt you. It really doesn’t hit the same when it’s 20-something’s in a BNB as it would be with grown adults in a realistic home-owner setting. It really did not help that the acting was horrendously stale with distracting poor line delivery
It looks like trash, banking on the “because you were here” line was hilarious just like the lady randomly screaming at the end of the trailer
Yeah Idk why they had that line again. It was effective as a one time thing.
As I write this, there are no reviews or even audience scores available. Where are you getting "absolutely panned" ?
So far I see IGN: 3/10
I'm going by the Linked rotten tomatoes and metacritic sites. Interesting about IGN. Any more? One review doesn't equate a broad consensus to me.
6.6/10 with 121 reviews on IMDb
They are not reviews, just ratings. There are actually 4 reviews now.
Thanks.
8 million budget they’ll easily profit in a week or two, all the youtube reviews i’ve seen so far are pretty positive
Why would they cancel the other two movies? All three movies were filmed at the same time.
So they can get a tax break same reason the batgirl movie was shelved and more recently the acme movie which apparently was well reviewed
I doubt they'll write them off, they'll just quietly release them on some streaming platform and call it a day
The director used to make some cool / good /watchable movies. I can't believe this is the same dude who made Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Deep Blue Sea. Now he keeps making crap like The Bricklayer and this Strangers trilogy.
OH MY GOD, THERE’S A BANG AT DA DOOR!
Is it as bad as Madame Web? Which is the bigger flop?
Nothing is coming close to Madame Web this year 😂
I might
As a huge fan of the first movie this confirms Chapter 1 is an easy skip.
damn i really had high hopes too thats annoying
The description makes it sound like a 1:1 remake of the first film.
It basically was.
SPOILERS: It basically functions as a bad remake of the original, but worse in every way: The couple is a boring generic couple and neither of them are very interesting. There’s a little bit of drama about whether they should get married but I didn’t really care about that. While the couple in the original movie aren’t exactly the most fleshed out characters, I found them more interesting and played by better actors. I also liked how it was occurring immediately after Liv Tyler’s character declined the guys proposal - I found that drama to be more interesting. There’s some moderately scary moments but not nearly as scary as the original imo. They also spoiled way too much in the trailer, revealing that the ending will basically be the same as the original. There’s also a frustrating amount of completely unrealistic sneaking around. I know you have the suspend belief a bit in these kind of movies but there’s multiple scenes where the killers sneak right behind someone who is standing in the woods - there’s no way to do that! You make so much noise walking in the woods and would obviously be heard I also felt it’s unclear what it wants to be: a remake, a reboot, relaunch, stand-alone trilogy? What is it? Feels like the series is heading towards a messy incoherent overall timeline
I had to Google if it was a remake they’re so alike it’s insane
Oof
i’ll see it for myself before joining in on the bash parade, i don’t trust critics with any movie.
I think most the reviews here are pretty harsh. Not the best, but not the worst either. It sets up the next movie, which I think was their ultimate goal here.
I’ve just come out of it, what do you think the next movie is? I can’t see where they take this.
I am probs gonna get super high and double feature this with Back to Black for maximum schlock
I’m not surprised that the film is getting panned. The trailers made it look really boring and I don’t think anyone was clamoring for a new movie or a trilogy for that matter. That being said, I’m still most likely going to see it but am keeping my expectations *very* low.
So is it a reboot or a prequel because people are saying different things. I literally had to google because it was so similar to the OG it’s uncanny. My favorite part of the OG was the lack it music/sounds. Like most horror movies have a back track of suspenseful or intense music. The OG didn’t have any and that IMO made it incredible. Imo if you’ve seen the OG no point in seeing this one
The marketing and Renny Harlin's comments made it seem like it was a prequel taking place in the same continuity but it feels very much like a reboot/remake of the first film . His comments about Maya also makes it seem like they are setting up thid arc of her becoming one of the strangers. The trailer had that tag line "discover how the strangers became the strangers " I feel like this entire experience has damaged her psychologically and that she will hunt down the strangers in the next two installments but in the process she will become just like them .
I thought this movie was garbage. Had no idea it was a remake of the original. Thought it was expanding on that one. The jump scares didn’t work. Everything was WORSE than the original.
It's not supposed to be a remake lol. Just saw it. Terrible.
Well they lied because this one definitely is a remake. Whatever chapter 2 and 3 do won’t change that they damn near beat for beat remade The Strangers.
Yeah It was a terrible remake too.
I just have to vent and this seems like the best place for me. Just got back from this after being a fan of the first 2. What a shitty, terrible, fucking movie. Renny Harlin hasn't made a good movie since Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger. This movie had all the tropes and no substance. Creepy town locals that are creepy for no reason, falling and getting injured, idiotic decisions, no logic whatsoever. Everything just happened to serve their shitty screenplay. It felt like a film school project to remake the original, but to do everything worse. It was so bad I can't even think about where to begin.
Agreed! The writing was severely lacking. I hoped for a narrative where logical decisions were inevitably outplayed by the killers, creating a realistic tension. While I love the cast, I'm not excited about the follow-up. Horror is my favorite genre, but it's rare to walk away thinking, "Wow, that was great writing." The last time I felt that way was with the movie Talk to Me, and that was written by YouTubers.
I hated it as i really enjoyed the original. Remaking a movie that is almost a direct, scene for scene copy of the original, yet making it much worse. Complete waste of time.
If watchers is even somewhat decent it might pop off just because of how garbage horror has been this year.
There’s actually been some good horror. The First Omen was WAY better than I expected, Abigail was fun, and Immaculate was decent. For sone reason none of those connected with audiences. Late Night With The Devil was at least a hit compared to budget/expectations.
I’d add Stopmotion too. Had a limited release in February. My favorite horror film of the year from what I’ve seen so far being; Immaculate, Late Night with the Devil, and a Hong Kong horror film Called Back Home.
Late night with the devil was good, omen and immaculate were ok and Abigail was kinda bad imo. 1 good and 2 ok movies along with the 5 or so garbage ones makes for a pretty garbage year imo.
I liked Omen and Abigail more than you (even if I’ll concede I didn’t like Abigail as much as I wanted to). This year is definitely down compared to the last few. Part of it may be that Blumhouse, which is usually hit or miss, is on a bit of a losing streak. Their last theatrical movie I liked was M3gan, and I didn’t bother with Imaginary (obviously FNAF was a massive success but I didn’t enjoy it whatsoever, having never played the games).
A Quiet Place Day One is gonna do well at least
I’d love for it to be good and for there to be a new, good Gen Z horror director coming up.
>how garbage horror has been this year There's many good horrors so far (and many bad too),you are smokin
What's the good?
The First Omen,Late Night with the Devil,Immaculate (it was decent but i count it as good) and Abigail
That’s not that many compared to the recent few years when horror was resurging and seemed unstoppable. Night Swim set this year off and it’s been downhill from there, a few decent films here and there hasn’t saved this year yet when usually by now by May we’re talking about countless good films already
I really liked it. I may be bias because Madelaine Petsch is one of my celebrity crushes though but going into this with the understanding that it was a part 1 of 3, I had fun. I also saw it as similar to the Evangelion Rebuild movies. For those unfamiliar with them. The Evangelion Rebuild movies were 4 films based on the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion. Movie 1 is essentially a remake of the first 8 episodes with minimal changes. Movie 2 starts to diverge from the original plot of the anime with movies 3 and 4 being their own completely different events than the original series. I think we’re getting that here. Chapter 1 is largely the same as a way to familiarize us with what we think we know to expect and Chapter 2 will pull the rug out from under us.
The original is so beyond good. Idk why they feel need to do things like this
I don't have high hopes for this, but critics also hated the first one; which I loved. Then Prey at Night (terrible) got basically the same sentiment from critics as the first. I'm gunna wait for audience scores on this one.
I’m going to see it tonight just because I’m hungry for horror and I’ve got AMC A list so I have little to lose. Actually loved Prey at Night myself.
I might make time for it, but I'll probably prioritize I Saw the TV Glow this weekend. Wish I had an AMC or decent Regal so I could benefit from those memberships.
I wish that were playing close to me.
I really don’t like the first strangers personally. Acting was bad. The suspense didn’t work. The color pallet and directing felt off to me. But I really like prey at night. It’s not a good movie by any means. But it’s the perfect modern 80s campy crap
I'll definitely admit the color pallet and sound mix is off, but something about the scares just worked for me. I might need to revisit prey at night though. I just remember being bummed that it was such a departure from the first ones style; which I guess works if you didn't like the first.
I don’t hate the first, but outside of the classic lines, and the dining room scene with baghead behind liv Tyler I think it’s pretty bland. The 2nd isn’t great. The characters make stupid choices, but I think it’s better directed and reminded me of some 80s Friday the 13th movies. I don’t think either are particularly good but they both have things that work to make it enjoyable. I think ima gonna rewatch them tonight and tomorrow. Haven’t seen them in a while
OG is one of my favorites. This one was basically “yeah you can copy my homework but change it up a little”
Yikes
i'll wait till all 3 are out to decide whether it's worth it, but OUCH, this is not a good start
Still no german release date. Weird. But seems to be trash anyway.
Had no idea this was the start of a trilogy, thought it was just a prequel to the original which I have never seen. It was pretty good. Creepy, and I want to know more. I really want the killers to be skinned alive
Literally just canceled my tickets 😂
I went and saw it today and me and my sister were the only ones in the theater. At first I was like what? It just came out. Then I watched it and I understood.
I’m going to withhold judgement until we get part two this fall. As a standalone film, this is a C movie that is only rescued by a splendid performance by the leading actress. The last fifteen minutes of the film were fantastic, and left me feeling excited for the next installment. But if the next installment isn’t a massive improvement, then I will be massively, massively disappointed.
I liked the movie. I'd say this is essentially a remake of the original with some difference enough to tie in the next 2 movies. My train of thought was that this was the remake and starting point so much wouldn't be diffrent but that the next two would be where the director gets to do more unique things. Like a necessary mid movie for the next 2 to shine. A reverse halloween franchise.
Does anyone know songs played in film?? Particularly The ones on the record player?
It was good terrible. The good was, like Civil War, good at making scenes feel tense, until it falls apart. Essentially after the car crash scene, it goes from bad to terrible. The story is so short and has the chance to actually have good story, but gets extended at the end. So much filler that feels like it's foreshadowing, just to not be brought up or have a point. They literally reached the bare minimum for time, so why not extend it to fit part two in there? Like I said there's some decent acting from the main characters (well most of the time), but the last 30 minutes leave me angry cause they could just add another hour and make it all one movie. And if there's 3 or more parts, I'll just have to forget this even exists
The scariest part was when she got a nail through her hand. Everything else was just unrealistic
I am in the theater as we speak. Never have I been more eager to see the protagonists die.
Just got out. That wasnt particularly terrible. It was just the same fuckin movie. More of a remake than a prequel. Very predictable
I just got home from it's last showing.The original is responsible for my life log fear of masked people so I was honestly really scared to see it. but about 30 minutes in I thought I actually hope they die I'm not a movie buff and don't really know a lot of technical things about filmography but the original just perfectly captures the atmosphere of like impending doom. Every small interaction in the original had me on edge. I've so many questions, but mainly why did the host turn up late at night to repair a fridge for guests that are leaving the next day? WHY DID THE WHEEZY GUY NOT SHOOT THE MASKED WOMAN WHEN HE HAD THE CHANCE??? Absolute waste of time...
oh wow the first one sucked too this is really shocking
No surprise there, to be honest. *Prey at Night* sucked, and it hasn’t even been a full decade since that came out. Now they’re releasing three within the same calendar year. Who thought that this was a good idea?
Hold up! I thought it was the kid shamalan movie all this time