THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1

A prequel to the 2 films that were previously released over a 10-year period, this film follows the same formula: a couple, Maya (Madelaine Petsch) and Ryan (Froy Gutierrez), are stuck in Venus, Oregon after stopping off for a bite to eat when their car won't start. The damaged part can't be replaced until the morning and with few lodging options available to them in the town of 462 residents, they're stuck at an Airbnb in the middle of the woods before being terrorized by 3 masked strangers. I'm not sure why but this franchise continues to get breath breathed back into it every couple of years? 10 years past between the original and the sequel and now another 6 between the sequel and this prequel, which begins a trilogy of films that were shot back-to-back-to-back. To me, these films have always been rather lite and more of a psychological horror, the uneasiness of people right outside your door, invading your privacy for no apparent reason. These films attempt to make you uneasy, with the strangers coming and going out of the house, playing a cat-and-mouse games with their victims without uttering a single word. Petsch gives the best performance here but overall, this like its predecessors, is average. My expectations were just that heading into this and I was hoping to be proved wrong but I wasn't. I'll still check out the other 2 films to see how it plays out but I'm expecting to enjoy them as much, if not, less than this. 5/10