The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024)

[T26S]

Originally Posted by OneWayFilms

Remakes of popular horror films almost ALWAYS fall flat and I can't for the life of me understand why they keep cranking them out.

Examples of failed remakes of superior originals:
The Omen
Halloween
Friday the 13th
Poltergeist
The Amityville Horror
The Fog
Prom Night
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Carrie
Psycho
The Grudge
A Nightmare on Elm Street
The Wicker Man
Firestarter

and now..... The Strangers.

Hollywood has known horror remakes have falling out favor a long while ago and even for them financial wise they've noticed it's diminished returns even the successful entries box office wise. Interest wise for a follow up to a horror remake is always low history shown they all bomb or dumped straight DTV, in many cases they are just plain bad movies. Example Texas Chainsaw The Beginning (2006) (prequel to 03 movie), RZ Halloween 2, Pet Cemetery Bloodlines (2019) and Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007).

Primarily why The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024) was marketed as a prequel empathizes 2 other entries coming out soon.

This partly why horror sequel soft reboots or legacy sequels even prequels gained popularity Hollywood realised fans and general audience love nostalgia in an established universe. Rather than throwing away the classic continuity completely, retain the core storyline while doing a partial reset to bring in new fans. Studios have more opportunity with this formula to milk more entries.

[sanriel]

Texas Chainsaw The Beginning (2006) is not bad film.

[T26S]

Originally Posted by sanriel

Texas Chainsaw The Beginning (2006) is not bad film.

I agree heck I prefer to the 2003 film but still a disappointment the box office wise and was critically and commercially panned, its never brought up when TCM 2003 mentioned as most people didn't care see continuation and im sure there portion of the audience that don't even know it exists.

[DR Herbert West]

First image from Chapter 2:

[Show spoiler]

[Batman1980]

[CrossRhodes94]

I know this got a lot of hate but I watched it tonight and I really enjoyed it. Loved the slow burn building up to the finale of the film. That’s my favorite kind of horror. The type that just is eerie and is settle. I liked it personally and am looking forward to the next one.

[CrossRhodes94]

Originally Posted by OneWayFilms

Remakes of popular horror films almost ALWAYS fall flat and I can't for the life of me understand why they keep cranking them out.

Examples of failed remakes of superior originals:
The Omen
Halloween
Friday the 13th
Poltergeist
The Amityville Horror
The Fog
Prom Night
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Carrie
Psycho
The Grudge
A Nightmare on Elm Street
The Wicker Man
Firestarter

and now..... The Strangers.

I find the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre to be more interesting enjoyable. And while some of these I don’t prefer over the original I do enjoy most of these listed. Too each their own tho.

[MathTeacher]

Wow this movie was so laughably dumb and full of countless horror cliches. Every scene was a cliche. A full on remake, of much lesser quality. Two of the dumbest and fake protagonists I've seen in a while.

My 2nd worst movie of the year only above Madame Web. Wooof.

[levcore]

Just as well there's 2 more on the way then.

[Guy87]

[eightslicesofpie]

This was not particularly GOOD but it was also not complete trash like I expected it to be lol so that's something I guess

[reblubis]

I think The Strangers: Prey at Night was better.

The final scene with the song Air Supply - Making Love Out Of Nothing At All is memorable.

[crutzulee]

Yeah... This wasn't anywhere near worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as the other two instalments..... certainly didn't NEED to be seen in a theater...

With lowered expectations, my daughter and I shared a big bowl of popcorn, I cracked open a beer, and we had an entertaining hour and half... will watch the next two installments as they become available...

[El Rey]

Originally Posted by MathTeacher

Wow this movie was so laughably dumb and full of countless horror cliches. Every scene was a cliche. A full on remake, of much lesser quality. Two of the dumbest and fake protagonists I've seen in a while.

My 2nd worst movie of the year only above Madame Web. Wooof.

my wife came with me to see this in the theater last week and she saw how annoyed I was with how God awful this was, since i was explaining to her how the first film is one of my all-time favorite horror films. (I really enjoy Prey at Night but the first is a classic to me) So Friday night she decided she wanted to see the original and it just reaffirmed my love for the first film - just a night and day difference in terms of quality, suspense, performances, direction.

Chapter I isn't even so bad its good, its just bad from top to bottom.
One thing that someone mentioned earlier was the framing in some of the shots and I think Critical Drinker did as well - like trying to imply the boyfriend (whose name I can't even remember) was part of The Strangers (if they threw that in as a twist that would've been something new, different at least) or setting him up to be dispatched - but no, it was just terrible framing which is crazy considering how long Harlin has been a director.

There was one shot in particular when the boyfriend makes it back to the house to find the girlfriend (whose name I also can't remember) cowering in the backroom and the shot is a closeup frame of his dumb face asking her what's happening, why she's scared, etc. With his face taking up the whole frame it sets up possibility he could take a surprise ax to the back - but nope, it was just terrible framing made worse by the dudes terrible acting. I honestly can't remember the last time I saw such shitty acting in a big screen theatrical release.

Critical Drinker also brought up the scene where the AirBNB owner is accidentally shot on the porch and the couple sit down to have a little heart to heart while The Strangers are somewhere nearby stalking.
I can overlook a lot of dumb decisions, its standard in horror, but Chapter I was just one dumb decision/cliche piled on top of the other where the perfect blueprint already existed. Its like everyone involved in Chapter I said "hey this exists, lets do the same thing except make it monumentally dumb!"

I haven't seen Madame Web yet but this week i also watched Baywatch (2017) because it was on tv and I had never seen it. Had I not seen Chapter I this week, Baywatch would've been the worse film I had seen this week.

[MathTeacher]

The two leads were on opposite extremes of the spectrum with regards to their performances. The male lead was just so lifeless and wooden, while the female had such over the top ridiculous facial expressions lol. Their whole relationship just felt so fake, like no couple who is together for 5 years acts like that.

The comment the boyfriend made at the beginning

[Show spoiler]suspecting the whole thing was a sham and then just letting it go when the girlfriend says it's not

, I knew I was in for a shitty experience lol.

And OMG I nearly shouted at the screen when

[Show spoiler]the guy had the shotgun pointed right at the head of one of the strangers and didn't shoot.

Cody Leach's review on the movie is great and funny, give it a watch lol

[Guy87]

I'll never understand people's love for the original movie. The killers in that just stand around not murdering the victims that they have dead to rights from almost the start iirc.

[El Rey]

Originally Posted by Guy87

I'll never understand people's love for the original movie. The killers in that just stand around not murdering the victims that they have dead to rights from almost the start iirc.

they're purposefully terrorizing, stalking their victims. Would be a 5-minute movies if they just busted down the door and killed them right away.
at an hour and a half, its pretty economical, creative, suspenseful use of time, considering its horror with a low body count.

Originally Posted by MathTeacher

The two leads were on opposite extremes of the spectrum with regards to their performances. The male lead was just so lifeless and wooden, while the female had such over the top ridiculous facial expressions lol. Their whole relationship just felt so fake, like no couple who is together for 5 years acts like that.

The comment the boyfriend made at the beginning

[Show spoiler]suspecting the whole thing was a sham and then just letting it go when the girlfriend says it's not

, I knew I was in for a shitty experience lol.

And OMG I nearly shouted at the screen when

[Show spoiler]the guy had the shotgun pointed right at the head of one of the strangers and didn't shoot.

Cody Leach's review on the movie is great and funny, give it a watch lol

I watched the Leach review, his reenactment of the townsfolk was spot on and hilarious.
You are correct about the difference in performance of the two leads. He was terrible and she was serviceable considering the shit material she was working. I had no frame of reference for her, saw afterwards that she was on Riverdale, a CW show, forever - that tracks.
Over the weekend I saw a pretty funny meme of "mouth actors" on Instagram, wish I could find it now but it was spot on with impressions of Keira Knightley, Emma Thompson, Kerry Washington, etc. But this Madelaine Petsch chick would fit the bill of mouth acting if she was more famous.

In Leach's video he said he didn't like the original Strangers because he thought Liv and Scott's characters were too dumb. I never got that impression though but certainly not after Chapter 1, with probably the dumbest protagonists in horror movie history and that's saying something.

He did point out one positive takeaway that I didn't think of when talking about framing earlier. The shot where Scarecrow was watching her play piano was cool. Thats about the only positive thing I can say about this shitshow.

[jedilips]

At least Liv and Scott were believable, lived-in adults who had a real bad night before the knock on the door. That's way more gravitas than these 2 nitwits, who seemed like they were taking dad's BMW out on a road trip for the first time ever.

[Batman1980]

Originally Posted by jedilips

At least Liv and Scott were believable, lived-in adults who had a real bad night before the knock on the door. That's way more gravitas than these 2 nitwits, who seemed like they were taking dad's BMW out on a road trip for the first time ever.

Madelaine petsch seemed reasonably intelligent.

[Guy87]

Originally Posted by El Rey

they're purposefully terrorizing, stalking their victims. Would be a 5-minute movies if they just busted down the door and killed them right away.

Well that's just bad writing then isn't it? John Carpenter has Michael Myers stalk Laurie and friends for an entire movie but it never felt like he was wasting his time, it felt like he was waiting for the individual to be completely alone. The Strangers feel like they have the slasher movie cheat code and have to waste time because they know they have a running time to fill.



Nobody else is in the house. Stab her.



Just...just stab the woman that's on the floor.