The Strangers: Chapter 2 Review
After the failure that is The Strangers: Chapter 1 we finally got the long awaited follow-up that is The Strangers: Chapter 2. I’m just going to going to jump straight to it: not only did I not want or ask for this film but I didn't want or ask for the previous chapter in The Strangers franchise. Until, maybe last month or the month before I completely forgot we were getting a sequel because after the previous film did so poorly the decision was made to postpone the sequel.
The movie picks up with Maya (played by Madelaine Petsch) in the hospital recovering from her wounds after the events of Chapter 1. For some odd reason this hospital Maya is at only has like four people on the over night staff. Not only is the hospital incredibly small but she is apparently the only patient in the hospital. No security guards, no overnight staff, no patients, I mean what is happening? My only explanation for this is that they didn't have the budget to hire people to play those roles.
Everything involving Maya in the hospital is probably the only thing I enjoyed about this movie. Pretty much everything after the hospital scene (which is about 20 minutes or so) is really boring to say the least. If you're going to make the whole movie an entire cat/mouse game between The Strangers and Maya can you at least make it interesting? There is literally a scene with Maya being attacked by a CGI Boar and it was one of the most ridiculous things I've seen in a movie this year. At first I assumed it was a horse that Maya ran into when she was hiding from the Strangers, but nope it's a Boar that straight up maul's her.
I’m not too sure if this is true or not but apparently test audiences asked for the movie to include the Strangers backstory scenes. If that's the case then the producers really should have ignored that suggestion because I know I'm not the only one that didn't care for it. Like Billy said in Scream, “it's a lot scarier when there is no motive”. This whole idea of, “who are the Strangers and why are they killing people" is just aggravating.
Not only do I not want to know who they are because I don’t care but the mystery of it all makes them scarier. Anyone could have been in that cabin that night and the same thing would happen to them as well. For a movie that is titled after the antagonist of the film they are barely in it. Also, on top of that there is too much flashbacks and exposition dumping regarding the Strangers that distracts from the movie.
You know what's funny? I saw One Battle After Another after watching this film and yet somehow this film felt LONGER than One Battle After Another. While One Battle After Another is 2 & a half hours I was invested in the story, characters and it was shot beautifully. Meanwhile, The Strangers: Chapter 2 is a little over 90 minutes and I struggled with this film because of the pacing, the constant flashbacks and exposition dumping as well as the lack of kills.
While some that have already seen this have said that it is worse than the previous film, I would actually say Chapter 1 is worse. Honestly, the only thing that gives the film the slight edge over Chapter 1 is the first 20 minutes involving Maya in the hospital and her Madelaine Petsch. Madelaine Petsch does an excellent job at showing fear, agony and grief, but none of that can save a film that has sloppy writing all over it. This isn’t so much of a spoiler considering that the marketing spoiled the film before the first one even came out but there is going to be ANOTHER entry in the franchise. As boring as this movie is I just want this trilogy to be over with already.
Star Rating: ⭐️⭐️
