The Strangers: Chapter 2

Ninety percent of The Strangers: Chapter 2 involves a woman hiding from masked killers in one idiotic location after another. After narrowly surviving the trio of relentless maniacs in last year’s Chapter 1, the Final Girl, Maya (Madelaine Petsch), wakes up in a small hospital, where she’s apparently the only patient. The hospital management has also shut off all lights, except for a few flickering fluorescents. Her pursuers track her down, and rather than escaping to the Exit, she heads for the boiler room in her patient garb. After that, she tries concealing herself in the worst possible place: the morgue, right next to her fiancé’s corpse. Once outside, she takes a ride from some suspicious passers-by, escapes once again into the woods, and hides behind a fallen tree. Finally, she returns to the murder cabin from the first movie. Maya follows every dumb decision with another, and that makes this sequel a chore to sit through. 

The other ten percent of Chapter 2 consists of flashbacks to the doll-masked killer’s childhood—you know, the one who knocks on doors at night and asks, “Is Tamara there?” Ever wonder why she asks that question, and just who is Tamara? Well, screenwriters Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland have concocted an answer. Is it satisfying? No, not really. Instead, it suggests that the psychopaths underneath the burlap and doll-faced masks didn’t start their meaningless killing spree simply because they could, even though no reason is a more chilling reason. Rather, a couple of them started as children, and the Big Reveal proves much less revelatory than the movie thinks: It all started with some schoolyard jealousy. Does this give us some significant insight into the killers’ minds? Again, not really. Worse, the explanation is antithetical to the series’ conceit that such murders are “random.” 

This lame-brained sequel is part of a reboot trilogy based on Brian Bertino’s original from 2008, a movie I found mean-spirited and nihilistic, even if that was the point. I preferred The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018), the first sequel directed by Johannes Roberts, which featured fleshed-out characters fighting for their lives; it had style and humanity. Renny Harlin helmed the new iterations in a back-to-back schedule, though the first of the trilogy neutralized any enthusiasm for what would follow. It was essentially a remake of Bertino’s film. Chapter 2 goes in a different direction. However, what’s evident upon watching the sequel is that the filmmakers are telling one big story, rather than three distinct chapters. When it ends, it ends with a setup to Chapter 3. 

At the very least, Harlin’s direction remains capable. The Finnish filmmaker got his start in horror movies—see Prison (1987) and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)—before becoming a favorite Hollywood shoot-em-up director in the 1990s (see Cliffhanger, 1993). He’s alternated between those genres ever since. He and cinematographer José David Montero know where to place a camera and how to light a spooky scene. The score by Justin Burnett and Òscar Senén offers plenty of aural pangs as well. The problem isn’t the filmmaking; it’s that the script hasn’t given Maya anything compelling to do. She runs from one hiding spot to another, covering her mouth to muffle—badly—her squeals of terror, as her stalkers play what feels like a 90-minute game of hide-and-seek. 

Breaking up the monotonous structure, a bizarre and unexpected sequence reveals that the killers keep a wild boar as a pet. They unleash the CGI-rendered beast in the woods to sniff out Maya, who’s bitten and shaken like Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant (2015), before she finally kills the animal. I thought perhaps Maya would skin the boar, make bone weapons, and transform into a badass hunted-becomes-the-hunter warrior after that, but alas, no. Still, the sequence provides the only reprieve from the slasher chase, save for an awkward encounter with Gregory (Gabriel Basso), part of a group of friends who momentarily rescue Maya. An aggressive close-talker, Gregory proceeds to ask a visibly frightened Maya questions about her experiences while holding a knife and drinking hard liquor from a bottle. Either he’s one of the killers or lacks any self-awareness about how his body language might make her uncomfortable. 

Whenever Maya encounters someone who might help, the killers arrive, put an axe in their chest or an arrow through their eye, and continue trailing Maya again. But Harlin keeps up the pace in Chapter 2, making it more engaging than its predecessor, marginally so. I appreciate that the movie’s endless pursuit relies on visual storytelling, spares us from listening to inane dialogue (mostly), and showcases Petsch’s commitment to her physical performance. And I’m curious to see if Chapter 3 explains why the only radio station in town blares the ravings of religious extremists, and what the shifty-eyed sheriff (Richard Brake) knows about the killers. Otherwise, this is a tedious experience, devoid of memorable characters or situations. The main reason for excitement about Chapter 3 is that, as the conclusion, it will probably have to be more than a repetitive series of hiding spots and chases.

(Note: This review was originally posted to DFR’s Patreon on September 28, 2025.)