The Strangers: Chapter 3

Sitting down to The Strangers: Chapter 3, some part of me thought the movie might coalesce with the previous installments and even improve the trilogy as a whole. Maybe, just maybe, by wrapping up the story, screenwriters Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland would reveal their master plan. Maybe the filmmakers found a way to assemble the three sections into a triptych, so the full, genius-level picture doesn’t become apparent until the last panel opens. But no, the final chapter meanders from one scene to the next just as aimlessly as Chapter 1 (2023) and Chapter 2 (2025). Worse, the filmmakers introduce a new element that proves unearned and maddeningly stupid. By the end, whatever squishy goodwill that was left for director Renny Harlin’s three features dries up, leaving only the depressing realization that we’ve wasted four-and-a-half hours of our lives and can’t get that time back.

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