Skip to main content

The Strangers: Chapter 1

 


The Strangers: Chapter 1 is either a remake or a prequel to the 2008 Bryan Bertino film The Strangers.

While Bryan Bertino still wrote the film, this time alongside Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland. Both of them are not known for horror and because of this, there were zero scares in this horror film. It had some tension but tension doesn't equate to horror. In the theater I was at, there were four laughs where it was supposed to be scary. This also might be because of B-movie director Renny Harlin who will probably go back to making B-movies from here on out. Sure The Strangers was supposed to be a trilogy but after audiences said no I doubt they'll make it to theaters. Some might argue Harlin directed Die Hard 2, but that was the worst Die Hard film.

Madelaine Petsch does an okay job acting but her face has had too much work done and something was off about her eyes, maybe it was the cinematography but her eyes looked soulless throughout the film. I tried looking up pictures of her on say the red carpet, but all of them have this doll-like quality to them. I'm sure she's a lovely person. Side note, calm down on the lip filler.

Nolan from Teen Wolf tries to branch out from TV to film but doesn't quite have the acting chops that Petsch has. He is written weak, with needing an inhaler all the time, which isn't his fault. He also has a hard time selling that he's the boyfriend of Petsch's character. Teen Wolf was in 2017, you've had seven years to improve and you're still at this level of acting.

The film was a disappointment and had many flaws. Result: C-


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Colony (2026)

Colony is written and directed by Yeon Sang-ho , the director behind the cult classic Train to Busan . While Train to Busan has become the more celebrated film, Colony shows how much Yeon has improved as both a writer and a director. The story is stronger, the filmmaking feels more confident, and the way he builds the world gives the movie more substance than I expected going in. Jun Ji-hyun is the clear standout of the cast. She does a fantastic job conveying emotion through subtle movements and expressions rather than relying on exaggerated acting. That is not surprising considering she is one of South Korea's best actresses, but she still manages to make the character feel grounded and believable. She carries much of the emotional weight of the film. I did not recognize many of the other actors, and unfortunately, none of them really stood out enough to make much of an impression. That is not necessarily a knock against the cast as much as it is a testament to how much Jun ...

Verity (2026)

Verity was a surprise for me. Normally, the authors who turn their books into movies that I actually enjoy are Stephen King or Michael Crichton , but Colleen Hoover has been doing surprisingly well with the last four movies adaptations from her work. One thing I appreciate about her writing is that she knows how to write male characters who aren't weak or simply there to be punching bags for feminist talking points. That alone makes the characters feel more believable and gives the story a better balance. Dakota Johnson plays an up and coming writer who is brought in to ghostwrite for Anne Hathaway's character. This is easily Johnson's best performance yet. She does a good job carrying the movie and making the character's uncertainty and curiosity believable as the mystery around the house starts to unfold. Anne Hathaway does not have a huge amount to do because of her character's condition, but whenever she is actually on screen, she brings the energy you wo...

Digger (2026)

Digger is directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu and stars Tom Cruise as Digger Rockwell. Much like his name, there is a lot of symbolism and meaning packed into the film, along with plenty of references that brought a smile to my face. I went into this expecting it to be pretentious or outright bad because that was the prevailing opinion online before general audiences had even had a chance to see it. Anyone calling this movie pretentious clearly has not seen The Death of Robin Hood or Die My Love . Die My Love was so pretentious that my wife actually begged me to leave the theater, and I had to finish it another day. Digger , on the other hand, actually understands the difference between being ambitious and simply being self-important. Tom Cruise is great as Digger Rockwell, giving the character exactly the kind of larger-than-life personality the movie needs. There is so much going on beneath the surface that I found myself constantly looking for the symbolism and references hidden...