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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-


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