The Strangers: Chapter 1 Movie Review – An Overstayed Welcome

Sixteen years following the original release of The Strangers, The Strangers: Chapter 1 has made its way to the big screen. It’s already been green lit to become a trilogy. In all honesty, it’s just a revamped version of an already tired plot line and genre. The original film played a big part in making the home invasion genre what it is today – so that means there’s already a plethora of other films to watch that deal with the same plot. I truly don’t think this film needed to be redone in any form but alas, here we are. This film was unoriginal and almost entirely unentertaining. 

The Strangers: Chapter 1 is now playing in theaters.

Looking more horror films to watch? Check out this month’s list. 

Story – A Tired Trope

The plot of The Strangers: Chapter 1 is not directly correlated to the original film. It has its own characters and dynamics that differentiate the two, though that isn’t to say it’s a unique plot. Far from, actually. The story revolves around a young couple (Ryan and Maya) making their way through Oregon for a potential job offer for Maya. The opening scene revolves around the couple to be playfully bantering while the horribly picked song “Trouble” by Cage The Elephant plays in the background.

Right away, I feel like the characters are going to be annoying. Like all thriller films involving a couple, Maya and Ryan end up stuck in the secluded town of Venus. The townsfolk are unsettling and obviously don’t take kindly to city folk. After hitching a ride to a supposed Airbnb cabin in the woods, the couple tries to settle in for the night but weird things keep happening. A strange girl keeps knocking on the door and there’s noises all around the house. When Ryan leaves to get dinner, leaving Maya alone, it’s revealed that there’s three masked people stalking the couple and infiltrating the house.

Maya carelessly wandering around the house after hearing strange noises.

Before the cat and mouse game begins between the couple and the masked strangers, it’s worth noting that up until that point the film is very slow paced. There was a good jump scare with an axe going through the door next to Maya’s head – which was organically filmed with a real axe – but nothing else much happened. Once the chase begins, it’s fast yet uninteresting. It feels like everything is predictable and I’ve seen it all before because I have. Many times, with many different films. 

Characters and Performance – A Poorly Written Love Story

The cast is really just two main characters, aka the couple Maya and Ryan. Maya is played by Madelaine Petsch. I feel like she played the character well but the character wasn’t well written. They gave her a random title of being vegetarian which for some reason gets spotlighted twice in the film as if it has anything to do with the plot.

In the scene following Ryan leaving to fetch dinner where Maya is alone, she has a horrifying encounter with the strange girl knocking at the door again. She also literally hears noises inside the house and notices something strange is definitely going on. Her solution? Smoke a joint and play another bad song choice from the record player. Not call her boyfriend, not call the cops right away, but just chill and act like nothing is eerie. Madeleine did a good job playing the part, but her character was written in such an annoying matter that it made you want to start telling her what to do yourself. She did have some great vocals for her screaming and crying scenes though.

Maya and Ryan played by Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez.

Ryan is portrayed by Froy Gutierrez who, again, does a great job playing an annoying character. The boyfriend character has some great one liners. At the beginning of the film a random asks why they aren’t married yet and at the end of the film, during a very critical scene.

Ryan’s only response is to ask Maya if she will marry him. My favorite was when he had finally caught one of the masked strangers and spews some tough heroic line about her being his second kill ever right before being knocked out. For some reason, they wrote his character as a cautious person but when things started getting weird in the house he was suddenly easygoing. 

I truly feel like the dialogue and the characters being played were made for TV, not cinema.

Cinematography and Sound – One of the Worst Soundtracks

There’s not much to say about the cinematography of this film. Nothing stood out, nothing was captivating, and everything felt generic. I will say despite being in an isolated cabin in the woods, the scenes were much more brightly lit than the latest horror films from this year. I’m glad I was actually able to see what was going on in the screen. 

Maya playing the piano while the strangers lurk in the house.

The soundtrack of this film is probably my least favorite part of it. They chose random “modern” songs and didn’t even pick good ones like with the opening scene. The music felt out of place and low-budget. The best song was the piano piece that Maya randomly started playing and later repeated itself when the strangers were copying it. Even when the chase was happening, the music didn’t help set up the scene like it should have. 

Editing and Pacing – Too Slow for a Quick Film

A lot of the scenes felt stretched out and sometimes unnecessary. Looking back again at when Ryan was grabbing dinner, it was focusing on him grabbing burgers and the people around him acting weird about him being there.

I felt like that didn’t need to be filmed at all. I did really like a specific scene when they were finally eating the food and the ketchup spilling from Ryan’s burger mirrored and foreshadowed the blood that was about to drip onto the table seconds later. There were some smart choices made, but in general it felt prolonged and lacking care.