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A population of 460-odds, in a town called Venus, in the middle of nowhere in Oregon, where children go about handing out Church pamphlets, people hang about staring at newcomers, an unmarried couple draws barely concealed disapproval, and a vegetarian open scorn.
Maya (Petsch) and Ryan’s (Guiterrez’s) trip around the country to mark their fifth anniversary together is clearly not off to the kind of start they would have imagined. However, the rest of it doesn’t require much imagination. All that could go wrong when you spend a night at a desolate, but well-kept, place, with masked people showing up at the door, goes wrong in Strangers: Chapter 1.
If the ‘how much torture will they endure’ bit you may have seen before, Strangers: Chapter 1 comes from even more familiar territory. It is a three-film revival of an earlier middlingly successful franchise, with the story line undergoing a few minor tweaks.
There are a few redeeming factors, still: such as the pleasing musical taste of the owner of the aforesaid house, that the masked killers also seem to enjoy, their other sensibilities notwithstanding; Maya and Ryan not showing any unnecessary bravura when faced with a bloodbath; Petsch’s overall moving performance; and the clinical efficiency with which the plot ticks its boxes.
However, will we turn up for this pretty familiar story, knowing that the end is not near, getting no clues to the identity or motivations of the killers, who tell Maya they are out for her and Ryan because “you are there”, and having no stakes in what happens to any of the characters — is the question.
A title line at the start telling us about America’s crime record — amounting to a crime per 26 seconds, and “this being the among most brutal” — is much too smug.
The Strangers Chapter 1 movie director: Renny Harlin
The Strangers Chapter 1 movie cast: Madelaine Petsch, Froy Gutierrez
The Strangers Chapter 1 movie rating: 2 stars
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