After astrong domestic openingthat saw the movie earn $15 million worldwide in just a week,The Strangers: Chapter 1has since doubled this taking,now sitting on over $30 million. Its impressive opening weekend gross of almost $12 million, alongside a neat marketing campaign thatsaw the sequel garner plenty of attention, pushed the movie through into its third week at theaters with a consistent success rate. The movie’s budget of $8.5 million means thatLionsgate have tripled their production costs, already surpassing the most recent installment in the franchise,Johannes Robert’sThe Strangers: Prey at Night. Alas, the film has some way to go to achieve the heady $91 million heights of the original, although the performance of the first in this new trilogy will give executives fair hope of financial triumph.
The Strangers: Chapter 1stars the likes ofMadelaine Petsch(Riverdale),Froy Guiterrez(Teen Wold),Gabriel Basso(The Night Agent), andEma Horvath(The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power), with several other talented performers also applying their trade to the project. The movie acts as both a follow-up to the previous two movies and a relaunch of the franchise following a previously poor Box Office performance from the second film,Prey at Night. Written byAlan R. CohenandAlan Freedland, and directed byRenny Harlin, the film follows a couple who come face to face with the now-infamous maskedStrangersand must fight for their lives against their malevolent bloodlust.
‘The Strangers: Chapter 1’ is the First in a New Trilogy
Despite receiving positive praise from critics,the feeble run ofPrey at Nightat the global Box Office left the franchise in need of a refresh. With that in mind, the decision was made to turn the next installment in the franchise into a trilogy, with bothChapter 2andChapter 3yet to receive official release dates. That being said, it is suggested thatChapter 2will hit screens later in 2024, something made much easier considering thatall three have been filmed consecutively.
Despite Box Office success,Chapter 1has not been without its detractors. Whilst some praise the movie for hitting all the right horror beats, some have criticized the flick for doing nothing new at a time when the franchise needed an innovative boost. In herreview for Collider,Emma Kielysaid:
“The main issue with The Strangers: Chapter 1 is that it doesn’t have anything new to add to the series. It rehashes all the familiar touchstones of the 2008 movie. Two Christian boys are seen outside the diner, Man in the Mask stalks Maya around the house, and a major plot point of an innocent casualty getting caught in the crossfire is there too. Beyond this, the only updates are smartphones, and a change from the couple being in a rocky place in their relationship to being madly in love. It’s impossible not to judge this film by how it compares to the original. If you’re rebooting or remaking a cult classic, you need to have a good reason for why you’re making it. What can you do to update the story? What fresh spins can you put on it? And how can you bring what worked into a new decade? Chapter 1 doesn’t seem to have considered any of these prerequisites.”
The Strangers: Chapter 1is still available to watch in theaters following a successful Box Office run to date. A4K Steelbook is also already available to pre-order.Chapter 2is expected to hit screens later this year.
The Strangers: Chapter 1
A young couple drive cross-country toward a new beginning; unfortunately they have no choice but to stop in a secluded Airbnb in Oregon–and endure a night of terror against three masked strangers.
