The Strangers: Chapter 1

This reboot had a lot going for it. I unashamedly like Renny Harlin and think he's a competent director so was excited to see the start of a new trilogy.

The acting is a tad dire, and it's frustrating to see the characters just completely oblivious to their surroundings. I'm pretty sure you'd clock someone standing next to you in the shower.

And actually, the whole movie is just a retread of the original but with no redeeming changes. The ending had zero suspense and no stakes.

Saying this, I'm open to the trilogy as I feel like it'll tread into new territory (and I have some faith in Renny Harlin).

The Strangers Chapter 1 follows Maya and Ryan on their way out of town when their car breaks down, they stay at a cabin in the middle of the woods when they're attacked by strangers. This film is a reboot of the original and saying reboot is hard to say. This film is literally the same exact film as the original with very very tiny differences. This movie had so much potential and to make the same exact movie is so disappointing. Not to mention the characters were just so so stupid, the basic dumb horror elements are so overused and played out. Unfortunately this film plays them out and makes them worse. Now let me just take a minute and talk about the character Ryan, he is the worst character, if his rude attitude at the beginning of the movie didn't tell you that, he makes just the dumbest mistakes that even for a movie is ridiculous and that alone makes this movie terrible. It's really unfortunate because I really wanted to like this movie. Unfortunately The Strangers Chapter 1 is not worth the watch. Skip this and if you're going to watch this movie wait until streaming. Hopefully the next chapter is better.

I was super excited to see this movie as I loved the original and the trailers looked like it kept the creepy vibes of the original. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. I found the movie to be full of the cliche tacky things that a lot of scary movies have nowadays. For example, making a ton of unnecessary noise when you are hiding and trying to be quiet, using lights and lighters in dark spaces when you are trying to hide, yelling each others names as you run through the forest, just unnecessary and unrealistic things that nobody would do in real life and make you not care what happens to the protagonists. I felt like a number of things that happened in the movie just weren't nearly as effective as the original for that reason. Also, one of the reasons I loved the original was because you know absolutely nothing about the killers, where they come from, or what they are about. In this film, the entire town is full of creeps and it just really took away from the eeriness.

I don't want to waste too much energy on this review but I was quite disappointed. I was looking forward to this one and it just ended up being a lame reboot of the original.

It started out with a silly tone, cheesy script and even some tacky product placement. We get into it with two relatively unlikeable main characters that barley have enough background/plot to keep the story rolling. There are countless direct parallels (I'm talking exactly the same) to the original movie and even some from the second one. To the point where it didn't feel like an homage and I caught myself thinking... why am I sitting here watching the same movie I did in 2008, but like, worse...?

It was marketed as though it was a prequel, but there was not even an ounce of origin story and there were things such as smart phones and push to start cars that placed it in the future from the original. So if this wasn't a prequel, what are we doing here?? There were multiple plot points that were seemingly important that went nowhere... including an inhaler, dietary restrictions, a friends vacation and some strung up poultry.

I'm just confused and disappointed as to why they simply remade this movie with even less of a storyline, not as good actors and a lame ending... all without infusing anything new, interesting or original into it. All in all it was relatively entertaining as a stand alone I suppose... If you haven't seen the original and are super into jump scares, then go for it. Otherwise just rewatch Liv Tyler lol 3.5 rounding up to a 4, probably wouldn't recommend.

This movie is basically what happens when you read the handbook of "How to remake a movie with little to no effort". It's like the writers were trying to copy someone's homework but had dyslexia and still got the answers wrong. The movie was so unbearable that my wife and I had to watch it over two days bc we needed a break in between. Every horror trope you can think of happens in it. This film is what movies like Scary Movies make fun of. The original Strangers was incredible, the second was a great follow up. This one is hot garbage. I pray the writers read this review and quit their jobs. Please hire an entirely new crew for the other two films if they even get released at this point.