The Strangers: Chapter 1

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.

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).

In my opinion, this was some pretty sloppy work. The kills and the cinematography were both just eh. The movie was so dragged out that I could cut the parts that weren't important, and the movie wouldn't even be an hour long. So many stupid mistakes too. Yeah, let's get high so your boyfriend thinks you're hallucinating. Let's play the piano, while a record is on, while you're on FaceTime at full volume for the dead silence outside the house, so everyone in the whole state of Oregon hears you. I think I'll wait till Chapter 2, and Chapter 3 comes out to rent on my TV, because that was a waste of my afternoon....

Terrible movie. I have no idea how these other reviews are giving it anything higher than a 3. It looked like that commercial where everyone is running from that masked killer and instead of getting into the running car, they go to the barn filled with killing weapons to hide. This movie stunk so bad. I will admit I didn't see the first two so maybe that's why I didn't get it and I didn't like it at all but as far as believability and storyline, plot, sensibility, it failed all the way around. Give me that hour and half of my life back. If they can make money off this crap I should make a movie as well.

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.