The Strangers: Chapter 3 (15)

Director: Renny Harlin
Screenplay: Alan R. Cohen, Alan Freedland

Starring: Madelaine Petsch, Gabriel Basso, Richard Brake
Running time: 91 minutes

Cinema

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Review: RJ Bland

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Bryan Bertino’s horribly tense original The Strangers (2008) was a big financial success, and it was a little surprising that it took a decade for a follow up to be released. Johannes Roberts’ The Strangers: Prey at Night traded the ominous restraint of its predecessor for heightened slasher theatrics and, although it still turned a respectable profit, it earned less than half of what Bertino’s film achieved at the box office. Perhaps this suggested that mainstream audiences had a more limited appetite for the franchise than expected. So when news broke a few years ago that a new Strangers trilogy was in development, it was a welcome - if slightly unexpected - announcement for genre fans. Yet here we are, two years on from the release of Chapter 1, and it’s fair to say enthusiasm for this third and supposedly final instalment has been muted at best. Chapter 1 felt like an inferior retread of the original, while Chapter 2 amounted to little more than a feature-length chase sequence, which sounds more fun than it is. Realistically, expectations for this final film were low; ‘just give us something better than what we’ve been served up already’ seems to be where everyone’s at. Well, those of us inclined to go and see it because we’ve sat through the first two and don’t like the idea of not seeing it through to the end…

 

Following a perfunctory flashback, The Strangers: Chapter 3 resumes where its underwhelming predecessor left off. Pin-Up Girl is dead, and Maya - the survivor of the first two films - seeks sanctuary in a local church, though she is not alone for long and soon finds herself fleeing once again. Meanwhile, Maya’s sister, brother-in-law and their hulking bodyguard arrive in Venus looking for her but are given short shrift by the locals who are seemingly happy to let Sackface take people out in their small town - just as long as the victims are not residents. So out of towners basically. Or strangers (geddit?!) Maya’s luck soon runs out and she’s soon snatched up by the baddies and taken back to an abandoned sawmill. There, Sackface and Dollface force the Pin-Up girl mask onto Maya’s visage and take her with them on their next little ‘outing’. Is Maya going to reluctantly play along and escape when the time is right? Or is she so deadened by the last 48 hours that she’s actually going to end up becoming part of the gang? Well, at least by the end you’ll have a clear answer. Well, sort of. Actually, maybe not.

 

So, is The Strangers: Chapter 3 any better than 1 and 2? No, not really. It does at least provide some sort of conclusion to the story that has played out across all three films. It’s not an especially satisfying or thrilling climax but then again, I’m not sure anyone was expecting either of those things really. There is talk that a three-hour supercut of all three films will be made available at some point. With 90 minutes of superfluous filler removed, it might provide a leaner, more effective viewing experience. As three standalone entries, however, each feels frustratingly padded. There simply is not enough narrative substance to justify a trilogy. But perhaps the biggest crime is that they seem to forget the whole point of why the original film worked so well. The terror of Bertino’s movie was that we didn’t know who these masked assailants were or why they were doing what they were doing. ‘Because you were home’ is the only answer they can give when Liv Tyler’s character asks them this question. It’s a chilling response. But Chapters 2 and 3 fall into one of the most obvious traps that have hobbled countless horror films for decades. They try and explain too much about their killers. Villain origin stories rarely work. Chapter 3 reveals the identity of all three masked murderers – an instant mood killer – but fails in its attempts to answer ‘why’ these people are doing what they are doing. Flashbacks of glassy eyed teenagers selecting victims add nothing new to the mix. We just don’t need any of it and it’s not why we watch The Strangers movies.

 

All three films are fine from a technical standpoint. Director Renny Harlin is an accomplished filmmaker, and he cloaks this third and final instalment in darkness, setting the entire film over the course of a single night. It’s all competently shot and there are a couple of scenes where it feels as if it is evoking a sense of the brutality and tension of Bertino’s original. It threatens to explore some different ideas too, with the idea that Maya can potentially be turned from a victim into a perpetrator. However, the script affords Madelaine Petsch little opportunity to develop this arc. She is proactive in Chapters 1 and 2, but here she is largely sidelined. I mean, she's in it - but she doesn't do very much. She performs admirably yet deserves stronger material. Writers Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland appear more invested in developing the antagonists than the protagonists - a miscalculation for a franchise built on the principle that the less we know about the killers, the more frightening they become. Richard Brake is always an effective creep and his turn as the sinister Sheriff is fun to watch but Maya’s sister and her companions feel underwritten, as though added as an afterthought.

 

This lack of attention to any character who is not a psychopath results in a noticeable absence of tension. In a Strangers film, that is a significant flaw. This trilogy will likely be remembered as a missed opportunity to expand a franchise with genuine potential - if it is remembered at all.