The strangers was such a weird choice to try to turn into a franchise. The only things you can do with it are a) rehash the first movie, which is pointless, or b) get into the backgrounds and stories of the strangers themselves, which defeats the entire point of the movie
The intention is probably just to sell merch (the masks at least). They're just trying to be the new squid game in terms of being a recognizable franchise that people will buy costumes for on halloween lmao
Thing is the first was great slow and creepy and I think the second could have also been amazing on the opposite spectrum like they’ve become so comfortable all these years later that it’s more slasher then suspenseful horror but they kinda even dropped the ball with that idea and it feels pointless to continue
The indoor light not making the outdoor person visible is possibly one of the stupidest things I've ever seen in a horror movie. I can suspend my disbelief that these people are stupid, I can't suspend my disbelief that physics don't work.
Honestly it could make for a fun horror-comedy element, with a character always being in shadow regardless of how much light is around them. But in this movie it indeed makes no sense
This would have worked if they made the inside of the cabin have less lights. Like if the lights are already dim inside, it's understandable why the lights won't reach the porch. But this is the brightest cabin in a horror movie I've ever seen.
This is easy enough to fix, because I have an old-style screen that makes it absolutely impossible to see who I'm talking to. There's no mesh, it's pure metal. You cannot parse faces through it, even in the best lighting conditions. Although...that's be expensive to install in a low budget set. Better make a Magically Dark Front Porch.
I don’t understand why studios are continuously ruining their reputation in order to make a quick buck. The Strangers had NO business being made into a franchise.
If I'm in a cabin for one night with no one else coming over, and someone knocks on the door, I'm not using the peep hole. I'm hiding behind the couch until they drive away. Just like I usually do.
Tbf they DID call for that repair guy... In the middle of the night... When they were staying literally 1 night. So they were kinda expecting one person?
@@user-kx5en8dg7utrue! I’ve been pulled over at night before and called the line to make sure it was a real cop behind me. Nothing I want to mess around with
I don't get why he didn't grab his stuff out of the car or atleast have a second inhaler on him. I have a ton all over the place and in my jackets so I won't forget it
As someone that has worked at hotels, the going outside for calls but smoking inside is totally fucking real and infuriating AF. Smoke if you gotta but not inside.
I saw this with a friend and I NEED you to be aware of the very final scene: It's not just "scarecrow is lying beside her" it's literally: she wakes up in the hospital bed, she sits up to reveal scarecrow LITERALLY IN THE SAME BED AS HER. you know how big hospital beds are?? He was (seemingly) PRACTICALLY SHOULDER PRESSED AGAINST HER LYING DOWN. And she even sat up! Fully awake as if she couldn't feel a giant wide-ass man literally in the same bed as her. Actual insanity
lmao WHAT? i thought she meant he was in a bed that was beside her like how in some hospitals they have 2 patients a room instead of having her in a one patient room. but in the SAME bed and lying BESIDE her??????? and she didn't notice? i haven't seen the scene or even a screenshot so idk what that looks like.. but?
there’s a girl i follow on tiktok that got a really cool PR package for the movie and was really excited, and then in her review after seeing the movie she was basically like “this movie sucks, don’t watch it” and the dichotomy of the two videos was so funny
Good on her for not getting swayed by the PR swag and staying honest with her review. 👍 Not everyone does that because they want to keep getting free stuff.
I can't believe it. I didn't think I was really that weird because, even in my own home, if something outside seems sus, there's no way I'm getting naked and vulnerable. Double checking the doors and windows and putting a raincheck on that shower!
Honestly, if im in a cabin alone with just my boyfriend. Every single door and window is locked and i double check them all. I live in missouri though where black bears are always a potential surprise guest when camping or in the woods 😂
Gurl, if I'm in a cabin and someone comes to my door at night--expected or not--sometimes I even have to hype myself up to look through the peephole. Knowing there is a stranger that close to me (even with a door as a barrier) can be super scary! Men out here raw-dogging life with strangers are WILD to me. Edit: let me take that back. I had a female roommate who would leave the windows open without the safety lock on our ground floor apartment because she couldn't be bothered. Too many people out here have no sense of self-preservation.
I work in a college grocery store the customers have no sense of situational awareness and don't look where they are going when they are walking. They quite often walk out into the road with headphones on and not looking up.
Yeah, honestly. There’s a real lack of media literacy and it’s not surprising that we’re seeing that reflected in films with things losing any subtlety or intelligence because they’re afraid it’ll go over the vast majority of peoples heads. It’s hard to say if the vast majority truly aren’t media literate or if they’re just more vocal but the people making films only seem to care about the people making the noise.
@@lisahoshowsky4251 yes I agree although I’d argue that watching movies and media literacy aren’t the same thing they just contrive them to be the same thinking people won’t understand. Movies are a reflection of real life or complete fiction and the way they think they have to explain every fucking detail like we need it when I do believe most of us don’t is soooo annoying. Like an example would be “anything but you” with Sydney Sweeney as was the dumbest comedy slapstick movie, in a bad way, that I’ve seen in a while and displays what Hollywood thinks of us as an audience. God that movie sucked 😂😂😂
i disagree, there have always been bad horror movies. it’s probably the easiest genre to make a shit movie that is still successful. but that doesn’t mean there aren’t incredible horror films coming out right now and in recent years.
@@sharkshannon definitely not wrong here!! But I’m also referring to movies in general. But that’s not to say there are not good movies coming out especially indie movies 👏👏👏
8:15 As someone who’s very into film criticism, I’ve noticed a trend online of people excusing “dumb horror movie characters” because of an overall shift in online commentary towards favoring positivity. So nowadays if you try to criticize a movie for characters making dumb decisions, you’ll get a lot of “no one acts logical in dangerous situations stop nitpicking”. And I do think that there is a point there about how much horror criticism is dumb nitpicks! But this movie serves a good example of when dumb, stupid characters aren’t “realistically flawed”, they’re just dumb stupid characters. It’s impossible to get invested when they don’t feel like real people doing their best to survive, they feel like people who need to make the worst decision because that makes the writers jobs easier.
I feel like a lot of it is some well-deserved backlash for the cinema sins-style of critique, but there can be a balance between nitpicking every single little thing in a movie, and having no suspension of disbelief, and saying that it's completely acceptable for characters to be poorly written and the plot to be laughably stupid.
Yeah, people can definitely act illogical when they're in a state of panic, but it usually isn't an endless string of moronic decisions. That's just bad writing.
Yes. The internet is insanely black and white on its opinions on movie criticism. One moment they're all for negative reviews, while another they only want positivity. I think balance and honesty is important. No matter how widely liked a movie is, someone is entitled to criticize and not like it, even if it seems "stupid" to fans of the media. As for characters acting dumb, while yes panic realistically makes people do impulsive stuff, there's still some form of logic in place. Other than the fact that characters shouldn't act 100% realistic if it'd just negatively effect the flow of movies. (characters aren't real people, they're chess pieces to move the plot and theme forward) Character's actions shouldn't be excused by claiming its "realistic" when the flow of the story should be valued above all else in fiction, even if it does mean a character doesn't act like a complete doofus.
As a guy I look outside the peephole and windows every time. I am a nervous person. I also couldn’t stand her boyfriend, I really thought he was a tool.
I don’t have a peephole because my door has a frosted glass window but i have a window that peers out above the front door and i ALWAYS look out it, even if im expecting someone. Even if theres no danger i just don’t wanna talk to random strangers unnecessarily, especially solicitors lmao
That's not even a nervous person imo, that's just rational - like we've all seen the evening news at least a hundred times, at least one horror movie, or heard the true crime podcasts. None of us think we live in a hunky-dory cute reality where people can be inherently trusted even before you've had a quick glance at them. Well, almost none of us. I think it's safe to say most people in this world do not have a ton of faith in strangers to do the right thing by default.
I'm not gonna pretend like the original Strangers was some masterpiece. It was slow and cliché, but it had atmosphere, memorable lines, and Dennis Reynolds getting shot in the face. Chapter 1 has none of that. It's the Diet Coke of Strangers. It's hollow and filled with unbelievable characters doing stupid things resulting in stupid outcomes. If my popcorn didn't have the perfect butter to salt ratio, I would've been more annoyed.
I actually wanted to scream "PUT ON SOME PANTS AND GET AWAY FROM THE WINDOW" for the longest time once they got to the cabin. It's wild to me that everyone who made the film was so out of touch with the psychology of vulnerability.
I don't get why these people when getting to this Airbnb not look around to see every part of the house. I do it out of habit from my times staying at one
That too. i suppose that shows how much thought went in it thatthose things. Which shouldbe there to at least have atmosphere and believability. I mean if the minor things that people would at least think of, its probably rushed?
From experience, if I get a random knock on my door at night I just pretend I'm not home. I don't even get close enough to the door to check the peephole
i don’t think movie studios understand that people can only suspend their disbelief so much, old horror movies had dream villains like freddy kruger- and yet, the realism of the fear of having a dream come to life, makes it easy for people to be entertained cause it’s in a dream. but when you’re setting things in reality, they NEED to have some realism in it.
also like, let's be real here at least with this example. the og Nightmare film is drowning in metaphor. Freddy isn't just a scary dream man, he's an analog both for child predators (this is really easy to argue, but just for context, see the phone and bath scenes with Nancy, or the interviews with the production staff of the movie at the time, where they discuss blunting some of the predatory coding they were going for due to a contemporary case being too close to release) Freddy doesn't just stop at being a metaphor for predators though, he also represents in a sidelong way, the active suppression of the truth by the parents. Nancy's parents actively hiding their own knowledge of Kruegar is a MAJOR enabler of his behavior, just like in reality, the parents desire to protect their children from harm by keeping them ignorant becomes a threat to their own children when the predator becomes real instead of hypothetical. And we can do this with a lot of the more goofy horror movies. Friday the 13th has a throughline about being responsible for the welfare of children, and the way that sort of negligence can spiral in dangerous ways. Halloween questions the safety of the suburban environment and asserts that evil can come from within that environment as well. Horror as a genre is underestimated by producers and executives who are either incapable of examining these films' deeper messages, or unwilling to do so. Consequently, they fail to understand what makes these movies effective, and they doom them to endlessly regurgitate what THEY think is important, at the expense of the actual thematic meaning of the films. Thanks for reading this absurdly long comment.
@@HadalStreetlights you said it perfectly 😭 from the double entendres, the way the film makers actually considered the audiences own sense of comfort and intelligence; to the metaphors and symbolism in ANY elm st movie, is something that sadly, i haven’t seen in many new horror movies. hell you could literally argue that, freddy vs jason has more depth than any of the new scream or TX chainsaw remakes. I think movies like VVitch and Talk to me, have done such amazing work in trying to bring back the depth a horror movie should have, and i just hope that’s the path scary movies take again. i’m so tired of every movie acting like the people watching, are extremely stupid and have no emotional/critical intelligence.
@@sybill123ful I wouldn't go as far as to say most new horror movies are that bad. Plenty of them are but I just think a lot of the time we just arent on their wavelength. or theyre just genuinely kinda bad. sometimes the movie just isnt very deep or complicated. I think that's okay too. We are just blessed with more access to ALL of the art we make, good or bad, than ever before in history. Of course we can find more bad today than in the past. Old trash could be destroyed. Now with the internet, Birdemic is forever.
@@HadalStreetlights i wouldn’t necessarily say *most* but the majority of releases this year alone, have been not good. there are outliers, but i can’t think of a really good movie aside from talk to me, that have come out recently.
@@sybill123ful most recently i saw An Angry Boy. it comes with heavy trigger and content warnings and it's very dark, and technically more of a thriller, but i thought it was excellent. also like, Ari Aster and Jordan Peele have been killing it in my opinion. great films out of them like Midsommar, Hereditary, Beau is Afraid, Nope, Get Out, etc. But yeah we also get a lot of trash too! Just don't get too wrapped up in the negativity. Horror is doing quite well right now.
Imo, it would’ve been more interesting if the hunted becomes the hunter. If scarecrow actually died, it could’ve turned into the couple hunting down the last 2 strangers. Then, the “strangers” could’ve been the couple.
Nah, Ryan and Maya are some of the worst horror protagonists ever, they would never be badass like that. If Maya kills the 3 strangers alone in the next 2 movies, it'll be the most irrealistic thing of the trilogy
So the board game Final Girl has an expansion thats "inspired" by The Strangers, and since the games concept is mixing killers and settings, theres so many cool locations you can take them on in. Such as an asylum, a suburb, a summer camp, a fairytale woods, a research base in Antarctica, a spaceship in the future. So many options that would have been interesting to set the Strangers in besides one they've already done.
I still went into this movie after all of the negative reviews thinking I could find something that made it redeemable but no, lol. The decisions made by the characters truly are poor and laughable. Spoiler: when they’re trapped in the one bedroom NEXT to a window that they can easily open and escape through, and just sit there waiting for the stranger to axe the door down lol.
she picked the worst boyfriend EVER !!!!!!!! i wouldnt even need the shotgun to Fck up sack man, the dudes peripheral vision would be absolutely terrible with that thing on his head.
Another Ryan here. I sometimes look through the peephole for fun, even when there's nobody there, ffs😂. That guy obviously wasn't trained properly at the University Of Ryans before being let loose in the wild.
Amidst all the weird decisions in this movie, the one thing that really gets me is that Maia took a shower. Like it's not a motel or anything! You're in a STRANGER"S HOUSE on super short notice and you just take a shower?? Where's the awkwardness? The irrational terror of slightly inconveniencing someone? 0/10 movie, completely unrealistic
would recommend you check out the movie “the rental” it plays on that specific kind of feeling, the awkwardness of being in someone else’s home that you’re renting out, amidst awful personal drama
Omg it was an Airbnb! You're suppose to use as your home, etc. Maybe she thought it would help relax herself or maybe she just stank! Too many people read reviews first and it ruins your thoughts and input on what you might really think of the movie if you didn't already hear the whining of others! It's a horror movie! It's not supposed to be made with logic or reasoning! How smart are you when put in these positions and scared half to death?
I actually understood why she wasn't thrown off by her phone moving. It's because she thought she forgot she placed it there. Unfortunately happens to me quite often, because setting your phone down is a very autopilot thing at times.
And she was high from smoking pot! Plays with your mind man! Plus Maya is a little naive about things. She hasn't had terrorized events to make her think different of people, etc.
Whilst not all together or theatrically released; the Fear Street trilogy was released over a period of three weeks and is definitely made to be marathoned (such is Netflix's model)
as soon as i found out all these new strangers movies were filmed together this was the first place my mind went to. i find the decision for the strangers movies to be released months apart baffling
The motel movie exists and it's called Vacancy (2007), an American slasher film that stars Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson as a married couple who book at the motel after their car breaks down and are soon stalked by masked killers.
So what I'm hearing is that 'The Strangers (Chapter 1)' is the feature-length version of the Geico "Good Choices" ad - "Why can't we just get in the running car?!" "Are you crazy? Let's hide behind the chainsaws!"
my brother watched the strangers: chapter 1 the other day and came home ranting about how stupid it was, then convinced me to watch the original with him because he didn't want to alone. it was a good movie and he was scared out of his mind, so seeing you post about how bad it was as well is kinda funny to me
Only semi-related, I actually got to be on set a couple nights for filming for Strangers: Prey at Night. Damian Maffei was super nice to lost-little-intern me and helped me feel less awkward. There is an extremely low chance that one shot of a van driving up a bit of street has me in the passenger seat because the crew member driving it had a concussion and I was along for "safety."
The thing about the first movie is that while the neighbors were far away, the house was in a neighborhood. It makes it feel more realistic that the strangers would just pick a house at random or the first home where someone answered the door. This is a random cabin in the middle of the woods that people aren't going to just happen upon.
no literally. like for this movie the answer to "why are you doing this to us" logically is NOT "because you were home," it's, "because this cabin is very secluded so you can't get to safety easily"
Not being able to come up with original ideas is no excuse for butchering other movies and/or franchises! Film studios need to spread their antennas a little more and wider instead of just going 'well what franchise belongs to us? Ah yes, this, let's make a stupid remake or whatever, who cares'
ugh so disappointing to hear. Directors seem to forget making your characters stupid detracts from the realism and terror of if they were truly trying and making smart decisions yet failing to escape anyway. Thanks for saving me £9 to go see this 😅
I have a door that has a window at eye-level. What the people on the other side of the door WON'T see... is me full on slithering across the floor so I can see who it is before they know whether or not I'm even home.
The inhaler comes up again in the dumbest way possible, he starts having an asthma attack and you’d think it would be bad because he drove all the way to the town to get the damn inhaler, but no. He grabs an empty water bottle and twists it, then opens the cap and inhales that vapor, suddenly that helped and he’s ok. Screw albuterol I guess. I was so mad that I made a Letterboxd account just to trash it. I haven’t reviewed a movie before or since
Conspiracy theory : they are making this just to sell masks of the Strangers characters because they would be easily recognizable and a quick and easy halloween costume
What if the Airbnb owner coming back late at night unconcerned about the door is the indicator we were supposed to interpret as his complicity with the Strangers? Like “welp, looks like they’re done with em. Time for me to go inside and ‘discover the bodies’ under the guise of ‘well they called me about a fridge and I just found them like this’”
One of the things I found so eerie about the first movie was that in the beginning, the cabin seems a lot more remote. At the end, you realize that the house that had seemed so secluded is actually just at the end of a suburban neighborhood. I felt like that added more to the horror of the “it could happen to anyone” motif. Obviously this is not the vibe with this movie. I was a big fan of the first Strangers movie, specifically the directing style. I feel like the scares of the original relied more on suspense and tension instead of mostly jump-scares like we see in so many movies. The characters and plot were lacking, but it was still a frightening movie to me, because it was just so eerie. Thanks for doing this video. I definitely wanted to see the new one once I saw the trailer and it was marketed as a “prequel”. I will now be saving myself the disappointment and the money I would have spent on a ticket.
“They don’t need a reason.” Works if they only made one movie about the strangers. That’s why when the strangers say “because you were home.” In the first movie is so chilling. It doesn’t work when you make multiple movies about the strangers. Because after a while the audience will rightfully so start asking “Why do they keep doing this?” “What is their motivation?” And so on. Could you imagine how frustrating it would have been be if we never got Freddie Kruger’s backstory? If they just left him as some random guy that killed people in their sleep?
Actually, yes, his inhaler being missing comes up again toward the end of the movie. He stopped somewhere, is trying to catch his breath and he ends up cracking an abandoned water bottle to turn it into a makeshift inhaler of sorts, it’s so wild. I also hated the way they ended things (without the mid credit scene featuring Scarecrow) and it should’ve ended with them laying there, bleeding, and Maya’s eyes open to reveal she’d alive. That would’ve given more stakes, or something, anything! Seriously.
The film makers couldn’t even bother to learn how inhalers work! I don’t even have asthma and I know you can’t just use any old bottle as one. Inhalers have medicine in them that helps open the airways or something. It’s not just breathing in oxygen. Doing that would’ve done nothing and he probably would’ve died from the asthma attack like the idiot he is before those killers even got him.
AMANDA THE JEDI JUST POSTED A REVIEW OF THIS MOVIE. 'If I nickle for every time an Amanda that I'm subscribed to reviewed Strangers Ch. 1- I'd have two nickles. That's not a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.'
oh my god the phones. in the 2018 movie the teenagers leave the trailer without their phones. i know they stormed out after a fight but still. teenagers without phones? and then later the parents are like “our kids are outside in the dark and there’s creepy people out there. we should go get them.” AND THEY ALSO LEAVE WITHOUT THEIR PHONES. and surprise the strangers find their phones in the trailer and wreck them. it made me so mad
Something I like about being able to see their hair in the original, is that you'd get these random flashes of it, and it would be so jarring. It was a reminder to the audience that these aren't supernatural-like untouchable slashers a la Michael Myers or Jason. These are normal people. It was so much more grounding and scary.
4:00 It would have been cool if they played off the idea of a double feature which was super popular back in the day especially for B horror movies. There’s literal precedent for horror movies being viewed back to back which could have been a good tie in for this kind of franchise. It used to be a thing to go to the theatre and they’d show cartoons, a main movie and the b movie so like it’s not super crazy. We’ve might have gotten away from that but I think movies these days need a draw to get people to actually leave their home and spend extra money to see something in theatre. Companies just don’t want to take any kind of risk though, there’s something weirdly dystopian about their lack of wanting to try anything, especially when it seems apparent they’ll fail under traditional models anyways. Like why not try? Something? Anything? The apathy coming from corporations, especially in the film industry, is really just the next layer on the capitalist sundae🙃
I really don't get how this was so gripping for people when it came around the first time. "Dude this could have actually happened man" yeah and other movies have done that better without treating the audience like morons
Based on what you said about the diner patrons being very cold, I think it would have been scarier later had they been super sweet and kind to them. Or at least have a couple of them be kind when everyone else isn't (false sense of security) and have them be the strangers.
The boys in the white shirts are a reference to the original, where at the end the strangers leave the house in there truck and pass the boys and talk to them , then they find the couple they killed 🥦 honestly the original is the best . It has more suspense elements and true terror .
"Are you mad I made a review of a movie that I walked out of." Swell that's like the most important thing you could have included in all of this, thank you for giving me 35-ish minutes of complaints about a really bad movie. I didn't even know it existed to begin with so I'll keep avoiding it.
24:27 the asthma does come up again later- when he runs into the woods by himself he starts having an asthma attack behind this structure thing. He grabs a water bottle and uses it as an inhaler since he lost his (even though it has no medicine). It gives away his location and ultimately leads to his death 😃
After Ryan goes after maya in the woods and leaves the running truck he has a asthma attack and finds a water bottle empties it and twists it super loudly and breathes into it (I guess like a paper bag??) so technically him dropping the inhaler wasn’t completely dropped even though this scene was overall pointless
@@austinm8334 nope, we need medication to make our throat open back up when an asthma attack starts! in fact a random bottle on the ground would definitely make it worse because you're inhaling all the crap that's probably on it straight into the throat THAT IS CURRENTLY CLOSING UP and can absolutely not handle extra crap blocking the airway lol
It’s like why turn a singular movie into a new franchise/IP if you’re not going to maintain elements/narrative tone/VYBEZ IDK that made the first movie successful aka why they wanted to make it into a franchise in the first place! 😠
Horror movies are dumbing down characters to carry their plot, and I'm not living for it. I like it when characters are realistically smart and resourceful. Why can't movies be like that anymore?
Plenty of good horror movies still being released all the time, and dumb characters in horror have been a problem since the inception of horror. It’s always been a mixed bag!
actually the most sick and twisted thing is that i thought froy gutierrez was tyler hoechlin so discovering that the main character of this movie is not derek hale from teen wolf but ANOTHER character from teen wolf… and it’s LIAM… diabolical
The opening of "the Strangers" was one of the best parts of the movie. Walking in on a couple in a fight is always going to be peak uncomfortable, I think the same kind of thing worked really well in the movie "Vacancy".
man here. i check peepholes religiously. doesn't matter what time of day, where i am, if i'm expecting someone or anything. i ALWAYS check the peephole.
Watched this with my sister in the theaters because she LOVED the first one when it came out. We both almost walked out and kept throwing up the wtf hand gestures the whole time. We stayed but the only time I did want to walk out of a movie
I remember the girl mc heard singing, went to go see where it could be coming from, gets distracted, and then completely forgets about it. Girl, singing in the middle of nowhere when you’re alone ? Someone is with you
i saw this with my sister and honestly the fact that it's so infuriating kinda made it fun to watch but it's still just so crazy to me that the boyfriend was the one who didn't trust the townspeople in the first place and then when his girlfriend, who initially trusted them, insisted that there was someone in the house, he for some reason didn't want to immediately leave.
Teleporting in horror just for jump scares/ scary background details bother me so much. The only movie I think that pulls it off is The Invisible Man (2020) because it makes sense contextually and they don’t come off as cheap scares
I’ve not watched the movie but from clips in this vid it looks like the house is in the woods with no other houses around. If someone asked if Tamara was there I would go straight to thinking someone is gonna break in or attack me cause it can’t be the wrong address when there is no other house in the nearby area. Especially after the second time I’m purely thinking “im not making it through the night” like why is she not panicking not once but twice something is wrong get out or hide. Edit: I hate when people in horror movies make stupid mistakes like the torch on the phone. Plus why do people never believe when someone says that they saw people in the house, like even if you think they are lying after what happened earlier with a stranger at the door at least be a bit more aware.
When i got the notification for this video I went and rented the movie so I could watch before having a bias on it. The gasp I just let out when you mentioned scarecrows truck still being on OH MY GOD I didn’t even consider it because I was so frustrated with them taking so long to get into the car in the first place ahahah
getting to the end of the video it really does seem like that it was the first but worse, i do like the idea she becomes a stranger by the end of the trilogy i also had that thought it would actually make the story better than the first IMO, it just seems lazy to say this is gonna be a trilogy with nothing really to lead into the second one. We'll have to see what the second and third look like i guess, but my hopes are not high
even if that’s the case, if they’re trying to reveal this is a prequel trilogy to the other two (“see how the strangers became the strangers”) then miss ginger is gonna have to dye her hair at some point. She’s too tall to be the OG pinup and the other one was blonde lol
If I get an unexpected knock at my door any time of day, I’m checking the peephole. If I don’t know the person, I talk through the door to figure out who they are and what they want.
I mean most characters in horror movies make dumb decisions, but the problem comes when they break verisimilitude. Also the entire point of The Strangers was that the couple didn’t really no each other that well which gave the film title a double meaning and an interesting theme to focus on. This doesn’t seem to have either of those.
Almost nobody is talking about how this canonically CAN'T be a prequel because it's set in modern times when the original is set in the early 2000s so the marketing is double as deceiving.
Can confirm that, living in a country where peepholes are not the standard, on the offchance that I *do* get one, I use it pretty much any chance I get. But I can imagine some guys will just be dumb. And... yeah, every horror movie that "sets up the tension" like this early on really feels like a dud. Like, why does no one ever seem to want to make the movie where all the small-town roadside diner people are really super-nice to everyone, so that it's actually a _surprise_ when they go all murdery?
18:55 Genuine question: is there a behind the scenes where they actually said this was a real axe going through a solid door? Because that's highly unlikely. If they're not using VFX for it, it's usually a case of a prop axe and break away wood (or a pre-broken section).
As a geriatric milennial, I will admit I'm constantly setting my phone down and I'll jist leave it there for a few hours until I panic because I can't find it. But if I'm in a public place (like the park or work) or if I'm in a strange place (like an Air BnB) then my phone is not leaving my pocket.
Ok here's a horror movie: Group of college students are gonna go out partying. They ask around and find out that one of them has a family cottage near a lake in a forest. Perfect scenic location. So they go. They drive out in a couple of campers they borrow from their rich families, stopping for gas at a station near the cottage, and buying some essentials, including a spare phone battery, a zippo lighter, and a hatchet. The five figure out lodging and establish their rooming arrangements, get to partying. What they don't realize is that the house isn't actually so unfamiliar to their host, who has taken the opportunity to *follow them* to the cottage. What follows is a voyeuristic spiral into gaslighting and madness as their uninvited guest systematically undermines their sanities and gaslights them into squabbling. As tensions rise and things get intense, one of the couples starts fighting viciously, old baggage getting drawn out and preexisting cracks in the relationship widening into full-blown schisms. Their friends are disturbed and almost come to their senses, but when a greasefire breaks out on the wood stove, their manipulator finally makes their play, crashing a camper van through the wall of the cottage and killing one of the students instantly. What follows is a very brief chase where the student evades the camper van in a field, taking advantage of its turn radius. The student doubles back through the cottage and goes looking for the couple, and eventually finds things have escalated off screen. we are not informed of what actually happened, but the surviving partner blames the killer for their partner's death, and the two set out in search of their fifth who fled the cottage when the camper crashed into it. The idea of calling the police is raised but immediately fails when they discover the cellular signal at the cottage is nonexistant. Leaving the cottage out the front they realize their stalker stole their camper, and reveals that the stalker is someone they know, because the new car is recognizable, but they can't remember whose it is. (it's very boring) The stalker has taken the keys to both campers and the car. They are forced to head on foot toward the gas station they passed by earlier, and on the way, they notice a trail of bloody footprints that abruptly end near the road, and follow them back to find their third friend bleeding, but alive. They say they were attacked from behind and left for dead. The two able survivors work together to lift their injured third and hobble together toward the aforementioned gas station when they hear an approaching vehicle. It's the other camper, which they have to hide to avoid. It doesn't appear to work as their pursuer stops the camper and gets out, apparently in direct pursuit. This is when their third party member's phone goes off, apparently receiving just enough of a signal at this distance to the gas station that it's capable of receiving a call. Covers blown, an attempt is made to run, but it's also at this moment that their wounded third reveals they aren't really wounded. One of the two remaining students is foiled in their escape attempt by the betrayer, and the fleeing student is pursued toward the gas station by the main killer. The killer and the student reach the gas station at the same time as we the audience learn that the betrayer successfully kills their quarry, and gets into the camper, bringing the body with them. The last survivor and the killer play a bit of cat and mouse around the gas station as the survivor seeks any leverage. The killer has a hatchet that they had bought at the gas station. The cat and mouse ends when the betrayer arrives in the camper and the two close in on their intended victim. Demands are made to understand the motivations of the killers and those demands are met with giggles. The betrayer goes in, but is surprised when the survivor uses a gas pump as an improvised weapon. He punctures the tubing and gets sprayed with gasoline, which the student ignites with the gas station zippo. infuriated, the remaining killer comes after the student, who again flees, this time using the corner of the gas station as natural cover to spring an ambush and briefly incapacitate their pursuer. The student breaks into the gas station, setting off the alarm, and finds a loaded gun beneath the register counter. They position themselves to take a stand against the killer, who is now recovering and trying to quietly locate them. They check their phone which is just barely clinging to life, and has just enough signal to make an outgoing call, and dial the police. The killer comes in just as the line connects and the student fires the gun at the killer, but doesn't get a clean shot due to not being trained to use a firearm. The shot goes wide but does clip the killer, forcing them to retreat. Now refocusing on the phone call, the student finds that the phone is dead, and remembers the spare battery. The student observes the trail of blood from the retreated killer, and notes that it doesn't go toward the parked camper next to the burned betrayer. She quickly examines the camper to see if there's any sign of entry from the killer, and then enters it. We see the killer watch this and start to close in on the camper. The student finds the battery in a backpack and plugs it in and calls the police immediately as the killer arrives outside the camper. Police arrive, responding to the gas station's alarm, and witness the killer entering the parked camper next to a dead body. As the student misses a second shot to hit the killer, the police are only able to stop the killer after they claim a final victim and exit the camper. This was done in a single sitting with only a couple of backfill edits to round out the gas station shopping list for reincorporation later.
to add further to what you were saying about their origin story, it would’ve also been cool if when asked “why are you doing this?”, they didn’t say anything cuz it would imply that they haven’t come up with their catchphrase yet. ugh so many choices that could’ve made this movie more bearable
17:34 if I told my s/o I thought there was someone in the house besides us, and he went “mmm… you’re crazy,” he never would have become my s/o in the first place. And if they’ve been together for like five years, surely they’ve had time to establish trust?? Like even if you think they’re hallucinating, why wouldn’t you do anything to reassure them? Like checking the house?
The strangers was such a weird choice to try to turn into a franchise. The only things you can do with it are a) rehash the first movie, which is pointless, or b) get into the backgrounds and stories of the strangers themselves, which defeats the entire point of the movie
The Acquaintances
The Friends
The Friends with Benefits
The Flings
The Lovers
The Spouses
The Divorcees
right in my opinion its a movie thats never needed a sequel and now theres 4
The intention is probably just to sell merch (the masks at least). They're just trying to be the new squid game in terms of being a recognizable franchise that people will buy costumes for on halloween lmao
Thing is the first was great slow and creepy and I think the second could have also been amazing on the opposite spectrum like they’ve become so comfortable all these years later that it’s more slasher then suspenseful horror but they kinda even dropped the ball with that idea and it feels pointless to continue
It's been 15 years since the last one! like what?
The indoor light not making the outdoor person visible is possibly one of the stupidest things I've ever seen in a horror movie. I can suspend my disbelief that these people are stupid, I can't suspend my disbelief that physics don't work.
Honestly it could make for a fun horror-comedy element, with a character always being in shadow regardless of how much light is around them. But in this movie it indeed makes no sense
This would have worked if they made the inside of the cabin have less lights. Like if the lights are already dim inside, it's understandable why the lights won't reach the porch. But this is the brightest cabin in a horror movie I've ever seen.
This is easy enough to fix, because I have an old-style screen that makes it absolutely impossible to see who I'm talking to. There's no mesh, it's pure metal. You cannot parse faces through it, even in the best lighting conditions. Although...that's be expensive to install in a low budget set. Better make a Magically Dark Front Porch.
I don’t understand why studios are continuously ruining their reputation in order to make a quick buck. The Strangers had NO business being made into a franchise.
Because it's a cash grab and they only give a shit about making a short term profit for the shareholders
How I felt when they redid the Halloweens for the 50th time.
They do it to keep hold of the IP.
Because Hollywood is now in the hands of finance bros and not creatives.
If companies don't use the franchise/characters within 10 or 15 years it's fair game for anyone to use.
If I'm in a cabin for one night with no one else coming over, and someone knocks on the door, I'm not using the peep hole.
I'm hiding behind the couch until they drive away. Just like I usually do.
I do that in my own home. 😂
Tbf they DID call for that repair guy... In the middle of the night... When they were staying literally 1 night.
So they were kinda expecting one person?
I'd be scared someone would stick something through the peephole.
same. if im not expecting anyone, im not opening the door. and if it‘s police, i'm calling the non emergency line to verify their badge😂
@@user-kx5en8dg7utrue! I’ve been pulled over at night before and called the line to make sure it was a real cop behind me. Nothing I want to mess around with
If you're an adult with asthma, you should probably take more personal responsibility with keeping your inhaler around.
I don't get why he didn't grab his stuff out of the car or atleast have a second inhaler on him. I have a ton all over the place and in my jackets so I won't forget it
Especially if your partner is a chronic weed smoker hahahaha
And there's no reason why he wouldn't take her with him. Especially when they both knew there's weird woman/girl around.
I can't imagine treating an inhaler like a pair of reading glasses.
Well... tell that to my ex
As someone that has worked at hotels, the going outside for calls but smoking inside is totally fucking real and infuriating AF. Smoke if you gotta but not inside.
Yep, gotta yell your conversation in the hallway and rip out the fire alarm to smoke in your room.
I saw this with a friend and I NEED you to be aware of the very final scene:
It's not just "scarecrow is lying beside her" it's literally: she wakes up in the hospital bed, she sits up to reveal scarecrow LITERALLY IN THE SAME BED AS HER. you know how big hospital beds are?? He was (seemingly) PRACTICALLY SHOULDER PRESSED AGAINST HER LYING DOWN. And she even sat up! Fully awake as if she couldn't feel a giant wide-ass man literally in the same bed as her. Actual insanity
lmao WHAT? i thought she meant he was in a bed that was beside her like how in some hospitals they have 2 patients a room instead of having her in a one patient room. but in the SAME bed and lying BESIDE her??????? and she didn't notice? i haven't seen the scene or even a screenshot so idk what that looks like.. but?
And there was only one bed! /joke
@@donnasomers176 Eh, you can convey that without it coming across as stupid as that sounds.
there’s a girl i follow on tiktok that got a really cool PR package for the movie and was really excited, and then in her review after seeing the movie she was basically like “this movie sucks, don’t watch it” and the dichotomy of the two videos was so funny
Good on her for not getting swayed by the PR swag and staying honest with her review. 👍 Not everyone does that because they want to keep getting free stuff.
Hahaha that sounds hilarious! And I agree with the comment above me about her at least not being a liar 👍
what's her username i need to see this 😂
love when even when people get a pr package theyre still honest about the movie
Also love that she’s taking a shower alone in a cabin without her boyfriend when there was a creepy girl. Like what the actual fuck
I can't believe it. I didn't think I was really that weird because, even in my own home, if something outside seems sus, there's no way I'm getting naked and vulnerable. Double checking the doors and windows and putting a raincheck on that shower!
Honestly, if im in a cabin alone with just my boyfriend. Every single door and window is locked and i double check them all. I live in missouri though where black bears are always a potential surprise guest when camping or in the woods 😂
With the door wide fucking open too...Even when im in my own house with my boyfriend I still close the door.
Also she’s gets high which is really bright .. slow down your senses more 😮 like cmon dummy
Honestly, you left at the PERFECT time. It just got worse.
But thank you for this, it was very validating lol
Abandoning the working truck was my last straw I was pissed
Gurl, if I'm in a cabin and someone comes to my door at night--expected or not--sometimes I even have to hype myself up to look through the peephole. Knowing there is a stranger that close to me (even with a door as a barrier) can be super scary! Men out here raw-dogging life with strangers are WILD to me.
Edit: let me take that back. I had a female roommate who would leave the windows open without the safety lock on our ground floor apartment because she couldn't be bothered. Too many people out here have no sense of self-preservation.
I think it's a bit of a suburban mindset, theres always those people who don't lock their car or door bc they feel extra safe
I work in a college grocery store the customers have no sense of situational awareness and don't look where they are going when they are walking. They quite often walk out into the road with headphones on and not looking up.
men rawdogging?
when i was in college on a theoretically closed campus i slept on the first floor with the window open and honestly i was fucking stupid for that
@@LazyRittz its more likely than you think!
Horror movies are getting dumber and dumber. Actually I think every movie is getting dumber and dumber. They just think we are stupid as an audience.
Yeah, honestly. There’s a real lack of media literacy and it’s not surprising that we’re seeing that reflected in films with things losing any subtlety or intelligence because they’re afraid it’ll go over the vast majority of peoples heads. It’s hard to say if the vast majority truly aren’t media literate or if they’re just more vocal but the people making films only seem to care about the people making the noise.
@@lisahoshowsky4251 yes I agree although I’d argue that watching movies and media literacy aren’t the same thing they just contrive them to be the same thinking people won’t understand. Movies are a reflection of real life or complete fiction and the way they think they have to explain every fucking detail like we need it when I do believe most of us don’t is soooo annoying. Like an example would be “anything but you” with Sydney Sweeney as was the dumbest comedy slapstick movie, in a bad way, that I’ve seen in a while and displays what Hollywood thinks of us as an audience. God that movie sucked 😂😂😂
No, they just want to pump out as many guaranteed income films as possible. That's why so many movies are remakes now or existing ips.
i disagree, there have always been bad horror movies. it’s probably the easiest genre to make a shit movie that is still successful. but that doesn’t mean there aren’t incredible horror films coming out right now and in recent years.
@@sharkshannon definitely not wrong here!! But I’m also referring to movies in general. But that’s not to say there are not good movies coming out especially indie movies 👏👏👏
8:15 As someone who’s very into film criticism, I’ve noticed a trend online of people excusing “dumb horror movie characters” because of an overall shift in online commentary towards favoring positivity. So nowadays if you try to criticize a movie for characters making dumb decisions, you’ll get a lot of “no one acts logical in dangerous situations stop nitpicking”. And I do think that there is a point there about how much horror criticism is dumb nitpicks! But this movie serves a good example of when dumb, stupid characters aren’t “realistically flawed”, they’re just dumb stupid characters. It’s impossible to get invested when they don’t feel like real people doing their best to survive, they feel like people who need to make the worst decision because that makes the writers jobs easier.
I feel like a lot of it is some well-deserved backlash for the cinema sins-style of critique, but there can be a balance between nitpicking every single little thing in a movie, and having no suspension of disbelief, and saying that it's completely acceptable for characters to be poorly written and the plot to be laughably stupid.
Alternatively if you do, you could turn it in a parody or comedy instead, not play it straight
Yeah, people can definitely act illogical when they're in a state of panic, but it usually isn't an endless string of moronic decisions. That's just bad writing.
Yes. The internet is insanely black and white on its opinions on movie criticism. One moment they're all for negative reviews, while another they only want positivity. I think balance and honesty is important. No matter how widely liked a movie is, someone is entitled to criticize and not like it, even if it seems "stupid" to fans of the media.
As for characters acting dumb, while yes panic realistically makes people do impulsive stuff, there's still some form of logic in place. Other than the fact that characters shouldn't act 100% realistic if it'd just negatively effect the flow of movies. (characters aren't real people, they're chess pieces to move the plot and theme forward)
Character's actions shouldn't be excused by claiming its "realistic" when the flow of the story should be valued above all else in fiction, even if it does mean a character doesn't act like a complete doofus.
Yeah stupid people exist in real life but that doesn't mean I wanna watch them
As a guy I look outside the peephole and windows every time. I am a nervous person.
I also couldn’t stand her boyfriend, I really thought he was a tool.
I don’t have a peephole because my door has a frosted glass window but i have a window that peers out above the front door and i ALWAYS look out it, even if im expecting someone. Even if theres no danger i just don’t wanna talk to random strangers unnecessarily, especially solicitors lmao
That's not even a nervous person imo, that's just rational - like we've all seen the evening news at least a hundred times, at least one horror movie, or heard the true crime podcasts. None of us think we live in a hunky-dory cute reality where people can be inherently trusted even before you've had a quick glance at them. Well, almost none of us. I think it's safe to say most people in this world do not have a ton of faith in strangers to do the right thing by default.
I do it a lot after a few bad experiences with the property manager for my apartment building
@@saltiestsirenthat's the thing though. You're most likely to be harmed by someone you know and trust, not a stranger
@@msjkrameythat’s not the case anymore.
I'm not gonna pretend like the original Strangers was some masterpiece. It was slow and cliché, but it had atmosphere, memorable lines, and Dennis Reynolds getting shot in the face.
Chapter 1 has none of that. It's the Diet Coke of Strangers. It's hollow and filled with unbelievable characters doing stupid things resulting in stupid outcomes.
If my popcorn didn't have the perfect butter to salt ratio, I would've been more annoyed.
well im type one diabetic and have been drinking diet coke for 30 years, i like diet coke. so i guess ill like this movie?
As a Coke Zero enjoyer, I would have to agree.
Also, based pfp
@@mxstrikk*woke
There I fixed it 😊
I actually wanted to scream "PUT ON SOME PANTS AND GET AWAY FROM THE WINDOW" for the longest time once they got to the cabin. It's wild to me that everyone who made the film was so out of touch with the psychology of vulnerability.
Right? And while you are in the kitchen, looking out of the window GRAB A FUCKING KNIFE. So dumb, for real.
I don't get why these people when getting to this Airbnb not look around to see every part of the house. I do it out of habit from my times staying at one
That too. i suppose that shows how much thought went in it thatthose things. Which shouldbe there to at least have atmosphere and believability.
I mean if the minor things that people would at least think of, its probably rushed?
This movie is the orange-flavored La Croix to the original film's Fanta.
Thank you 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
Now this is a top tier insult(I will be using it from now on)
From experience, if I get a random knock on my door at night I just pretend I'm not home. I don't even get close enough to the door to check the peephole
i don’t think movie studios understand that people can only suspend their disbelief so much, old horror movies had dream villains like freddy kruger- and yet, the realism of the fear of having a dream come to life, makes it easy for people to be entertained cause it’s in a dream. but when you’re setting things in reality, they NEED to have some realism in it.
also like, let's be real here at least with this example. the og Nightmare film is drowning in metaphor. Freddy isn't just a scary dream man, he's an analog both for child predators (this is really easy to argue, but just for context, see the phone and bath scenes with Nancy, or the interviews with the production staff of the movie at the time, where they discuss blunting some of the predatory coding they were going for due to a contemporary case being too close to release)
Freddy doesn't just stop at being a metaphor for predators though, he also represents in a sidelong way, the active suppression of the truth by the parents. Nancy's parents actively hiding their own knowledge of Kruegar is a MAJOR enabler of his behavior, just like in reality, the parents desire to protect their children from harm by keeping them ignorant becomes a threat to their own children when the predator becomes real instead of hypothetical.
And we can do this with a lot of the more goofy horror movies. Friday the 13th has a throughline about being responsible for the welfare of children, and the way that sort of negligence can spiral in dangerous ways. Halloween questions the safety of the suburban environment and asserts that evil can come from within that environment as well.
Horror as a genre is underestimated by producers and executives who are either incapable of examining these films' deeper messages, or unwilling to do so.
Consequently, they fail to understand what makes these movies effective, and they doom them to endlessly regurgitate what THEY think is important, at the expense of the actual thematic meaning of the films.
Thanks for reading this absurdly long comment.
@@HadalStreetlights you said it perfectly 😭 from the double entendres, the way the film makers actually considered the audiences own sense of comfort and intelligence; to the metaphors and symbolism in ANY elm st movie, is something that sadly, i haven’t seen in many new horror movies. hell you could literally argue that, freddy vs jason has more depth than any of the new scream or TX chainsaw remakes. I think movies like VVitch and Talk to me, have done such amazing work in trying to bring back the depth a horror movie should have, and i just hope that’s the path scary movies take again. i’m so tired of every movie acting like the people watching, are extremely stupid and have no emotional/critical intelligence.
@@sybill123ful I wouldn't go as far as to say most new horror movies are that bad. Plenty of them are but I just think a lot of the time we just arent on their wavelength.
or theyre just genuinely kinda bad. sometimes the movie just isnt very deep or complicated. I think that's okay too. We are just blessed with more access to ALL of the art we make, good or bad, than ever before in history. Of course we can find more bad today than in the past.
Old trash could be destroyed. Now with the internet, Birdemic is forever.
@@HadalStreetlights i wouldn’t necessarily say *most* but the majority of releases this year alone, have been not good. there are outliers, but i can’t think of a really good movie aside from talk to me, that have come out recently.
@@sybill123ful most recently i saw An Angry Boy. it comes with heavy trigger and content warnings and it's very dark, and technically more of a thriller, but i thought it was excellent. also like, Ari Aster and Jordan Peele have been killing it in my opinion. great films out of them like Midsommar, Hereditary, Beau is Afraid, Nope, Get Out, etc.
But yeah we also get a lot of trash too! Just don't get too wrapped up in the negativity. Horror is doing quite well right now.
Imo, it would’ve been more interesting if the hunted becomes the hunter. If scarecrow actually died, it could’ve turned into the couple hunting down the last 2 strangers. Then, the “strangers” could’ve been the couple.
You're Next does something kinda like that.
You're next has a similar plot.
That sort of what they did with “Prey at night”. I prefer it over the original actually
Nah, Ryan and Maya are some of the worst horror protagonists ever, they would never be badass like that. If Maya kills the 3 strangers alone in the next 2 movies, it'll be the most irrealistic thing of the trilogy
@@2000fiona you right
So the board game Final Girl has an expansion thats "inspired" by The Strangers, and since the games concept is mixing killers and settings, theres so many cool locations you can take them on in. Such as an asylum, a suburb, a summer camp, a fairytale woods, a research base in Antarctica, a spaceship in the future. So many options that would have been interesting to set the Strangers in besides one they've already done.
The Strangers...but they're literally from another planet 💀
@@saltiestsiren That's lowkey horrific to think about
I still went into this movie after all of the negative reviews thinking I could find something that made it redeemable but no, lol. The decisions made by the characters truly are poor and laughable. Spoiler: when they’re trapped in the one bedroom NEXT to a window that they can easily open and escape through, and just sit there waiting for the stranger to axe the door down lol.
she picked the worst boyfriend EVER !!!!!!!! i wouldnt even need the shotgun to Fck up sack man, the dudes peripheral vision would be absolutely terrible with that thing on his head.
“This isn’t Michael Meyers. This is a dweeb in a mask.” 💀💀💀
Another Ryan here. I sometimes look through the peephole for fun, even when there's nobody there, ffs😂. That guy obviously wasn't trained properly at the University Of Ryans before being let loose in the wild.
😂😂😂
Lol I do that too. It’s kind of fun!
Also University of Ryan is hilarious. 🤣🤣
Amidst all the weird decisions in this movie, the one thing that really gets me is that Maia took a shower. Like it's not a motel or anything! You're in a STRANGER"S HOUSE on super short notice and you just take a shower?? Where's the awkwardness? The irrational terror of slightly inconveniencing someone?
0/10 movie, completely unrealistic
would recommend you check out the movie “the rental” it plays on that specific kind of feeling, the awkwardness of being in someone else’s home that you’re renting out, amidst awful personal drama
Omg it was an Airbnb! You're suppose to use as your home, etc. Maybe she thought it would help relax herself or maybe she just stank! Too many people read reviews first and it ruins your thoughts and input on what you might really think of the movie if you didn't already hear the whining of others! It's a horror movie! It's not supposed to be made with logic or reasoning! How smart are you when put in these positions and scared half to death?
I actually understood why she wasn't thrown off by her phone moving. It's because she thought she forgot she placed it there. Unfortunately happens to me quite often, because setting your phone down is a very autopilot thing at times.
And she was high from smoking pot! Plays with your mind man! Plus Maya is a little naive about things. She hasn't had terrorized events to make her think different of people, etc.
Whilst not all together or theatrically released; the Fear Street trilogy was released over a period of three weeks and is definitely made to be marathoned (such is Netflix's model)
as soon as i found out all these new strangers movies were filmed together this was the first place my mind went to. i find the decision for the strangers movies to be released months apart baffling
I love the Fear Street trilogy, such a fun experience. This isn't it 👀
@justadude2807 the new fear street movie just finished being made. Fear street 1988
There needs to be a compilation video of William abusing his power.
Yes. muhahaha
The motel movie exists and it's called Vacancy (2007), an American slasher film that stars Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson as a married couple who book at the motel after their car breaks down and are soon stalked by masked killers.
UA-camr Ryan Hollinger has a good video about that movie. I've found a couple good less known horror movies thru him!
The motel movie exists, it’s called Psycho with Anthony Hopkins, Janet Leigh, and Vera Miles in 1960.
So what I'm hearing is that 'The Strangers (Chapter 1)' is the feature-length version of the Geico "Good Choices" ad - "Why can't we just get in the running car?!" "Are you crazy? Let's hide behind the chainsaws!"
my brother watched the strangers: chapter 1 the other day and came home ranting about how stupid it was, then convinced me to watch the original with him because he didn't want to alone. it was a good movie and he was scared out of his mind, so seeing you post about how bad it was as well is kinda funny to me
The Strangers don’t need an origin story. That defeats the whole
purpose.
agree. but i wanna know who tamara is! 😂
Chapter 1: Strangers
Chapter 2: Even Stranger
Chapter 3: On Stranger Tides
17:43 "No, I heard people in this fucking house, there were people in here!"
"Nah, that's just your hysterical uterus making things up."
Only semi-related, I actually got to be on set a couple nights for filming for Strangers: Prey at Night. Damian Maffei was super nice to lost-little-intern me and helped me feel less awkward. There is an extremely low chance that one shot of a van driving up a bit of street has me in the passenger seat because the crew member driving it had a concussion and I was along for "safety."
The thing about the first movie is that while the neighbors were far away, the house was in a neighborhood. It makes it feel more realistic that the strangers would just pick a house at random or the first home where someone answered the door. This is a random cabin in the middle of the woods that people aren't going to just happen upon.
no literally. like for this movie the answer to "why are you doing this to us" logically is NOT "because you were home," it's, "because this cabin is very secluded so you can't get to safety easily"
Not being able to come up with original ideas is no excuse for butchering other movies and/or franchises! Film studios need to spread their antennas a little more and wider instead of just going 'well what franchise belongs to us? Ah yes, this, let's make a stupid remake or whatever, who cares'
for every Abigail we get a strangers chapter 1
ugh so disappointing to hear. Directors seem to forget making your characters stupid detracts from the realism and terror of if they were truly trying and making smart decisions yet failing to escape anyway. Thanks for saving me £9 to go see this 😅
Yeah god either if make it a parody, or make at least realistic flavour, like someone mentioned, check the rnb
I have a door that has a window at eye-level. What the people on the other side of the door WON'T see... is me full on slithering across the floor so I can see who it is before they know whether or not I'm even home.
The inhaler comes up again in the dumbest way possible, he starts having an asthma attack and you’d think it would be bad because he drove all the way to the town to get the damn inhaler, but no. He grabs an empty water bottle and twists it, then opens the cap and inhales that vapor, suddenly that helped and he’s ok. Screw albuterol I guess.
I was so mad that I made a Letterboxd account just to trash it. I haven’t reviewed a movie before or since
Conspiracy theory : they are making this just to sell masks of the Strangers characters because they would be easily recognizable and a quick and easy halloween costume
Im not answering the door at an AirBnB period frankly.
What if the Airbnb owner coming back late at night unconcerned about the door is the indicator we were supposed to interpret as his complicity with the Strangers? Like “welp, looks like they’re done with em. Time for me to go inside and ‘discover the bodies’ under the guise of ‘well they called me about a fridge and I just found them like this’”
I look outside the window everytime before opening the door. But i also straight up don't answer the door if I'm not expecting somebody.
in this situation the minute my boyfriend left i would be locked in the bathroom and on the phone to my mama until he got back 😭
One of the things I found so eerie about the first movie was that in the beginning, the cabin seems a lot more remote. At the end, you realize that the house that had seemed so secluded is actually just at the end of a suburban neighborhood. I felt like that added more to the horror of the “it could happen to anyone” motif. Obviously this is not the vibe with this movie. I was a big fan of the first Strangers movie, specifically the directing style. I feel like the scares of the original relied more on suspense and tension instead of mostly jump-scares like we see in so many movies. The characters and plot were lacking, but it was still a frightening movie to me, because it was just so eerie. Thanks for doing this video. I definitely wanted to see the new one once I saw the trailer and it was marketed as a “prequel”. I will now be saving myself the disappointment and the money I would have spent on a ticket.
“They don’t need a reason.” Works if they only made one movie about the strangers. That’s why when the strangers say “because you were home.” In the first movie is so chilling. It doesn’t work when you make multiple movies about the strangers. Because after a while the audience will rightfully so start asking “Why do they keep doing this?” “What is their motivation?” And so on. Could you imagine how frustrating it would have been be if we never got Freddie Kruger’s backstory? If they just left him as some random guy that killed people in their sleep?
The 2nd one is amazing, I prefer it over the original
Actually, yes, his inhaler being missing comes up again toward the end of the movie. He stopped somewhere, is trying to catch his breath and he ends up cracking an abandoned water bottle to turn it into a makeshift inhaler of sorts, it’s so wild. I also hated the way they ended things (without the mid credit scene featuring Scarecrow) and it should’ve ended with them laying there, bleeding, and Maya’s eyes open to reveal she’d alive. That would’ve given more stakes, or something, anything! Seriously.
The film makers couldn’t even bother to learn how inhalers work! I don’t even have asthma and I know you can’t just use any old bottle as one. Inhalers have medicine in them that helps open the airways or something. It’s not just breathing in oxygen. Doing that would’ve done nothing and he probably would’ve died from the asthma attack like the idiot he is before those killers even got him.
You can’t even make a makeshift inhaler. That was absolutely ridiculous. It’s like the movie creators didn’t even research asthma.
If. any. of these two dumb friggen MCs made any just like- normal decision, this movie could've been good. but like its just *soooooo* infuriating.
AMANDA THE JEDI JUST POSTED A REVIEW OF THIS MOVIE.
'If I nickle for every time an Amanda that I'm subscribed to reviewed Strangers Ch. 1- I'd have two nickles. That's not a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.'
oh my god the phones. in the 2018 movie the teenagers leave the trailer without their phones. i know they stormed out after a fight but still. teenagers without phones? and then later the parents are like “our kids are outside in the dark and there’s creepy people out there. we should go get them.” AND THEY ALSO LEAVE WITHOUT THEIR PHONES. and surprise the strangers find their phones in the trailer and wreck them. it made me so mad
Something I like about being able to see their hair in the original, is that you'd get these random flashes of it, and it would be so jarring. It was a reminder to the audience that these aren't supernatural-like untouchable slashers a la Michael Myers or Jason. These are normal people. It was so much more grounding and scary.
4:00 It would have been cool if they played off the idea of a double feature which was super popular back in the day especially for B horror movies. There’s literal precedent for horror movies being viewed back to back which could have been a good tie in for this kind of franchise. It used to be a thing to go to the theatre and they’d show cartoons, a main movie and the b movie so like it’s not super crazy. We’ve might have gotten away from that but I think movies these days need a draw to get people to actually leave their home and spend extra money to see something in theatre. Companies just don’t want to take any kind of risk though, there’s something weirdly dystopian about their lack of wanting to try anything, especially when it seems apparent they’ll fail under traditional models anyways. Like why not try? Something? Anything? The apathy coming from corporations, especially in the film industry, is really just the next layer on the capitalist sundae🙃
Its so funny how this movie made similar choices to the horror movie parody commercial Geico made
I love that one. The sobbing delivery on, "why don't we just get in the running car?" was hilarious.
I really don't get how this was so gripping for people when it came around the first time. "Dude this could have actually happened man" yeah and other movies have done that better without treating the audience like morons
Based on what you said about the diner patrons being very cold, I think it would have been scarier later had they been super sweet and kind to them. Or at least have a couple of them be kind when everyone else isn't (false sense of security) and have them be the strangers.
I will NEVER get sick of that intro. Makes me giggle every single time.
The “opening door with key even though it has a hole” shows they had the dumbest script supervisor ever, or of course maybe didn’t have one at all
I feel like even like a bad AI software could write a better script
The boys in the white shirts are a reference to the original, where at the end the strangers leave the house in there truck and pass the boys and talk to them , then they find the couple they killed 🥦 honestly the original is the best . It has more suspense elements and true terror .
"we're going to reveal who Tamara is" is so funny to me because how do you manage to miss the point of your own franchise so badly
I know right? She’s not a real person. She’s just an excuse to case the place. 😂😂
"Are you mad I made a review of a movie that I walked out of." Swell that's like the most important thing you could have included in all of this, thank you for giving me 35-ish minutes of complaints about a really bad movie. I didn't even know it existed to begin with so I'll keep avoiding it.
24:27 the asthma does come up again later- when he runs into the woods by himself he starts having an asthma attack behind this structure thing. He grabs a water bottle and uses it as an inhaler since he lost his (even though it has no medicine). It gives away his location and ultimately leads to his death 😃
Saw this movie recently. Highly disappointed by it for the most part and while it was a pretty movie nothing really worked…
i mean frankly if someone knocked on my door at night I just wouldn't open it
After Ryan goes after maya in the woods and leaves the running truck he has a asthma attack and finds a water bottle empties it and twists it super loudly and breathes into it (I guess like a paper bag??) so technically him dropping the inhaler wasn’t completely dropped even though this scene was overall pointless
Apparently that wouldn’t even work in real life lol
@@austinm8334 nope, we need medication to make our throat open back up when an asthma attack starts! in fact a random bottle on the ground would definitely make it worse because you're inhaling all the crap that's probably on it straight into the throat THAT IS CURRENTLY CLOSING UP and can absolutely not handle extra crap blocking the airway lol
Thank you swell for watching horror so we don’t have to (I’m a wimp horror runs my nightmares)
It’s like why turn a singular movie into a new franchise/IP if you’re not going to maintain elements/narrative tone/VYBEZ IDK that made the first movie successful aka why they wanted to make it into a franchise in the first place! 😠
We walked out at the SAME EXACT SPOT. That is genuinely so funny
Horror movies are dumbing down characters to carry their plot, and I'm not living for it. I like it when characters are realistically smart and resourceful. Why can't movies be like that anymore?
Plenty of good horror movies still being released all the time, and dumb characters in horror have been a problem since the inception of horror. It’s always been a mixed bag!
actually the most sick and twisted thing is that i thought froy gutierrez was tyler hoechlin so discovering that the main character of this movie is not derek hale from teen wolf but ANOTHER character from teen wolf… and it’s LIAM… diabolical
“i’ll do it, someone give me money..” 😂 Same !!
The opening of "the Strangers" was one of the best parts of the movie. Walking in on a couple in a fight is always going to be peak uncomfortable, I think the same kind of thing worked really well in the movie "Vacancy".
man here. i check peepholes religiously. doesn't matter what time of day, where i am, if i'm expecting someone or anything. i ALWAYS check the peephole.
"This couple are happy - I don't like it" is honestly such a great take.
i'm glad youre making another movie/documentary review video, i love when you do those!
Watched this with my sister in the theaters because she LOVED the first one when it came out. We both almost walked out and kept throwing up the wtf hand gestures the whole time. We stayed but the only time I did want to walk out of a movie
I remember the girl mc heard singing, went to go see where it could be coming from, gets distracted, and then completely forgets about it. Girl, singing in the middle of nowhere when you’re alone ? Someone is with you
This was the first movie I genuinely felt like I didn't miss anything when I went to the bathroom.
i saw this with my sister and honestly the fact that it's so infuriating kinda made it fun to watch but it's still just so crazy to me that the boyfriend was the one who didn't trust the townspeople in the first place and then when his girlfriend, who initially trusted them, insisted that there was someone in the house, he for some reason didn't want to immediately leave.
Teleporting in horror just for jump scares/ scary background details bother me so much. The only movie I think that pulls it off is The Invisible Man (2020) because it makes sense contextually and they don’t come off as cheap scares
I’ve not watched the movie but from clips in this vid it looks like the house is in the woods with no other houses around. If someone asked if Tamara was there I would go straight to thinking someone is gonna break in or attack me cause it can’t be the wrong address when there is no other house in the nearby area. Especially after the second time I’m purely thinking “im not making it through the night” like why is she not panicking not once but twice something is wrong get out or hide.
Edit: I hate when people in horror movies make stupid mistakes like the torch on the phone. Plus why do people never believe when someone says that they saw people in the house, like even if you think they are lying after what happened earlier with a stranger at the door at least be a bit more aware.
When i got the notification for this video I went and rented the movie so I could watch before having a bias on it. The gasp I just let out when you mentioned scarecrows truck still being on OH MY GOD I didn’t even consider it because I was so frustrated with them taking so long to get into the car in the first place ahahah
getting to the end of the video it really does seem like that it was the first but worse, i do like the idea she becomes a stranger by the end of the trilogy i also had that thought it would actually make the story better than the first IMO, it just seems lazy to say this is gonna be a trilogy with nothing really to lead into the second one. We'll have to see what the second and third look like i guess, but my hopes are not high
even if that’s the case, if they’re trying to reveal this is a prequel trilogy to the other two (“see how the strangers became the strangers”) then miss ginger is gonna have to dye her hair at some point. She’s too tall to be the OG pinup and the other one was blonde lol
Your editor is a DEMON for brief ten seconds of dead camera 😭
If I get an unexpected knock at my door any time of day, I’m checking the peephole. If I don’t know the person, I talk through the door to figure out who they are and what they want.
I mean most characters in horror movies make dumb decisions, but the problem comes when they break verisimilitude. Also the entire point of The Strangers was that the couple didn’t really no each other that well which gave the film title a double meaning and an interesting theme to focus on. This doesn’t seem to have either of those.
The kids with the pamphlets were in the first movie at the end. Theyre the ones who discover the crime scene.
Almost nobody is talking about how this canonically CAN'T be a prequel because it's set in modern times when the original is set in the early 2000s so the marketing is double as deceiving.
Chickens are feeding themselves, plot twist strangers are just a bunch of chickens in a trench coat and their food is their victims.
Can confirm that, living in a country where peepholes are not the standard, on the offchance that I *do* get one, I use it pretty much any chance I get. But I can imagine some guys will just be dumb.
And... yeah, every horror movie that "sets up the tension" like this early on really feels like a dud. Like, why does no one ever seem to want to make the movie where all the small-town roadside diner people are really super-nice to everyone, so that it's actually a _surprise_ when they go all murdery?
18:55 Genuine question: is there a behind the scenes where they actually said this was a real axe going through a solid door? Because that's highly unlikely. If they're not using VFX for it, it's usually a case of a prop axe and break away wood (or a pre-broken section).
As a geriatric milennial, I will admit I'm constantly setting my phone down and I'll jist leave it there for a few hours until I panic because I can't find it. But if I'm in a public place (like the park or work) or if I'm in a strange place (like an Air BnB) then my phone is not leaving my pocket.
Ok here's a horror movie:
Group of college students are gonna go out partying. They ask around and find out that one of them has a family cottage near a lake in a forest. Perfect scenic location.
So they go. They drive out in a couple of campers they borrow from their rich families, stopping for gas at a station near the cottage, and buying some essentials, including a spare phone battery, a zippo lighter, and a hatchet.
The five figure out lodging and establish their rooming arrangements, get to partying.
What they don't realize is that the house isn't actually so unfamiliar to their host, who has taken the opportunity to *follow them* to the cottage.
What follows is a voyeuristic spiral into gaslighting and madness as their uninvited guest systematically undermines their sanities and gaslights them into squabbling. As tensions rise and things get intense, one of the couples starts fighting viciously, old baggage getting drawn out and preexisting cracks in the relationship widening into full-blown schisms.
Their friends are disturbed and almost come to their senses, but when a greasefire breaks out on the wood stove, their manipulator finally makes their play, crashing a camper van through the wall of the cottage and killing one of the students instantly.
What follows is a very brief chase where the student evades the camper van in a field, taking advantage of its turn radius.
The student doubles back through the cottage and goes looking for the couple, and eventually finds things have escalated off screen. we are not informed of what actually happened, but the surviving partner blames the killer for their partner's death, and the two set out in search of their fifth who fled the cottage when the camper crashed into it. The idea of calling the police is raised but immediately fails when they discover the cellular signal at the cottage is nonexistant.
Leaving the cottage out the front they realize their stalker stole their camper, and reveals that the stalker is someone they know, because the new car is recognizable, but they can't remember whose it is. (it's very boring) The stalker has taken the keys to both campers and the car.
They are forced to head on foot toward the gas station they passed by earlier, and on the way, they notice a trail of bloody footprints that abruptly end near the road, and follow them back to find their third friend bleeding, but alive. They say they were attacked from behind and left for dead. The two able survivors work together to lift their injured third and hobble together toward the aforementioned gas station when they hear an approaching vehicle.
It's the other camper, which they have to hide to avoid. It doesn't appear to work as their pursuer stops the camper and gets out, apparently in direct pursuit.
This is when their third party member's phone goes off, apparently receiving just enough of a signal at this distance to the gas station that it's capable of receiving a call. Covers blown, an attempt is made to run, but it's also at this moment that their wounded third reveals they aren't really wounded. One of the two remaining students is foiled in their escape attempt by the betrayer, and the fleeing student is pursued toward the gas station by the main killer.
The killer and the student reach the gas station at the same time as we the audience learn that the betrayer successfully kills their quarry, and gets into the camper, bringing the body with them.
The last survivor and the killer play a bit of cat and mouse around the gas station as the survivor seeks any leverage. The killer has a hatchet that they had bought at the gas station.
The cat and mouse ends when the betrayer arrives in the camper and the two close in on their intended victim.
Demands are made to understand the motivations of the killers and those demands are met with giggles.
The betrayer goes in, but is surprised when the survivor uses a gas pump as an improvised weapon. He punctures the tubing and gets sprayed with gasoline, which the student ignites with the gas station zippo. infuriated, the remaining killer comes after the student, who again flees, this time using the corner of the gas station as natural cover to spring an ambush and briefly incapacitate their pursuer.
The student breaks into the gas station, setting off the alarm, and finds a loaded gun beneath the register counter. They position themselves to take a stand against the killer, who is now recovering and trying to quietly locate them.
They check their phone which is just barely clinging to life, and has just enough signal to make an outgoing call, and dial the police. The killer comes in just as the line connects and the student fires the gun at the killer, but doesn't get a clean shot due to not being trained to use a firearm. The shot goes wide but does clip the killer, forcing them to retreat. Now refocusing on the phone call, the student finds that the phone is dead, and remembers the spare battery. The student observes the trail of blood from the retreated killer, and notes that it doesn't go toward the parked camper next to the burned betrayer. She quickly examines the camper to see if there's any sign of entry from the killer, and then enters it. We see the killer watch this and start to close in on the camper.
The student finds the battery in a backpack and plugs it in and calls the police immediately as the killer arrives outside the camper. Police arrive, responding to the gas station's alarm, and witness the killer entering the parked camper next to a dead body.
As the student misses a second shot to hit the killer, the police are only able to stop the killer after they claim a final victim and exit the camper.
This was done in a single sitting with only a couple of backfill edits to round out the gas station shopping list for reincorporation later.
would watch 👍
I can't tell if she's been posting more or if I'm genuinely losing track of time- but I appreciate the content no matter what :)
Honestly love the audacity of movies, TV series, games, etc say chapter 1 as if they're so sure its gunna get so much traction to be a series
to add further to what you were saying about their origin story, it would’ve also been cool if when asked “why are you doing this?”, they didn’t say anything cuz it would imply that they haven’t come up with their catchphrase yet. ugh so many choices that could’ve made this movie more bearable
17:34 if I told my s/o I thought there was someone in the house besides us, and he went “mmm… you’re crazy,” he never would have become my s/o in the first place. And if they’ve been together for like five years, surely they’ve had time to establish trust?? Like even if you think they’re hallucinating, why wouldn’t you do anything to reassure them? Like checking the house?
LOL...William needs a raise.