Yet another weekend getaway goes horribly and bloodily awry in the third instalment of the home invasion horror franchise. This one’s a prequel!
How to watch The Strangers: Chapter 1 in New Zealand
The Strangers: Chapter 1 is now playing in New Zealand cinemas.
The Strangers: Chapter 1
What is The Strangers: Chapter 1 about?
You know the drill: a young couple, Maya and Ryan, are on a country road trip when their car breaks down, forcing them to seek shelter in an isolated Airbnb cabin (times, they are tough). That night, three masked strangers appear to terrorise and, in all likelihood, murder them. The Strangers: Chapter 1 follows on from (well, technically predates) 2008’s The Strangers and 2018’s The Strangers: Prey at Night and kicks off a new trilogy of terror…assuming the numbers all work.
But hang on: The Strangers came out in 2008, the same year that Airbnb was founded, so how does the timeline work? Boy, I sure hope somebody got fired over that…
But it’s worth noting that this one comes to us from director Renny Harlin, who used to be a go-to guy for big, action-heavy blockbusters back in the day, so it’s going to be interesting to see what the man behind Die Hard 2: Die Harder and The Long Kiss Goodnight can do with this sort of material. Harlin’s no, uh, stranger, to horror, having directed A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Deep Blue Sea, and The Exorcist: The Beginning.
The cast of The Strangers: Chapter 1
Riverdale‘s Madelaine Petsch is Maya, Teen Wolf‘s Froy Gutierrez is Ryan, and Rachel Shenton, Gabriel Basso, Ema Horvath, and Ella Bruccoleri are in as-yet-undisclosed roles. But let’s be real here: at least three of them are masked killers, right?
The Strangers: Chapter 1 trailer
Why we’re excited about The Strangers: Chapter 1
While we’re not entirely convinced that The Strangers‘ mythology needs a whole trilogy’s worth of backfill, this kind of meat ‘n’ potatoes slasher fare is generally a good time. Plus, Renny Harlin: it’s been a minute since he had a wide theatrical release, and we’re keen to see if the Finnish filmmaker has still got the goods.
