The Strangers - Chapter 2 - Not as Good as the First Chapter but Still Pretty Intense

After my wife and I had a small get together with her sisters' families, we decided to see another new movie in the cinema yesterday. We opted to watch this one which I was interested as it was sequel to the film that we saw last year. All right then, let's just get to it.

Brief Story Line

Set after the events of the first chapter, Maya (Madelaine Petsch -Riverdale TV series, Jane etc) who survived the Strangers terror was treated at the hospital in the small town of Venus under the care of Nurse Danica (Brooke Johnson - Cruel Intentions TV series etc). She was also being questioned by Sheriff Rotter (Richard Brake - Barbarian, Mayor of Kingstown TV series etc) and his deputy Walters (Pedro Leandro - Portrait of Dangerous Women etc) on what happened to her and her fiancee.

Unfortunately, the Strangers somehow found out that Maya was still alive and tried to kill her at the hospital. It was a dangerous situation for Maya as her wounds have not fully healed and she had to survive on her own.

So what would happen to Maya? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

If you read my earlier post on the first film, you would know that my wife and I were pretty entertained despite what critics said. In this sequel though, the story had deviated quite a lot from the original Strangers plot which reduced the intensity. Yes it was still suspenseful with the occassional jump scare scenes, and during the silent moments where Maya had to hide from the pursue of those Strangers. However we thought that the frightening scenes were not as effective as the first of this trilogy (my wife did not scream as much here). 

I do admire the creativity of the writers Alan R. Cohen & Alan Freedland and director Renny Harlin (Skiptrace, The Misfits etc) for being able to expand the simple story to a larger and intriguing plot. Being second part of a trilogy, this movie had a cliffhanger ending which would be concluded in the third chapter (likely available next year since this movie was released a year after the theatrical release of the first one). This probably contributed to the lack of positive reception (among other reasons) by both critics and audience alike. For me and my wife who had already invested our time to watch two parts, obviously we would want to see the third movie to see the conclusion. Btw, the movie did not have post end credit scene, but there was a teaser in the middle of the closing credit.

I personally thought that Madelaine Petsch was quite convincing in her role here. The film did not have a large cast and the ones I mentioned above were in minor capacity. There were support cast like Gabriel Basso (Juror #2, Trigger Warning etc) as one of the locals Gregory, Ema Horvath (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power TV series etc) as Shelly the waitress and several others who would probably play a bigger role in the final chapter. The duration was only 98 minutes which was just nice for movie such as this. Oh I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the sound system in the studio where we saw this cause it usually was not too great. It enhanced the suspense during the intense moments.

In the end, this was an OK enough horror slasher movie. It might not be as entertaining (and probably a bit absurd) compared to the original or the first chapter, but it was still pretty enjoyable for audience looking for some suspense of people trying to survive terror. So if you are interested in finding out what the filmmakers had in mind for the story, then you could certainly give this a try and see for yourself. But if you prefer to keep your memory intact with the simplicity of its original story, then I think you could avoid this one. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars