'The Strangers: Chapter Two' review: Lousy slasher sequel goes absolutely nowhere

Courtesy of Lionsgate

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2008’s “The Strangers” and its sequel “Prey by Night” thrived on a simple, chilling concept: anyone could choose to attack you, for no reason, at random. The killers’ only explanation was “You were home.” That ambiguity was terrifying. Enter Renny Harlin’s “The Strangers: Chapter 2,” a second installment in the reboot trilogy that tries to build toward some grand finale—and even offers backstory on the killers—but collapses under its own weight. When the film plastered “To be continued” across the screen, I groaned. It means I’ll be back here next year, enduring this all over again.

At least “Chapter 1” understood its own limitations and sparked curiosity about where the series might go. “Chapter 2,” however, reveals there was no plan to tell a compelling story. Rather, it trudges along at the slowest possible pace, riddled with baffling plot choices and nonsensical logic. At one point, there’s a CGI sequence involving a…boar? Like a literal wild animal that, in turn, the filmmakers try to connect to the bigger narrative picture. No, I am not joking. 

The film picks up with Maya (Madelaine Petsch), recovering in the hospital after barely surviving her run-in with the masked intruders. Her fiancé isn’t so lucky. Maya has little time to process before the killers return to finish the job. Early hospital-set cat-and-mouse scenes show flickers of promise, but as soon as Maya makes her way into the Venus, Oregon wilderness, where trust of the local townsfolk is in short supply, everything comes to a stuttering halt. 

What follows is essentially one long, drawn-out chase. Farmers, paramedics, and random townsfolk appear solely for disposable kill shots, putting Maya through endless torment that feels more mechanical than earned. As a middle chapter, “Chapter 2” should be fleshing out the bigger picture. Instead, writers Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland, circle back to questions we’ve already had answered. Face-to-face showdowns with the killers? We’ve seen it. Any new mythology? Still absent. It’s frustrating how little Harlin and company seem invested in giving this material any real depth.

The result is a film filled with white noise: stalk-and-slash sequences that grow repetitive almost immediately. By the lifeless final act, even the cast looks exhausted. A brief tease for “Chapter Three” doesn’t spark intrigue so much as dread, further suggesting the filmmakers have no clear thematic direction or momentum. And the decision to stretch these movies into a nearly 300-page screenplay? Yeesh. The brilliance of the original films was their mystery and lack of explanation. By pulling back the curtain, this trilogy is wasting the scariest thing it had going for it. Tamara please don’t come home. 

Grade: D+ 

THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 2 is now playing in theaters.