The Strangers: Chapter 1

CinemaSerf 5/23/2024 8:50:10 AM 8.4

The heavy trailing of this and the fact that it's part one does little to help any sense of menace as we follow the young "Maya" (Madelaine Petsch) and boyfriend "Ryan" (Froy Gutierrez) on their road trip to Portland. She's heading to start a new job as an architect, and it looks like she might have been responsible for manscaping her boyfriend's perfect visage as this annoyingly loved up and clingy couple arrive at a remote rural diner. They're not married, which seems to rile the locals and when they go to leave, their brand new car won't start. Ha! Luckily, there's an air b'n'b nearby. A remote cabin fully equipped with all the home comforts - even some Dolly to play on vinyl. They're famished so he borrows a motor bike to go fetch some burgers, she's left behind and that's where the paranoia sets in. Is she being watched? Is she alone? Will "Ryan" get back before she has finished smoking a dodgy joint, listening to an entire LP and having a long shower? Was the burger joint in California? Anyway, it's soon clear that they are in some danger and together they must use all their skill and guile to stay alive! The scenario works a bit like "Cabin in the Woods". The moonlit forest serving as a backdrop for some ridiculous choices and some woefully bad acting/writing. It does manage to engender a slight degree of peril near the conclusion, but there's really nothing at all new here and from fairly early on it is clear just what part two will be all about. Not terrible, but really predicable and disappointingly flat.

r96sk 5/23/2024 11:05:04 PM 8.4

<em>'The Strangers: Chapter 1'</em> is a let-down. It sets the scene well with some tension and is held together by a strong score, visually in terms of cinematography and literally in the case of the masks it is fairly effective too but the film doesn't really do enough - with those aforementioned positives and just in general. It starts onscreen by describing forthcoming events as "brutal", yet by the end I don't really feel like I saw anything all that noteworthy; just your standard horror fare, at best, really. Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez are good in the lead roles I will say, though some of their character decisions (as is typical with this genre, I guess) are frustratingly dumb; I'm looking at you in particular, Gutierrez's Ryan. Some of their dialogue isn't much better, either. All in all, I'm disappointed as this could've been real great. Instead, we're left with something that I'd personally class as poor, unfortunately. Chapters 2 + 3 might improve things, let's hope so, but I wouldn't be surprised if this basically just gets rehashed in those next installments, let's hope not in that case. 'Twas, nevertheless, nice to see the cinema screening busier than usual for this, even if there were more dissatisfied chuckles than desired scares from those nearby.

kevin2019 1/2/2025 1:26:09 AM 8.4

"The Strangers: Chapter One" is completely devoid of everything that made "The Strangers" (2008) such a compelling and menacing motion picture. The strangers of the title are immediately at a disadvantage this time around because they obviously no longer have the element of surprise on their side. We have seen it all before as they silently move through the shadows while observing their unsuspecting prey before finally attacking them without mercy or remorse. The jump scares are all tepid and ruined by well signposted and unimaginative camera angles and it is unfortunate the stabbings at the end are actually shown and no longer suggested (the human imagination is one of the most subtly powerful allies at a director's disposal during such moments). However, it is somewhat surprising this film isn't a good deal more tiresome and monotonous, but having said that it also never manages to rise above being an average and overly familiar waste of time which boasts only a few insignificent and uninspiring changes to the formula used in the first film.