The Strangers Chapter 1 Ending Explained: A New(ish) Beginning
This article contains major spoilers for "The Strangers: Chapter 1."
The horror genre is no stranger (pun intended) to creatures returning from the dead. After "The Bride of Frankenstein" brought back the Monster in 1935, no major cinematic horror character has lain dormant for too long, with even the unlikeliest of beasties or killers coming back for at least a second go-round or more.
The villains of 2008's "The Strangers" count as one of those unlikely killers, though not because they're difficult to sequelize. On the contrary, the very ethos of the Strangers (known only as Man in the Mask, Dollface, and Pin-Up Girl) — that being they kill "because you were home" — is incredibly open-ended and ripe for exploration and expansion in further films. Yet therein lies the rub, as they say, for a large part of what makes "The Strangers" so terrifying is that it's a home invasion movie where absolutely no rationale is given for the tragic fates suffered by the protagonists at the hands of the killers, and therefore any continuation or elaboration could deflate the film's effectiveness.
This is why 2018's "The Strangers: Prey at Night" took a notably different road, by having the Strangers attack a family on vacation in a trailer park, only for the family to fight back and dispatch the killers. Obviously, the series couldn't continue from there (without some supernatural shenanigans), so Renny Harlin's "The Strangers: Chapter 1" is attempting to raise the franchise's stakes by seemingly rebooting the continuity and committing to a four-hour-and-change narrative spread over three installments. Given that "Chapter 1" is only the first part of a larger story, you are now reading an Ending Explained article about a movie that, technically, doesn't yet have an ending.
'The Strangers' every 32 seconds
There are a lot of ironies present within "The Strangers: Chapter 1," and most of them are unfavorable. Perhaps the second biggest one (following the fact that this "Strangers" promises a new experience in its marketing materials but delivers the first film again almost exactly beat-for-beat, as /Film's BJ Colangelo observes in her review) is that divorced from the franchise as well as its subsequent chapters, "Chapter 1" makes for a fairly solid if generic slasher film.
The movie begins with the Strangers — Scarecrow (Matúš Lajčák), Dollface (Olivia Kreutzova) and Pin-Up (Letizia Fabbri) — stalking their latest victim (Ryan Bown) and chopping him up in the middle of the woods, in broad morning daylight. Harlin and screenwriters Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland (with credit given to original writer and director Bryan Bertino for the story) then continue the clever ruse inherent to the "Strangers" franchise, which is that it's based on a true story. While "The Strangers" films utilize some disparate elements of real-life events within each movie, this "based on a true story" claim belongs more to horror's proud tradition of exploitation and ballyhoo, with perhaps the most famous instance of an opening crawl erroneously claiming that the film is based on true events being Tobe Hooper's "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre."
Harlin ups the ante in a very throwback exploitation manner by including an additional title card stating that a violent crime occurs in America every 32 seconds and that seven have occurred "while you were watching this film." Gotta appreciate the huckster chutzpah in that choice!
The Strangers in the Beaver State
We're then introduced to our ill-fated protagonists, a young couple Maya (Madelaine Petsch) and Ryan (Froy Gutierrez). The two have been together for five years, and are celebrating their anniversary by taking a road trip from their home in New York City to Portland, Oregon, where Maya is due to interview for her dream job. Speaking of true crime, Maya proves herself to be a fan of true crime podcasts, parodying the cadence of one as the couple take a brief detour for some food in the small woodland town of Venus, Oregon.
Turns out the duo will need to make use of their good humor while in town, as Venus is immediately shown to be a "Wicker Man"-esque place, where the close-knit inhabitants are either resentful, suspicious, or downright menacing toward the out-of-state interlopers. For his part, Ryan is suspicious right back, noting how the town's local mechanic, Rudy (Ben Cartwright), clocks their car before the couple enters the diner. When they emerge after eating, the car is mysteriously dead.
Maya is surprisingly fine with Rudy and the townspeople insisting that they stay the night and wait for an important car part to arrive the next day, taking the recommendation of a friendly waitress, Shelly (Ema Horvath) to rent a local hunter's Airbnb cabin in the middle of the woods, since the town's hotel is currently closed for repairs. The too-trusting Maya commits horror's cardinal sin of transgression through ignorance, even dismissing the eerie young boys who hand her a religious pamphlet (another callback to the original film) as merely harmless. A missing person PSA poster in the diner is another warning that the couple miss; naming the man we saw murdered in the opening as an out-of-town businessman, Jeff Morell.
Home is where The Strangers make it
After Shelly drops off Maya and Ryan at the highly secluded cabin, the couple try to make the most of their situation and enjoy the quiet isolation, even with a non-working fridge (which Maya calls the cabin's owner about). At one point, they discuss their relationship, inspired by a calloused remark made by another waitress at the diner, who asked why Ryan hasn't proposed yet. While Maya apparently stated she wasn't interested in marriage when they started dating, she admits that things have changed, and Ryan all but promises to surprise her with a proposal after Maya's job interview.
The couple's idyllic night in the woods is soured by the appearance of a mysterious girl who routinely knocks on the cabin's door, asking if someone named Tamara is home. This is, of course, the classic M.O. of the Strangers, up to and including the girl unscrewing the lightbulb on the front porch so her features can't be easily seen. After Ryan shoos the girl away, he realizes he left his inhaler in their car, and he heads off (using a motorcycle parked at the cabin) to go get it and pick up dinner.
Ryan and Maya experience some mysterious, ominous things while separated from each other. When retrieving his inhaler, Ryan is almost attacked by a paranoid Rudy and is later given the stink eye by both some customers and the cook at a late-night burger stand (the latter also trying to hand him the same church meeting pamphlet that the creepy boys peddled earlier). Meanwhile, Maya is unknowingly stalked by several Strangers while alone in the cabin, and makes the discovery of some additional creepy masks stored in the owner's closet, which may mean that some new Strangers could turn up in future films.
The Strangers both inside and out
Just as Maya sees Dollface turn up in front of her, causing her to run to a nearby closet and lock herself in, Ryan returns, and uses the old "it was your imagination playing tricks" excuse to explain her paranoia. Maya relaxes enough to enjoy some burgers with Ryan, but before you can say "That's not ketchup," the couple discovers the bleeding corpse of a chicken hanging above the kitchen table. Despite their rushed efforts to lock the doors and windows, it's too late — the Strangers are inside.
What follows is a series of cat-and-mouse moments between the three killers and the couple just trying to survive, and fortunately, most of the decisions Maya and Ryan make from this point on are fairly smart, or at least understandable. Despite numerous obstacles like a stray nail inside a crawlspace skewering Maya's hand, the couple gets to a nearby toolshed and finds some weapons. Unfortunately, in another moment lifted from the original film, the couple's fight-or-flight is too keyed up, and Ryan uses a shotgun they've found to accidentally blow the face off of the cabin's owner, Joe (Satko Stanislav), who had arrived after Maya's call about the fridge.
With that mishap throwing off the couple's mojo, they attempt to escape in Joe's truck, only for it to be demolished by Scarecrow smashing his own truck into it. Once separated, Ryan (who has lost his inhaler in the process) manages to get the drop on Pin-Up Girl, only for her to distract him long enough for Scarecrow to jump him. Maya fares a little better, managing to contact the police on Joe's cellphone despite a wonky cell signal, though she, too, ends up being surprised and knocked cold by one of the killers before help can arrive.
The Strangers have a proposal
Unlike the Strangers' on-the-spot murder of Jeff at the beginning of the movie, it seems they have something more ritualistic in mind for Ryan and Maya. The two are tied to separate chairs but placed next to each other. However, before the Strangers do their dirty work, the couple have a brief moment of reunion, in which Ryan assures Maya that everything will be okay. He then fulfills his earlier promise and surprises her with a marriage proposal, which Maya tearfully accepts. Seconds later, Ryan is bleeding out through a knife wound in his chest, stabbed by Scarecrow before being kicked onto the floor.
Seeing her life flash before her eyes, Maya demands to know why the killers are doing this. Since this cabin isn't actually the couple's home, the iconic response from Dollface from the original film ("Because you were home") has to be amended to "Because you're here," which is just as nihilistic, if less pointed. Scarecrow stabs Maya and kicks her over, but the killers have to be content with leaving her for dead, given the sirens in the distance.
The Strangers in my bed
Maya then awakens in a hospital bed, seemingly having been rescued by the authorities and taken to get medical attention. There is no sign of Ryan, which likely means that he succumbed to his wounds and injuries. Initially, we leave Maya in bed, the rain pelting the windows outside, and see a "To Be Continued" title card flash on the screen. A mid-credits scene, however, reveals that Maya is not alone — Scarecrow is in the hospital room, lying in bed with her.
This ending, like the film itself, is highly reminiscent of the "Friday the 13th" franchise, specifically the fifth installment from 1985, subtitled "A New Beginning," which similarly ends in a hospital room with a storm raging outside and a potential killer creeping up on his next victim. If "Chapter 1" were its own, self-contained movie, it would essentially have a similar message to both the original "The Strangers" as well as any generic slasher film: be aware of your surroundings, lest you venture into danger. The appearance of Scarecrow could be seen as a version of the "chair jumper" type of final jumpscare popularized by "Carrie" and the original "Friday the 13th," a last-frame scare that also (intentionally or not) hints at a sequel.
What's next for The Strangers?
However, we know that "Chapter 1" is not a self-contained movie, but is rather, as Harlin states in the film's official press kit, "act one of a normal movie." Thus, we can't interpret "Chapter 1" as its own story in good faith, and although the film's final moments barely qualify as a cliffhanger, there are definitely some dangling issues that point to things being unresolved.
For instance, what happened to Ryan? Is he still alive? Do all the townsfolk of Venus act strangely just to further the film's tone and mood, or is there an actual conspiracy afoot? If so, how many are in on it, and what's the scheme — do the Strangers' victims need to be wealthy and privileged for purposes of financial gain, or perhaps because the religious people of Venus see them as sinful? Is Scarecrow actually in bed with Maya in the hospital, or is she experiencing some post-traumatic hallucination? To that end, why didn't we see the authorities take Maya to the hospital? Could it be possible that she indeed died in that cabin, and we're seeing her dying hallucination of being rescued?
Most frustratingly, we have no clue as of this article what's going to happen next, where this story is going, or even when "Chapter 2" might be released. For now, all we're left with is unanswered questions — which, and this is the final irony of "Chapter 1," is exactly how the Strangers would have it. Maybe this film is based on true events after all ... "stranger than fiction" indeed.