Summary

• The Strangers: Chapter 1 brings back the terror of masked killers in a new trilogy, focusing on the aftermath of a night from hell for a couple.
• Director Renny Harlin pays homage to the original 2008 classic while delving deeper into the minds of the faceless murderers.
• Unlike typical horror sequels, the trilogy will follow the physical and psychological damage inflicted on the protagonists, leaving the audience with unanswered questions.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 is the start of an all-new trilogy. Ryan and Maya are the ideal couple moving across the country to begin their lives in a new city. While on their road trip, the couple is forced to spend the night in a secluded cabin when their car breaks down. However, their dream trip turns into a night from hell when three masked strangers terrorize and torture them where no one can hear them scream.

The Strangers was an instant horror classic when it debuted in 2008, and The Strangers: Chapter 1 is bringing a new spin on the story by setting up two sequels that will take place in the immediate aftermath of this terrifying night. Renny Harlin helms the movie as director, with Riverdale's Madeline Petsch leading the cast as both the star and an executive producer. The Strangers: Chapter 1 taps into the most truly terrifying elements of horror with an anonymous group of faceless killers targeting random people for no rhyme or reason, but this trilogy will try to dig further into the twisted minds of these murderers.

Screen Rant caught up with director Renny Harlin about his new horror movie, The Strangers: Chapter 1. He discussed paying homage to the original 2008 movie and digging into unanswered questions. Howard also broke down how he balanced the original movie with making something new and why they wanted to continue the story after Chapter 1 instead of the usual time jump or even new casts with horror sequels.

Renny Harlin Explains The "Guiding Light" For The Strangers Chapter 1

The Strangers: Chapter 1 is largely inspired by the hit 2008 movie, but with a new twist that will further explore this world. This movie sets up a sequel that will follow the characters from the first movie, but unlike other horror franchises like Scream or Halloween, this won't take place years after the events of The Strangers: Chapter 1.

Renny Harlin: That's the premise of our movie, which is really this giant four and a half hour movie broken into these three chapters. The premise is really in the first movie that takes its idea from the original, The Strangers, which is that it's a home invasion movie. What was brilliant about it was that it is random. That these people just show up.

There's no rhyme or reason. They are just sadistically playing cat and mouse with these victims and ultimately just kill them and walk away. We all are accustomed to expecting that everything is explained, and there's a nice little end to every story. And there that's why it was so powerful because it showed the randomness of life. We wanted to explore these certain themes of, what is this all about? What makes these killers stick? What happens to the victims? If you survive this, then what would happen to you next day and the day after that?

Not to do a sequel in a traditional sense where it's like now it's two years later and we are somewhere else and something else is happening to somebody else. But really sticking with our protagonist and seeing the physical and psychological damage in them, that was our premise and guiding light. Again, the important thing was the reality. So it never starts feeling like a movie movie, but it's real life and that we don't need start telling like, Oh, the strangers came from here and they did it because of this.

We'd rather, by the end of the third movie, we'd rather leave the audience again with a bunch of unanswered questions. We'll answer some. We felt like, for example, who is Tamara? We wanted to explain that so that the audience has something that they get in that sense, but not at all start explaining everything. Who's who and why.

How The Strangers: Chapter 1 Pays Homage To The Original While Creating A New Story

The Strangers: Chapter 1 will pay homage to the 2008 classic, taking inspiration from certain key moments and elements of the original. However, Harlin also brought his own spin to the story, answering questions that have long remained a mystery while still bringing the terror of randomness and anonymity to the forefront.

Renny Harlin: We really felt like the original film is such a classic, we want to pay homage to it. This is called The Strangers so it's not like we're just going to go on our own ego trip and do something completely different. The premise is the home invasion with a young couple in a house, but then we go in new directions from there.

So I felt, as a fan of the original film, I felt like it was really crucial to have certain markers, certain like tent poles or touchstones from the original film that you feel like, Okay, I get it. It's that world. It's those themes. It's that feeling of tension, dread and so on. It's the strangers, it's the mass killers.

But at the same time, I wanted the film also to feel original and to sort of develop same scenarios, such as somebody knocks on door and says is Tamara here? Or that you lock your windows and doors and you're inside the house only to realize that the perpetrators are also inside the house. So those are the kind of really, really key things that I think are important to experience in the same fashion as in the original film, but then develop new scenes.

About The Strangers: Chapter 1

After their car breaks down in an eerie small town, a young couple is forced to spend the night in a remote cabin. Panic ensues as they are terrorized by three masked strangers who strike with no mercy and seemingly no motive.

Check out our other The Strangers: Chapter 1 interviews here:

• Froy Gutierrez & Madelaine Petsch
• Courtney Solomon

The Strangers: Chapter 1 hits theaters on May 17.

Source: Screen Rant Plus