The Strangers: Prey at Night

Let me be clear I HATED The Strangers (2008) and certainly didn't expect them to make a sequel a full decade later.

I'm not entirely sure what it was about the first movie, but it just came across as entirely one sided devoid of purpose and basically plot torture porn and that did nothing for me.

This time around we see a family set up camp in a trailer park only to come under siege by the same three masked psychotics. Among them the stunning Christina Hendricks and former child star Bailee Madison.

Thankfully what we're presented with isn't so one sided and does have a plot. Sure the plot is the time honored generic slasher one but it's a plot all the same.

So what does it have going for it? Well for a start the soundtrack is great as is the score. It fits the movie perfectly and is refreshingly retro. Ontop of that we have some great cinematography, the movie certainly has style.

So it looks great, it sounds great and we have Hendricks on board. So what went wrong? Well other than it being generic, Hendricks isn't the big character you'd imagine so forget about her being the leading lady. To make matters worse it falls into many of the standard slasher pitfalls so we've seen the majority of it before.

This is a vast improvement over the first movie, but it's still just another slasher.

The Good:

Christina Hendricks

A few decent shots

Fitting soundtrack

The Bad:

Christina Hendricks is wasted

Generic stuff

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

I'm glad I'm not the only one who awkwardly laughs when in pain

If they keep up with the improvements they might have an average movie eventually

Why do I listen to you, people? You are all wrong about this one and I didn't watch it before because I was stupid enough to believe in reviews and other people's tastes.

It's a completely different film than the first one and the set-up is a bit rough, I will give you that. Now...as soon as the family arrives at that camp, holy moly! I know I am a horror unapologetic fan, so I know that I got lots of references/homage that probably others didn't. However, even forgetting that, have you seen that camera movement? The music? The atmosphere? The fear? The acting? The jump scares? How does it play with darkness and light?

Tense as hell, this film never lets you breathe in the last 40 minutes, always playing with high stakes that make you believe that anyone can die. The pool scene and the police car scene alone are enough to recommend this movie every day of my life.

The music is the best part of the movie. I loved the 80s themed soundtrack, especially during the pool scene. The movie slowly ramps up tension and when it hits full bore it never stops. Its relenting. The characters do stupid things of course, but that's par for the course for these movies. In the end you do care enough to want them to survive . I admit the film doesn't really bring anything new to the table, but what it does bring it does really well. I'd recommend to fans of the slasher genre and of the original movie.

If you like your horror films to have the main characters do every stupid thing possible then watch this.

"The Strangers: Prey at Night" is another unoriginal and stupid slasher, with a storyline that is on the shelf of any mediocre screenwriter ready to be reprocessed and usually said "based on true events". The most impressive is that even this type of storyline is able to produce good and scary low-budget slashers, such as the French-Romanian "Ils" ("Them" - 2006) or the Austrian "Funny Games" (1997) by Michael Haneke. Both films are tense and make the viewer nervous with the frightening atmospheres. The cruelty in "Funny Games" is impressively cold and therefore horrifying.

In "The Strangers: Prey at Night", there is no character development or motive and the situations are stupid with many cliches. The family splits in the beginning, aware that their relatives have been slaughtered, instead of immediately driving to the police station. The father sees what happened to his wife, but does not shoot the killer. The survivors have many chances to leave the camping area and to possess weapon, but are surprised in the most clichés situations. The police officer has his throat cut in another typical clichés, when the good girl believes that is safe. Advice when most needed is least heeded, but do not spend your time watching this movie. There are much better options in the genre. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Os Estranhos: Caçada Noturna" ("The Strangers: Prey at Night")