In a genre full of ghosts, zombies, aliens, and other terrifying creatures, to some fans, the best horror movies are the ones that feature the scariest kind of them all: humans. While not exactly a thriller based on a true story like its marketing implied, 2008’s The Strangers is among the genre’s more grounded and believable films for its unsettling depiction of a deadly home invasion. It would spawn a sequel 10 years later with The Strangers: Prey at Night, but it appears that the masked assailants’ reign is far from over with the upcoming release of The Strangers: Chapter 1.
So, where is the site of the carnage this time, who are playing the killers’ next innocent targets, and — with this being the third installment of the brutal horror movie franchise — what is the meaning behind the “Chapter 1” in the title ? We will reveal the truth behind all of those details in the following guide to one of the most anticipated upcoming horror movies below. Let’s get acquainted with The Strangers: Chapter 1.
What Is The Strangers: Chapter 1 Release Date?
Blood will hit the screen on Friday, May 17, 2024, which is when The Strangers: Chapter 1 is set to release in theaters. This summer is primed to be a great one for horror fans with many highly anticipated thrillers on the upcoming 2024 movies schedule coming out during that season — such as A Quiet Place: Day One (which depicts the origins of the A Quiet Place movies timeline), Longlegs with Nicolas Cage, Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus, Blumhouse’s English-language Speak No Evil update, and more. How this home invasion thriller will measure up against these other freaky films shall be determined soon enough.
"Trouble" Is Abound In The First Trailer For The Strangers: Chapter 1
It seems that The Strangers: Chapter 1 bears a few similarities to the original, based on the thriller's first official trailer, which is set to a chilling remix of Cage the Elephant's "Trouble." The teaser contains some moments that will prove to be familiar to some Strangers fans -- especially in the dialogue -- but also contains some cool scares that may have fans-to-be eager for more. See for yourself by checking it out below:
Lionsgate has also release exclusive footage from the film -- including a chilling two-and-a-half minute clip that, like the official trailer, contains some homages to the original. It shows our female protagonist at a woodland residence making an unnerving encounter with an unseen, unwanted visitor before revealing to us that at least one of her enemies is already inside.
The Film Follows A Couple Stalked At A Last Minute Vacation Rental
The plot of The Strangers: Chapter 1 follows two young, engaged lovers on a road trip across the country that is interrupted when their car suddenly breaks down in Venus, Oregon. They are then forced to take refuge at a woodland Airbnb, but it does not turn out to be the safe haven they hoped. Instead, they spend the night fighting for their lives against a trio of masked assailants with murderous intent.
The new film appears to be a reimagining of the plot from the original The Strangers, which stars Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman as a couple spending the night at a family-owned cabin after leaving a nearby wedding. The thriller was the debut of writer and director Bryan Bertino, who told Den of Geek that he took inspiration from real tragedies like the Manson Family murders and a memory from his own childhood when he, home alone with his sister, was visited by a strange woman asking if their parents were home. He later discovered she was part of group searching for empty houses to rob, which he reworked into the idea of a group searching for houses inhabited by potential murder victims.
Madelaine Petsch Leads The Strangers: Chapter 1 Cast
In the tradition of many classic slasher movies that bring in fresh blood with most subsequent installments, The Strangers: Chapter 1 cast boasts a whole new ensemble of actors for the eponymouse masked trio to stalk. While most of the characters' names have yet to be confirmed, let’s cover what we do know about their roles and what else they are known for.
Madelaine Petsch (Maya)
As seen in the exclusive clip above, Madelaine Petsch is the lead protagonist of The Strangers: Chapter 1 in the role of Maya (according to EW). The former Riverdale cast member is already a Scream Queen in her own right, having starred in 2019’s Polaroid and, from the following year, a movie called Sightless and a podcast drama called The Shadow Diaries. She also made her acting debut in The Hive from 2014.
Froy Gutierrez (Ryan)
As Maya’s fiancé, Ryan, we have Froy Gutierrez, whose own contributions to the horror genre include recurring roles on MTV’s Teen Wolf, Hulu’s Light as a Feather, a 2020 coming-of-age thriller called Initiation, and Disney+’s Hocus Pocus 2 cast… if you want to count that. He has also appeared on TV series like Netflix’s One Day at a Time, The Goldbergs, and Freeform’s Cruel Summer.
Gabriel Basso
Petsch’s The Hive co-star Gabriel Basso — best known from the Super 8 cast — also has an undisclosed role in the flick. Many of his previous horror roles come from kid-friendly, creepy TV shows like Ghost Town and R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour, while his more recent notable credits include Netflix’s Oscar-nominated drama, Hillbilly Elegy, and the title role of the platform's action thriller series, The Night Agent.
Ema Horvath
Also in an undisclosed role is Ema Horvath, whose current filmography is predominated by the scary stuff — such as the fun horror anthology movie, The Mortuary Collection. She also had a role in Amazon Prime’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power cast as Eärien.
Rachel Shenton
British actor, writer, and producer Rachel Shenton’s best-known contribution to the horror genre prior to her unknown role in The Strangers: Chapter 1 is a vampiric web series called Blood and Bone China. She is also known for the long-running U.K. teen drama Hollyoaks, Freeform’s Switched at Birth, and 2017’s The Silent Child, which she also wrote, earning a Best Live-Action Short Film Oscar.
What Is The Strangers: Chapter 1 Rated?
Coming as no surprise to anyone, the latest installment of this particularly brutal franchise is rated R. The MPA branded The Strangers: Chapter 1 as such as for horror violence, language and brief drug use.
Renny Harlin Directs The Strangers: Chapter 1
While he was involved with The Strangers: Prey At Night as a co-writer and executive producer, Bryan Bertino is not involved with The Strangers: Chapter 1 at all. At the helm this time is Renny Harlin — a name that most audiences may associate with the action genre, considering he directed the likes of Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger, Cutthroat Island, and The Long Kiss Goodnight. However, the Finnish filmmaker has plenty of well-known horror films under his belt, such as the fourth installment of the A Nightmare on Elm Street movies (The Dream Master), a shark movie favorite called Deep Blue Sea, and one of the Exorcist movies (2005’s The Beginning), to name just a few.
However, the film will mark the horror debut of both of its writers, Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland, who are best known for writing and producing funny TV shows like King of the Hill and the 2010 comedy movie, Due Date. There are also a few franchise veterans involved with The Strangers: Chapter 1, including producers Roy Lee (who also produced the 2008 orignal) and Charlie Dombek (who worked on Prey at Night).
The Movie Is The First In A New Trilogy
The title of this new film and a caption in the trailer inviting audiences to "witness how the strangers became The Strangers" suggests that it might be a prequel to the original, that is not is not the case. The Strangers: Chapter 1 is actually the start of a new era for the franchise and has two subsequent chapters on the way, as a result of the first chapter's original cut rounding out to four-and-a-half hours, according to MovieWeb.
Harlin told EW that these new films are not meant to be reboots or remakes but, simply, a new trilogy inspired by Bertino’s original. He teased that the later installments — which are also expected to release sometime in 2024 — will “explore what happens to the victims of this kind of violence and who the perpetrators are of this kind of violence. Where are they coming from and why?"
Most fans of the original Strangers might argue that what made the film so fascinating is the mystery behind the killers’ motive. However, with a die-hard fan of the thriller like Harlin at the helm, perhaps we can trust that The Strangers: Chapter 1 and its sequels will still add something interesting to the franchise.
