The Strangers: Chapter 3

Grade: B-

2024’s The Strangers: Chapter 1 gave us a cutesy romance exposition followed by a hackneyed slasher pastiche. It wasn’t the most original thing in the world, but the “final girl” (Madelaine Petsch) was fierce and fetching, director Renny Harlin’s filmmaking was well-done, and I was optimistic about the directions the next two chapters would take us. Last year’s The Strangers: Chapter 2 suffered from the “middle movie of a trilogy” slump. It was lean on plot and dialogue, with an awful lot of wandering in the woods. They almost could have distributed the little substance it had amongst chapters 1 and 3, and kept this series as a duo. We are back with The Strangers: Chapter 3, which is my favorite of the lot. The horror tropes don’t get in the way of the largely effective and satisfying storytelling, which delivers on some of its promising potential.

The movie hits the ground running, without holding your hand with a recap of what’s happened so far. You have to be up to speed. You’re probably aware that this is actually a trilogy within a series, similar to the 28 Something-or-others Later treatment. The Strangers are a group of, usually, three anonymous masked killers who murder people randomly, in a small town of 486 people. The population will be less than that by the end of this film. The famous exchange throughout the series is “Why are you doing this?” “Because you were [home/here/etc].”

Maya (Petsch) is still on the run from the Strangers, having managed to fend them off and elude them for this long. The main idea was scary because as far as we knew, they were doing this for no other reason than – like they say – you were there. Chapter 2 made a mistake by giving us a motive and a backstory. Here, certain characters always seem to know exactly where to show up so they can capture Maya again. The most interesting part is how they seem to be grooming her to become one of them – and in a few scenes, she appears to be toying with the idea of joining them. She has been through so much, having been beaten down physically and psychologically. She’s lost the most important people in her life, and is mentally left somewhere between resignation and murderous rage. The idea of staying in town, being taken care of, and killing it forward as a Stranger doesn’t seem too far-fetched. First of all, she’d have to do a better job of concealing her instantly recognizable red hair, but that’s one of many quibbles the viewer is not supposed to dwell on.

I saw this, and formed an opinion, before any critic reviews were out. This might be the movie’s most favorable review on the whole internet. People are hating it. Why did I like it as much as I did? I’ve been trying to get to the bottom of that. It successfully evokes October – my favorite month of the year. You’ll be able to watch it at home by the time spooky season arrives. The lead actress and locations are lovely. I always enjoy seeing Richard Brake. It’s short. If there’s a part that you don’t care for, you’ll be done with it and back to real life in less than 90 minutes.

The climactic scene is enthralling. Don’t get too excited when I say that it made me think of Quentin Tarantino, or at least Rob Zombie. Though this one part is up there with my favorite moments from either of them, all that comes before is definitely not. The lighting, dialogue, classic rock needle-drop, acting, makeup, and everything else is optimally utilized to bring us a great sequence that kept me engaged and guessing – followed by an epilogue that made me think. You have to walk through some snow to get to the cabin, but ultimately, I got what I wanted out of this franchise. It’s, at last, the Strangers movie I was waiting for.

Grade: B-