The Strangers: Prey at Night
Dustin Chase
I was just thinking the other day, you know what we really need, a sequel to that forgettable 2008 horror film starring Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler. The Strangers: Prey at Night has a new cast, director, and filmmakers. This sequel (feels more like a reboot) is about as hollow a film as you might imagine. A family is chased around a trailer park by seemingly the same murderous psychos we saw a decade ago. “Why are you doing this,” one characters asks. “Why not,” is the eerie reply she receives. “Because you were home,” was the similar reply in the previous film. Prey at Night is a horror on a slim budget. It can’t be bothered with character development on the side of predator or prey.
Daughter Kinsey (Madison) has pushed her parents (Hendricks, Henderson) so far, they have canceled the cable in order to ship her to boarding school. As they make their journey, they stop off the beaten path to see aunt and uncle, who own a trailer park retreat. What the family discovers is a bloodbath and a trap. This urban family is ill equipped to match the axe and knife wielding killers. The two teenager’s siblings band together and fight back as the abandoned camp ground becomes a torture palace.
It aims to deliver sheer terror but the currency here is stupidity.
The message of this film might be, don’t act like a brat, or your entire family might be murdered on the way to boarding school. Actually, The Strangers has no message or purpose. It aims to deliver sheer terror but the currency here is stupidity. The very active and talkative audience has a fit when one character fails to shoot the intruder. There are many moments where the prey fail to use common sense, allowing the audience a chance to shout suggestions toward the screen. It’s violence for violence sake, no meaning or purpose behind it.
Those unlucky patrons watching this film, will all have a moment where your patience for sympathy expire and you begin rooting for the predators, so you can exit this awful franchise. Everything from the acting to the direction is a mess of inexperience. Poor Hendricks (Drive) continues to struggle in her television to film crossover, winding up in the worst of projects. Outside of predictable jump scares, The Strangers have very little in the way of excitement or true fear to offer anyone whose seen most horror movies.
Final Thought
Effortlessly secures a spot as one of the most negligent horror films of the year.