The Strangers: Prey at Night

I rewatched this one. A pretty solid slasher flick, loads better than the first movie from 2008, and also way better than Chapter 1 from 2024. The soundtrack is great, both the score and 80s ballads.

Spoilers for anyone 7 years behind on this: I assume "the" strangers are supposed to be the same ones in all films, hence the newer trilogy being a prequel since they're all dead by the end of this film. This leads us to the dilemma of the new trilogy having no real stakes since the villains are assured to escape in each film. Not sure what crawled up Renny Harlin's butt and possessed him to go this route, but hopefully, Chapter 2 will be better than the first. Richard Brake better have a purpose, since he's naturally an ugly and evil looking dude.

Also to note is Lewis Pullman as the brother in this film. He's the son of Bill Pullman, bearing a resemblance to Tom Holland of Spider-Man fame, and also joining the MCU in the upcoming Thunderbolts film. I think the pool scene at the end is pretty brutal, with him bleeding out in that artsy "Total Eclipse of the Heart" moment. Damn killers always stabbing the back! He sure did lose a lot of blood, and the morbid curiosity has me wondering about the open wound and if chlorine water seeped into his internals... Can't slap a band-aid on that!

Also, shame on those strangers for killing Christina Hendricks before she had time to have a gratuitous sex scene with her husband...