The Strangers: Chapter 3

The Strangers: Chapter 3
Starring Madelaine Petsch, Gabriel Basso, Ema Horvath, Richard Brake
Directed by Renny Harlin

"Does there have to be a why?" That question is asked in "The Strangers: Chapter 3," but it's also a question one should ask director Renny Harlin. Does there have to be a "why" he decided to remake a classic 2008 thriller into three movies that strips any excitement, mystery, or horror the original possessed? Does there have to be a "why" in elongating a simple story into three chapters that makes it feel extremely tedious, drawn out, and pointless? Does there have to be a "why" is there a script that's so bare bones it barely fits one movie, let alone three? Does there have to be a "why" you would subject viewers to this type of dull, lifeless monotony...three times over? The answer is "no," and fortunately, thankfully, this three-chapter saga is finally over and ends with a whimper instead of a scream, or numerous moans from the audience. 

After killing one of the Strangers in self-defense, Maya (Madelaine Petsch) continues escaping until she's caught by the head Stranger, Gregory (Gabriel Basso), who's the son of the town's sheriff (Richard Brake) who's been looking the other way because Gregory and his friends have only been killing people coming into their small town. Maya is the first to escape, and draws the fascination of Gabriel, who wants to make her the new Pin-Up Girl to replace the one she killed, but when Maya's sister and her husband come to town to investigate, they become the next targets of Gabriel's bloodlust. 

2008's "The Strangers" was a tight, intellectual, truly haunting psychological thriller that preyed on the fears of everyone: a home invasion story that didn't have any backstory as to why the home owners were targeted, only because "they were home." We never knew who these Strangers were, their ulterior motives, or what drove them. We never got a backstory of their self-destructive teenage years that made them into merciless killers. We never even knew their names or saw their faces. 2018's "The Strangers: Prey at Night" was equally effective, if not a bit strange in its setting. When you tear off the masks and give the Strangers a purpose, it becomes less scary, which is what Harlin's trilogy pulled off: making them mundane, dull, and lacking of any true scares by exposing them and making them more humane. 

The first chapter was a Temu version of the original, almost a beat-for-beat remake that throws in all the bells and whistles that the first never needed to amp up tension. Jump scares aplenty with accompanying musical cues made audiences wake up from their slumber, while the original didn't use such gimmicks to make you feel frightened. I still remember the scene where Liv Tyler's character is in the living room and one of the Strangers is behind her in the shadows with no music. There's no such memorable moments here, save for how stupid Maya and her boyfriend are in their struggle to survive. 

Chapter two is a muddied mess where Maya spends the whole movie running away from the Strangers (and interacting with a CGI boar that was one of the most unintentionally hilarious moments in any horror movie that year, or any year) as we get a backstory on the two main Strangers and how, as children, they murdered their friend with gleeful excitement. That chapter ended with Maya killing the main female Stranger, which thankfully they mentioned in this third chapter because I totally forgot about it. 

Now it all ends with Maya being essentially a comatose survivor who has pretty much given up on life after being caught again by the main Stranger, exposed as Gregory, a man she met in the last film. Madelaine Petsch seems like she's done with the franchise herself, as she utters maybe twenty words the entire film, and spends most of it just shambling through with no light in her eyes, no emotional resonance, and no desire to even put forth any effort. There's a concept that Harlin tries to throw in here by making Maya a new Stranger, but it fails to deliver its premise because Maya herself is just a shell, wandering aimlessly.

Things don't get any better when the movie takes a "Psycho" turn when Maya's sister and her husband arrive to investigate her disappearance, which in the timeline of this trilogy doesn't make a lot of sense. The events in "Chapter 1" happened the night previous, as Maya was then taken to the hospital in "Chapter 2" where she continues to survive through that same night into the next day and evening, with "Chapter 3" ending on that second night. So in the cinematic timeline about a day and two nights have passed, yet her sister already got word that Maya's boyfriend has been murdered and she's gone missing, giving her time to arrive in town from wherever she came from. Maybe it makes sense, but for me, it seemed a bit too rushed in order to have some sort of dramatic moment between the two sisters that never really come to fruition. 

In this chapter we get to find out about the third Stranger and her backstory as well, along with Gregory and why he's been able to get away with murders for so long - the townspeople just don't care, because they target people coming into town instead of the townies. The small town of Venus obviously doesn't care about outside tourism, and it's baffling how they can be so lackadaisical about it. This is the small town that Jason Aldean sang about in "Try That in a Small Town." 

If there's anything positive to say about "Chapter 3" is that it's finally the end, culminating three years of humdrum storytelling that will go down as one of the worst horror trilogies in cinematic history, if not the worst trilogy in cinematic history as a whole.

The Score: D-