The Strangers has been a favorite horror franchise of mine since Bryan Bertino introduced it way back in 2008. Something about the random evil at the heart of it, with the masked strangers terrorizing people for no apparent reason than because they can. That carried through into the 2018 sequel, as well. When veteran Die Hard 2 director Renny Harlin set out for a reboot that would play out as a trilogy, with each film shot back-to-back, I was skeptical. And to be fair, it started out strong but was let down by the second chapter, so much so that star Madelaine Petsch has spoken out to defend it. But it’s largely due to the performance of Petsch that The Strangers: Chapter 3 succeeds at all, by giving us a different look at what it means to be the “Final Girl”.
Petsch’s experience in the long-running Riverdale series is crucial to the way she evolves her character, Maya. When we first meet her, Maya’s understandably terrified and overwhelmed by the violence perpetrated against her by the three masked Strangers. The sequel, more of a chase/survival thriller, found Maya figuring out that nobody is coming to save her. If she’s going to live, she’s going to need to take matters into her own hands.
The Strangers: Chapter 3 is the fulfillment of Maya’s transformation. It all began with the fatal end of one of her attackers, Pin-Up Girl, at the conclusion of the previous film. Ema Horvath returns as Pin-Up Girl, whose psychotic origin story is revealed in flashbacks. We also learn quite a bit more about the trio’s leader, Gregory (Gabriel Basso), a Venus local whose murderous past stretches a long way and has been known to some powerful folks.
Revealing how the Strangers became who they are is crucial to Maya’s story, as well, as she must figure out whether she’s willing to become a monster herself. It’s an interesting conceit, and it makes sense to the overall theme of The Strangers. That said, one of the key things that made this franchise so cool was not knowing so much about the killers, and digging into their past kills a lot of the mystery. Also, the deaths in this one were less impressive the more they piled up. There never needed to be a high body count for these films. It was the terrorizing aspect that cranked up the tension, not the bloodshed.
Still, I’m a fan of what Harlin and Petsch have attempted here with The Strangers, even if it didn’t all work out as planned. It’s unlikely that we’ve seen the last of the hooded killers, but as a standalone, suspenseful arc in this cult favorite horror franchise, Harlin’s vision holds its own. If that’s damning with faint praise, then so be it.
The Strangers: Chapter 3 is in theaters now via Lionsgate.
