Danny's Horror Report: The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024)

 Written By: Danny Albers 

Recap

A couple on a long trip together decide to stay at a rural cabin out in the middle of nowhere in Oregon. They go to a diner to get food and find the inhabitants of this city to be unfriendly, and at times, hostile towards them. They notice a board where a “missing” poster is displayed. They get in their car to find it’s not working. They get dropped off at their cabin by one of the employees at the diner. While staying in the house, an odd knock on the door reveals a teenage girl in the shadows asking for her friend. She appears multiple times which makes the couple think they're being tormented by the locals. The boyfriend realizes he left his inhaler in the car that broke down, and he heads out to get the inhaler. While he is gone, the demented family begins to stalk his wife from inside and outside of the house. Eventually, the power goes out, and the girl sees one of the killers inside the house. The husband gets home right in time, and tells her she might have been imagining things since she was smoking and drinking. They sit down to eat dinner, and above the table is a dead animal bleeding onto the table. From there, all hell breaks loose. A cat and mouse game begins as the couple try to hide from the murderous man and two women. The husband gets a gun, but accidently shoots the owner of the home when he comes to check on them. Eventually, the couple is caught. They’re tied to a chair and stabbed. They’re left to bleed out. But earlier in the night the girl was able to call 911. The cops come, and we’re transferred to a shot of the girlfriend recovering in a hospital bed as the words “to be continued” come across the frame. 

Thoughts 

I feel like this movie was just a recreation of the original film, but with an alternative ending where the female lives. I would assume that there will be a chapter 2 where the girl returns to the cabin to exact revenge on the demented family. But as someone who has watched the original multiple times, I was surprised by nothing that happened in this movie. On a mark-by-mark basis, they replicated almost every jump scare and creepy movie from the original. The only change was the setting and the characters. For some reason, the close up of the eyes and the singing/talking of the characters humanize them a bit. It’s a lot creepier when you have nothing to identify with the characters. What makes them so creepy is the randomness of it all. There’s seemingly no reason for their attack, and this movie tried to put a reason on it by hinting that the murderous family was defensive of the place they were staying at. Maybe they will provide a more interesting and new story in the 2nd installment, but this wasn’t it for me. 

Danny’s Star Grade: ★★★ 3