Renny Harlin’s “The Strangers: Chapter 2” is the second in an already-shot trilogy, with the last installment scheduled for release sometime next year.
When we last met Maya (Madelaine Petsch), she had survived being terrorized by a trio of masked serial killers and lived through a long night of hiding in a cabin after witnessing the murder of her boyfriend (Froy Gutierrez). Now awake in a hospital with terrible security, Maya finds The Strangers are still after her.
Harlin made a name for himself in the 1980s by helming dynamically made horror films, before shooting to the top of the Hollywood A-list, with action classics like “Die Hard 2” (1990), “Cliffhanger” (1993) and the still-fantastic “The Long Kiss Goodnight” (1996).
After the notorious 1995 failure of “Cutthroat Island” (which is far better than its reputation), Harlin mostly made B-movies. The depressing thing about most of Harlin’s recent films wasn’t that they were bombs but that those movies, such as “The Covenant” (2006) and “12 Rounds” (2009), were made with no passion.
What I’m trying to say is that “The Strangers: Chapter 2” isn’t just the best “Strangers” movie yet, but it’s been made by the same Harlin who directed “A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master” (1988). Helming a “Strangers” trilogy may be B-movie work, but Harlin has made this with wit and skill.
The story does the “Halloween II” (1981) thing for the first stretch and quite well, as far as hospital stalk n’ slash thrillers go (why are these hospitals always stylishly lit but almost completely empty?). Once the story leaves the Emergency Unit and the setting keeps changing, “The Strangers: Chapter 2” really takes off.
At the mid-point, there’s an out-of-left-field sequence so unexpected and beautifully staged that it elevates the entire film. I won’t describe it, and cinephiles will recognize the inspiration for the sequence right away, but it’s so good, I think I held my breath for the entire duration.
I don’t mean to imply that Harlin has made something classy and fresh. There are lazy jump scares and some especially brutal moments, though Harlin has the smarts to leave the most nauseating violence just out of camera view.
It’s also laughable to see The Strangers stalk someone in the woods because A. their masks provide them no peripheral vision and B. since we and Maya don’t know what they look like unmasked, they’d be better off losing the masks, disguising themselves as forest rangers and trying to capture Maya by fooling her.
Some of this is routine slasher movie stuff, but Harlin gives us enough surprises to make this the best in this franchise (yes, it’s better than the 2008 original, which is well crafted and acted but has an ending that isn’t just vicious but self-defeating).
Harlin gives us flashbacks showing us The Strangers as children, which is a silly touch, but the Bad Seed origin scenes are still handled well.
With all the surrounding conspiracies building within the townsfolk, Petsch’s excellent performance carrying the film, and the intriguing plot threads set up in the conclusion, it seems Harlin is really going somewhere with this.
Petsch’s first-rate leading turn not only carries the film but gives us a protagonist whose fate I cared about.
Here’s hoping that the third and final chapter, when it arrives, is the best one and concludes this on a strong note.
“The Strangers: Chapter 2” may play a lot of horror movie hits, but it’s still atmospheric, well-staged and intriguing in its suggestion that no one, in this little town or anywhere, can really be trusted.
Two and a Half Stars