The Strangers: Prey At Night

Year: 2018
Director: Johannes Roberts
Cast: Bailee Madison, Lewis Pullman, Christina Hendricks, Martin Henderson

Plot: A family of four are stalked by a trio of masked killers in a remote trailer park.


Review: Remember The Strangers, the invasion horror film released 10 years ago about a young couple being stalked and hunted by a trio of killers wearing masks? It had a solid idea, but director Bryan Bertino kinda squandered the momentum he had built up with some illogical plot development. Now here's the sequel, with Bertino as co-writer and Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down) as the director.

Plotwise, Prey At Night pretty much follows the same beats as the original, with a few changes. Firstly, instead of a young couple, we have a family of four, and a typical one at that. Secondly, this film makes full use of the whole neighborhood instead of confining it to just one house as in the original. Finally, the outcome of this story is quite different than the original, but I won't get into that.

What has significantly improved is the killers' MO. In the original, they would just continuously stalk their victims and only go for the kill at the end. But here, they are a little more efficient as they spend a decent amount of time hunting the family down before making a serious stab at them, which makes more sense in my book. There's also a good amount of violence here but Roberts should improve on the lighting as a handful of violent scenes are barely visible.

The cast do a competent enough job here, but nothing outstanding. The biggest problem with the film isn't the cast though, but the lapses of logic in the script. There are a few moments when someone should be doing something, but doesn't, for example, one of the victims is face to face with the killer. He or she is armed, but chooses to run instead of defending themselves head on. You can argue that they panicked, but when it happens more than once, it doesn't make sense.

I also mentioned the typicality of the family i.e. rebellious daughter, family members don't get along etc. The open ended finale was also a weak choice. But I do have to compliment Roberts for using a handful of eighties music to underscore what was happening on screen. It's an ingenious move.

Overall, The Strangers: Prey At Night is an improvement on the original, but still rather flawed thanks mostly to the poor logic in the script. (6.5/10)