The horror genre is generally best known for its monsters, ghosts, ghouls, zombies and other weird and wonderful supernatural creatures. Which is great, because we love it all the more for those classic staples. However, some of the most effective horror movies do not rely upon those things, and as playfully gross as they are, they live in the realm of fantasy, so audiences can generally dissociate them from the real world. So, when a horror movie begins and you see the words ‘based upon a true story’, it makes the terror that follows, all the more serious and intense. If you’re one of those people who’s scared easily by horror movies, you can comfort yourself by saying, ‘well, it’s only a movie’, but if you know that what you’re watching actually occurred, then it’s harder to escape from. The genre has many examples of such movies that are apparently based upon true stories; The Amityville Horror (1979), Poltergeist (1982), The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), even Hitchcock’s classic The Birds was based upon a true story of flappy seagulls in California who turned against their human superiors. Back in 2008, another movie emerged with the immortal words at the beginning, stating that it was, indeed, ‘based upon a true story’; Bryan Bertino’s cult classic, The Strangers. The movie, starring the wonderful Liv Tyler and Felicity’s Scott Speedman, drew inspiration from real true-life crime cases, and also its director’s own life. The movie proved to be a huge hit for studio Universal Pictures, so naturally a sequel was a no-brainer. Although, it did take a while for it to arrive. The first movie set the bar pretty high for the home-invasion genre, so could the sequel up the ante and prove that follow-ups can be just as terrifying as the original? Well, strap yourselves in for a road trip to hell, as we find out just exactly what the fuck happened to 2018’s The Strangers: Prey at Night (watch it HERE)
When The Strangers hit cinemas in 2008, it entered a horror landscape that was oversaturated with typical genre fodder, such as the ever expanding Saw franchise, the Prom Night remake, found footage movie Quarantine, itself a remake of the superior Spanish movie REC. Plus, other excellent foreign language horrors such as Tomas Alfredson’s Swedish classic Let The Right One In. There was room, then, for somebody to fully embrace the home invasion sub-genre, and introduce a movie that could make the most of the premise. After several delays, The Strangers opened to a modest $21 million during its first weekend but became a much bigger sleeper hit, due to word of mouth and the momentum the film was gaining due to a further marketing push.
However, while the year in which The Strangers was released didn’t have much competition in the home invasion genre, by the time the sequel went into production, it had become a popular sub-genre in Hollywood. Films such as The Collector (2009), You’re Next (2013), Don’t Breathe (2016) plus the popular Purge series, which began in 2013, were all gaining traction for gore-hounds. Audiences were lapping up the terror being invoked by masked wrong-uns causing mayhem, and although The Strangers: Prey at Night had a troubled development period, its eventual release came at a popular time for the genre.
Rogue Pictures, who developed the first movie, announced that a sequel was in the works back in 2008, with the imaginative title, The Strangers: Part 2. Bryan Bertino would return on scriptwriting duties this time, with French music video director Laurent Briet set to take the director’s chair. However, despite Universal Pictures being keen to distribute the movie, production company Relativity Media slammed the brakes on to further delay any prospect fans had of seeing the follow-up. This pattern of uncertainty followed the production for several years later with Rogue Pictures picking it up again in 2011, with a plot that would see a family of four being terrorized by the same trio from the first movie, after being evicted from their home. Star of the original film, Liv Tyler, announced that the project was back on again for a release in 2014 but, yet again, it was removed from the schedule. Eventually, a director with more of a pedigree for horror, Johannes Roberts, was approached by the producers of 47 Meters Down, who pitched their script, called Prey at Night, and after some negotiations the movie was back on with Roberts directing.
Casting on the movie began shortly after Roberts was announced to take charge and, despite Liv Tyler’s character (spoiler alert!) surviving the first movie despite being stabbed and left for, unfortunately she wouldn’t make an appearance in the sequel. A cameo for Tyler’s character was rumored but with Prey at Night being set ten years after the events of the first movie, it was decided that it wouldn’t make sense to re-introduce her and instead, it would focus on a new cast. The family were made up of Mad Men star Christina Hendricks as ‘Cindy’, Martin Henderson as ‘Mike’, Bailee Madison as ‘Kinsey’ and Lewis Pullman as ‘Luke’. The movies’ antagonists all have specific names and consist of ‘Pinup’, played by Lea Enslin, Emma Bellomy as ‘Dollface’ and Damian Maffei as ‘Man in the Mask’. The movie features a shift in tone from the original, with it playing out more like a slasher, with nods to John Carpenter in the film’s synth score, plus other classics like Christine.
With the first movie becoming a cult classic over the years, expectations for the sequel were understandably high, and while it doesn’t get close to the effective shocks of the original, it’s still an underrated attempt at reviving the terror from part one. Much like the original movie, Prey at Night draws its ideas from several events, such as the murder of Sharon Tate by Charles Manson and his followers, showing that real-life events can be more disturbing than the more cosmic supernatural stories. Probably the most chilling moment in the first movie wasn’t the expected gore that we get in the third act, but is in fact a line that’s been used widely in the movie’s marketing campaign. During the climax, Liv Tyler’s character asks her attackers why they targeted her and she gets the emotionless reply, ‘because you were home’.
Prey at Night repeats the no frills approach of the first movie’s plot, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it means the movie has to work that bit harder to scare its audience. Director Johannes Roberts does an admirable job of staging the key sequences; bringing a more slick look to the film than the first one. However, despite his obvious talents, and don’t forget, his last effort, 47 Meters Down was a surprise hit in many territories, he doesn’t have a lot to work with here. The narrative lacks the effective slow-build of part one, and when the violence begins a lot earlier than you’d imagine, it sets an unrealistic expectation for the rest of the movie. Therefore, what we get is mostly stock horror tropes like ineffective jump scares and the cast making dumb decisions that audience members would surely have sighed at upon release, just as much as this reviewer did.
The cast elevates the movie and some of the gore does work, albeit in a slightly predictable way. Christina Hendricks is particularly effective but that comes as no surprise, given her stellar work in the likes of Mad Men and more recently Good Girls. However, here’s that word that I try to avoid as much as possible when reviewing horror movies, but it’s too apt to not drag out again, the film is just too ‘tame’ and predictable to be anything other than a mildly entertaining, if forgettable movie. Yes, as I mentioned earlier it’s underrated, but only because of the relatively harsh reception it first received. Check this out as a double-bill horror night with the first movie and it’s a few hours of your time well spent. Just don’t answer the door to anybody, unless it’s the Dominos guy!
The Strangers: Prey at Night opened to a luke-warm $4m on its first day in the United States and Canada, despite being projected to gross $7m from the 2,464 theaters it debuted in. The market at the time didn’t have much direct competition to draw away the movie’s main demographic, with Marvel’s Black Panther still dominating the box office. It opened alongside science fantasy adventure A Wrinkle in Time, comedy Gringo and disaster movie The Hurricane Heist and finished third over the weekend, behind A Wrinkle in Time and Black Panther.
On Rotten Tomatoes the movie has an approval rating of 39% based upon 127 reviews with an average rating of 5/10. Critics at the time gave the movie a predictably mixed response with the more positive reviews coming predominantly from horror fans. Bloody Disgusting praised the film, saying, “The Strangers: Prey At Night really takes The Strangers to the next level, and serves as a perfect introduction to The Strangers for new horror fans. You can go back and watch The Strangers and be just as happy for their previous relentless onslaughts”. Other critics were impressed by the relentless seclusion that’s elevated by a haunting soundtrack, while The Hollywood Reporter praised the tone of the movie, writing that, “While the original Strangers was devoid of any sense of the 80s, instead opting for a kind of timeless modern quality, Roberts’ sequel boasts its stylistic debts, with everything from camera shots, and music choices culled from the 80s, forming an impressionistic collage of a time period that feels made for the big-screen.” Less impressed, were The Guardian, who appreciated Christina Hendrick’s performance, but felt that the movie leant too far towards tired genre cliches overall.
Ultimately then, The Strangers: Prey at Night from 2018 is almost a worthy follow up to the far superior original. It delivers some effectively gruesome kills, however, while it’s fun to see a new location for the action, it suffers from being sigh-inducing rather than terrifying when it comes to the carnage. More importantly though, what’s YOUR take on the sequel? Am I being too critical of the movie’s flaws or should people stick with the cult classic original from 2008? As usual, let us know in the comments and we’ll see you wonderful gore-hounds next time. Thanks for watching!
A couple of the previous episodes of WTF Happened to This Horror Movie? can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
