"The Strangers: Part 1" - a movie review
The Strangers: Part 1 is a weird movie. Why? Because it is a sequel to two other movies, one from 2008 that starred Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman, and one from 2018 that had Christina Hendricks. So it *isn't* Part 1 at all. It is the third movie.
And yet I've read that they filmed three new movies, all at once, and this is the first in that trilogy, so... huh? I guess it is Part 1 of Part 3? Or something?
If you've seen the trailers, you'll know that this is a "home invasion" horror movie where people in weird masks are attacking the main characters. And this one takes place in an AirBnB in "Venus, Oregon" so it is a new story or something.
I'll say this first: if you like this kind of horror movie, this one is perfectly fine. It relies too much on jump scares, but it has all of the hallmarks of a "fish out of water" creepy small town movie. The two main characters, who are a girl who looks pretty unless she is crying (seriously - her profile while crying is the definition of ugly crying) and a guy who looks like someone I know, but a bit cooler, but who is an insufferable jerk who I don't mind watching being terrorized.
And the plot is what you expect. If you read my last movie review of "The Fall Guy" you might have noticed that I was surprised that the trailers didn't give everything away. But not this movie. If you've seen the trailer, you know EXACTLY, beat for beat, what to expect. It was almost annoying as I thought to myself "I bet THIS part happens next..." and then it did. Ugh. Whoever made the trailers for this movie should be fired.
But now I have to go into spoiler territory a tiny bit to explain something else about this movie: why it is clumsily made. So beware: I will now give minor spoilers....
FOR REAL. SPOILERS.
Have you ever used a garbage disposal? I have. My whole life. But in this movie when a character accidentally turns on a disposal, the camera cuts to a sink that is ... normal. It has a regular grate that wouldn't allow any food to slip through, thus it clearly isn't a garbage disposal.
Did none of the dozens of people working on the movie realize this? Did they think a garbage disposal sits under a normal sink? Stupid!
Then the main characters realize the owner of the AirBnB left a motorcycle out front. So one of them, of course, drives it into town. Were the keys in the ignition? If so, why? We aren't told...
Here's another example: if you were in a house and creeped out and your boyfriend left on a random motorcycle that makes no sense, what would you do? Take a shower? Why not? And after the shower, after the power went out and you saw someone in the house with you, would you hide in a room and keep your phone's flashlight on so the creepy person could see which room you were in? (The power is out. The *only* light comes from this dumb girl's phone.) Dumb.
And then if you ate a burger and got ketchup on your face, would it end up between your mustache and your nose? Why or why not? If it did, would the next scene show you with no ketchup anywhere? Why or why not?
If you were eating that burger and took a bite, should the camera shift and show a burger with no bites? Then shift again and show the burger half-eaten? How? Why?
The movie is just sloppily made. There is no continuity. No explanation of dumb choices. It just is...
Did I hate watching it? No. I'd probably watch the next one or two.
Was it made by competent people who were serious about movies? Nah. It was made by dumb people with no sense of how the real world works.
There's even a part when the two main characters get hit in the face and knocked out, yet there aren't bruises on their faces in the next scene - just blood on their necks a tiny bit.
And there's a crawlspace that is big enough to sit up in and have a conversation, which I guess makes it a "sitspace" instead of "crawlspace."
Again - it isn't terrible. It is just incompetent. So you should know that.
Dustin Dopps -Film Critic Contributor to The Brett Allan Show
