Film Review: The Strangers: Prey At Night

‘Knock, knock, who’s there?’ This time-tested gag turns into a test of nerves as a family of four is stalked by three people in masks – Dollface, Pin-up Girl and the Man in a jute mask. ‘Based on true events’, the film opens to the 1981 hit single ‘Kids in America’ by Kim Wilde – perhaps to reassure viewers that slasher movies and their content were alive and well even in that decade.

After the opening frames show a girl, her face in total darkness, knocking at a door and asking for a non-existent person – a scene to be repeated later – and an elderly couple ‘being taken care of’ by Dollface, we are shown dad Mike (Martin Henderson), mom Cindy (Christina Hendricks) and son Luke (Lewis Pullman) on their way to drop rebel daughter Kinsey (Bailee Madison) to a boarding-school. On the way they decide to have a night halt at a trailer park. This sets off a relentless pursuit by the three masked people.
If ‘Strangers’, a decade ago, had the three stalking a couple, this sequel has director Roberts doubling the number of intended victims. Bryan Bertino, who had directed the 2008 film, turns writer with Ben Ketai fine-tuning the script. The few jumpscares are genuine, though the film relies more on gruesome and macabre scene s- not all inclined towards credibility though. For instance, even after having lost a member of the family, a cornered victim actually grants a count of five to the would-be slayers, making the former out to be the proverbial lambs to the slaughter. And the usual getting up to stalk after being given up for dead. Also, the sheer absence of motives.
On the plus side is the short runtime. There are watch-worthy scenes too – especially the one where the assassin follows the victim into a pool, accompanied by Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’. Apart from the few scenes in daylight, this slasher film is shot in the cover of darkness. Overall, not a bad effort from Johannes Roberts.