The Strangers: Prey at Night is an inexplicable sequel to the ten year old The Strangers, a creepy home invasion flick that others liked a lot more than me. I saw a theater standee for this film but never once a trailer so I went in blind. There were a couple surprises but it’s just a slasher flick using the same creepy masks as the first flick. No other tie ins or connections.
The basic “story” – a family of four are taking the daughter to boarding school and they stop off at their uncle’s apparently abandoned trailer home resort. And then three creeps with masks try to kill them for funsies. Plot? You got it.
This isn’t a very good movie and isn’t very scary. I’d say it was utterly pointless, tedious, and boring. I didn’t care for the characters, the bad guys have no motivation, so it’s hard to care about anything.
On the other hand, the director and/or editor understand what horror movie cliches to avoid. It doesn’t do the SHOCKING MUSIC STING to scare the audience when a figure passes in front or behind the camera. Very few jump scares. There are other individual shots that are genuinely impressive, good lighting, and a couple 80s tunes that are used to a chilling effect.
It’s too bad this well made film wasn’t a good film. It’s kind of utterly pointless except for some of the film making. I suspect the director (who has made some terrible films in the past) is getting better and, if he had a good script, he’d be able to make a good, suspenseful, scary flick. This one just ain’t it.
Score: 65