REVIEW: ‘The Strangers: Prey at Night’ is the sequel we needed
March 11, 2018
It took a decade, but fans finally received the sequel they had been waiting for with the recent slasher movie, “The Strangers: Prey at Night.”
This sequel follows the same premise as the 2008 “The Strangers.” A family travels to stay at an uncle’s trailer park while they send their angsty teenage daughter (Bailee Madison) to boarding school.
The family soon finds out that this trailer park is completely abandoned, and their uncle was murdered in his trailer by three masked sadists that continue to stalk and taunt the family throughout the night.
As is typical with any slasher movie, the family members are picked off one by one, until Madison and her brother (Lewis Pullman) are the only ones left to escape.
Writer and director Bryan Bertino and Johannes Roberts, who was also in charge of the first installment in the series, has created these movies with different idea in mind.
The typical slasher is based on an emotionally disturbed individual who endured some kind of trauma, so they target their aggression towards people who remind them of that trauma.
However, this film focuses on the idea of senseless violence. The masked maniacs simply hunt this family without reason to attack or any goal in mind.
This ironic idea of strangers attacking other strangers for no reason isn’t something that is commonly portrayed on screen. That’s what makes the movie unsettling. It’s almost a home invasion horror movie which scares us because it sounds too realistic.
Bertino and Roberts also use a very ’80s soundtrack that is ironic to the concept of the movie.
Songs like “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and “Kids in America” flow through the movie, especially at the peaks of the slasher violence, creating an eloquent and operatic visual.
The music is also somewhat of a homage to the slasher genre which gained popularity back in the ’80s. Not only that, but it’s ironic to hear such upbeat ’80s ballads against a gruesome kill scene background.
Was the movie cheesy at times in that stereotypical slasher movie way? Yes, definitely.
Although despite that, it is a good sequel to a movie that raised many eyebrows 10 years ago.
I’d recommend seeing it if you’re in the mood for something mildly corny, yet thought-provoking and thrilling.
Grade: B+
Maria McGinnis is an entertainment reporter. Contact her at [email protected].