A Critical Take - The Strangers: Prey at Night
Better late than never, right? Two more months and it would have been an entire decade between Bryan Bertino’s The Strangers and its sequel, The Strangers: Prey at Night. Was it worth the wait, though?
Released on March 9th, The Strangers: Prey at Night expands on the horrific deeds of the masked trio from the first film. While Bryan Bertino wrote and directed the original movie by himself, the sequel features Ben Katai as a co-writer and 47 Meters Down’s Johannes Roberts as the director. Rather than a country home far away from the rest of civilization, as seen in the original, we find our family of victims in an out-of-season trailer park owned by their relatives who are recently deceased – unbeknownst to them. For returning fans of the franchise, the elements that defined the first movie are still present; the unnerving silence as the killers roam around, the lack of audio cues when a shadow moves in the corner of your eye, the arbitrariness of the victims. The subtle differences that made us scared to look out the window at night. “Why are you doing this to us?” – “Why not?”
Prey at Night improves on the original in a few ways, mainly in how the victims are no longer trapped in a house. While James and Kristen were unable to leave the house in the first movie, the family is free to move around the entire trailer park as much as they please. They just lack the time needed to escape, as the family is quickly either killed off or injured. In addition to this are the adrenaline-inducing cathartic moments of the movie. Anyone who watches the movie will understand what I mean when they hear the squelches and cracks that make you whisper, “Fuck yeah.” Fans of Netflix’s Stranger Things will be pleased with the subtle 80’s vibes created through some of the shots and soundtrack of Prey at Night. The dolly zooms and the quiet synthesizer serve as subtle nods to the retro craze going around.
Yet what would the good be without the bad. Firstly, call me old fashioned but when a movie begins or is advertised with a “based on true events” tag, there should be a certain amount of truth to it. Both films are loosely “based” off of the Manson Family murders, by which I mean the killers and their motives are the equivalent to the random, brutal murderers involved with the Manson Family. While the first film held the semblance of something real, the second movie began to get a little unbelievable when things began blowing up and (SPOILER ALERT) people don’t die. To add to this were the few inconsistencies of the movie. There may not be many but some of them are pretty glaring, like a difficult to find trailer (which they just left) and easy to find hiding spots(like under stairs) being foolproof. It’s a little nitpicky, but they are issues with very simple solutions.
The most interesting aspect of this movie, though, is the future of the franchise. The current trend in Hollywood is to revive a franchise and create sequels and spin-offs, as seen recently with Star Wars and a number of Disney movies. While The Strangers could be a strong contender for this trend, the question of story direction would have to be considered. With The Strangers and Prey at Night nearly independent from one another aside the three killers featured in both, the series risks becoming a simple skin to put on other movies. Any bad story could buy the rights to “Bagface”, “Pinup”, and “Dollface”, putting the reputation in danger. Furthermore, anyone who watches Prey at Night will wonder who any future installment could follow. Though some of the characters are completely out of the running, the ending of Prey at Night exhibits the possibility of a sequel with very little to confine a new story. The series holds a high pedigree of horror to its name which could intimidate future writers or directors, but the freedom available seems too good to be passed up. I guess we can give it another decade and see what comes up, and in the meantime, Prey at NightPre is worth the $12 for a ticket.
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