Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to make the bed! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the epic “One Battle After Another,” the quirky romance “The Baltimorons” and the horror film “The Strangers: Chapter 2.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: “The Strangers: Chapter 2” is a survival of the dumbest film, pitting three masked marauders against a victim who perseveres even though she makes endlessly stupid decisions.
CAST: Madelaine Petsch, Gabriel Basso, Ema Horvath. Directed by Renny Harlin.
REVIEW: Part two of a proposed trilogy, “The Strangers: Chapter 2” should probably have been called “The Strangers: This Time It’s Not So Random.”
The story of three masked, axe and knife wielding killers, known for choosing victims at random, picks up where the last movie left off. “Chapter One” saw the prerequisite good looking young couple Maya (Madelaine Petsch) and Ryan (Froy Gutierrez), targeted and terrorized by the Strangers while vacation in the creepy little town of Venus, Oregon.
Axes chop flesh, knives get stabby and blood spurts but for the first time ever the trio of marauders leave one of their victims alive.
In “Chapter 2” they return to finish the job. Revenge of the Random Killers. Cue ninety minutes of near misses, terrified gasps, jump scares with a dollop of nihilism and general unpleasantness.
“The Strangers: Chapter 2” isn’t so much a story as it is a collection of slasher movie tropes—like the masked killer who menacingly scrapes his blade against a metal surface to inspire terror, every door has a creaky hinge, and every radio station is tuned into religious fire-and-brimstone programming—randomly thrown at the screen.
The randomness of the murders, which has always been the franchise’s calling card, is out the window, and with it goes any sense of menace. In its place is flat footed horror with no sense of imagination.
“The Strangers: Chapter 2” ends with a “To Be Continued” title card and scenes from Chapter 3, which, given how bad this movie is, seems like a warning rather than an advertisement.
