Let me preface this by saying, yes, I am a Strangers fan site. Yes, sometimes my website and posts will get re-posted and interacted with by the official channels for The Strangers and Lionsgate Horror. But that doesn’t mean I’m biased in my views on the movie. Everything stated in this review is truthful to how I’ve felt about the movie and it isn’t being influenced by anyone else.
Minor spoiler warning for the following review. If you have yet to see the film, it might be worth clicking away
Maya’s time to rest is short lived as a phone call from Pin-Up Girl sends her running through a hospital, in a very impressive scene filmed as one continuous shot, trying to escape Scarecrow who is hot on her tail to finish off the victim that got away. This leads to a chain reaction of events as Maya is forced to flee into the woods of Venus, and it seems no one, not even the residents of Venus, are safe from the knife, axe, or machete wielded by the Strangers. If you get in their way, you’ll probably find yourself dead.
The biggest theme of Chapter 2, if you couldn’t tell from the tagline and marketing, is following Maya’s struggles to deal with the aftermath of her attack when her attackers are still out there and she’s trapped in a town full of strangers in which 3 of them are the ones who still want her dead. Even the ones who seem the most innocent, like Nurse Danica or former US soldier, Chris Sampson, are kept at arms length, despite how in the end they were genuinely wanting to help Maya. But hey, if someone had tried stabbing me to death and I saw one of the suspects cutting an apple and eating it right off their knife, I’d probably be a little concerned too.
At the end of the day, any one of the residents of Venus could have been wearing the mask, and the fact that you don’t know who was wearing it only makes it more terrifying when you realise you’re surrounded by suspects. Chapter 2, like its predecessor, ends on another cliffhanger that leaves you wanting more. Director Renny Harlin took some big risks with this movie, and ultimately they are going to pay off. I won’t lie, I’ve known about this ending since last year, thank you Instagram, or at least the plot it follows, and it’s definitely going to be an ending that divides the fans. To avoid letting anything out about it, I’ll keep it here. It’s a divisive ending. Some will love it, some will hate it, some will be disappointed by understanding.
It seems it’s another case of what we saw with Chapter 1 with viewers failing to understand the point of the movie. The trilogy is one single movie divided into three Chapters. It’s supposed to be one continuous flow as that’s how the movie was written and filmed. It’s not like they were filming three different scripts. So the fact that Chapter 2 picks up right after Chapter 1 and gets into the action right away, is exactly as it is supposed to pan out. It’d be no different if they were to eventually cut it together as one film as it was made.
The flashbacks, though limited, are by no means random fillers that are unnecessary to the plot. We knew going into the trilogy that backstory would be revealed. We need to go back to see that. I think the beauty of the flashbacks in Chapter 2 are, whilst they do reveal a little about the origins of the Strangers (or two of them at least), they don’t go so deep as to expose their motivation. We go back to the very beginning, and that’s all we see. So the mystery as to why, or how, they choose their victims is still very much alive. So whilst we learned something, we really didn’t, because we’re still questioning why they do what they do. A stroke of brilliance on Renny Harlin’s part so we come back for Chapter 3, because there’ll be people who want to know more and people who don’t.
The boar scene… I understand guys, I do. It was a bit of a random scene, although supported by another flashback that makes it make sense. Sure, the CGI wasn’t perfect, and Maya really shouldn’t have survived an attack by a wild boar but you know what, it’s something new for the franchise so I’m all for it. And for those who watched the post credits, I’d say the boar scene and how it ends is leading into something deeper. Pair that with Maya being a vegan well… those who have seen it will see where I’m going here. Maya is going to be a changed woman by the time this trilogy is over. The town of Venus, and the Strangers, are going to change who she is entirely.
Click away if you haven’t seen the movie yet, because this will expose parts of the plot that have and haven’t been seen yet.
Now, the movie ended on a cliffhanger, so there’s obviously going to be questions left to ask. But there’s also details, and leaks, of the plot that were shown in Chapter 1 that didn’t seem to get any attention in Chapter 2. Whether it’s because they’re holding off until Chapter 3, or things were removed in the reshoots, I don’t know. But some of the biggest questions I still have about this trilogy are:
