Delayed Reaction: The Strangers: Prey at Night

Premise: A family stops as a secluded mobile home park and is attacked by mask-wearing strangers.

I haven't seen the original The Strangers, but I figured I'd be safe watching this anyway. I got the gist: Three masked strangers attack random people. Good, I'm caught up. As I always like to point out, it's hard to be mad at a movie that's less than 90 minutes long. This is in and out, without wasting much time. The family has pretty typical dynamics. It's a little frustrating that Christina Hendricks didn't get to be more of a focus in the movie, but this is a genre about final girls. So, of course Bailee Madison is the real center of this movie that owes a lot to 80's horror.

Something I do find interesting about this movie is how it rejects the idea of the first movie. The 2008 The Strangers ends with the terrorized people getting killed and the Strangers all getting away. This one kills off the Strangers. That's pretty surprising. After they survive in the first movie, you'd expect 3-4 sequels repeating the same formula before killing them off. This movie just unexpectedly says "No, this is going to be a two-installment franchise". I mean, I guess the Strangers could just mysteriously come back for another movie, but that would negate what was established in these first two movies. Now, had the Strangers been killed in the first movie, then I could assume the ones in Prey at Night are different people; that the franchise is more like the Purge: there's a network of people doing these killings. These two movies establish that it's the same group though.

I guess I'm just not that afraid of random people deciding to kill me for no reason (If I'm killed, I assume it's because I did something to motivate it, but maybe I'm an optimist), so this type of horror movie doesn't do much for me. It's more of a jump scare and "people make dumb decisions" kind of horror movie. I think it's done decently well. The empty mobile home park is a nice variation of a horror setting. It sort of feels like an abandoned summer camp but a little different. The cast is solid. I'll never object to Christina Hendricks showing up in a movie. It's nice spotting Lewis Pullman in movie movies. I hope Bailee Madison keeps getting time to do more than the Hallmark Good Witch movies/show (I'm not sure what to call that series). Oh, and Martin Henderson. A generic white guy I recognize from things...I'll have an opinion about him eventually...I think. I don't really need another Strangers movie, but I could be convinced to watch one.

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend