Spooky Season 2025: The Strangers – Chapter 2 Review

The Strangers: Chapter 2 is the second installment of a new trilogy of Strangers films that picks up directly after the events of the first film. After learning that one of their victims, Maya (Petsch), is still alive, our three masked maniacs return to try and finish the job. Now, with nowhere to run and no one to trust, Maya soon finds herself in a brutal fight for survival against psychopaths who are more than willing to kill anyone who stands in their way.

This new trilogy was shot back to back over the span of 52 days back in 2022, upon the release of the first film in this rebooted trilogy, it was met with absolute horrid reviews from fans and critics alike but in spite of its reception, found a way to become at least a mild financial success, grossing over 5 times its budget. Upon the negative reviews, the studio delayed the release date of the trilogy’s next installment, going back to the drawing board and turning to reshoots to help improve the film, listening to audience reception and complaints from the first film. While all signs point to the sequel being a significant improvement over its predecessor, it is still just as terrible, poorly made, and pointless.

That being said, the one thing both it and its predecessor have going for them is Petsch as the lead in both films and once again, she is once again the best part of this new film. Giving it her all and doing her absolute best with the dreadful material she is given, Petsch finds a way to come out of completely unharmed. For slasher fans, it’s hard not to appreciate that the film is essentially one prolonged chase that doesn’t stop, giving audiences hardly any time to catch their breath. However, that idea is unfortunately far better in theory than its actual execution here, as the film is a complete slog to get through. Aside from a few of suspenseful moments early on, there’s hardly any tension, intrigue or genuine thrills to be had, let alone enough to sustain a 90+ minute film.

For a film that hardly ever stops or slows down, it is shocking how boring it is. When it comes to films like this, their stories have never been their main selling point, but in this case, there is little to no plot here, almost making many wish that it had made more of an attempt to have some type of story. There is a mystery element in regard to the identity of the strangers and their primary motivations, but that angle falls completely flat as a result of how poorly it is handled. For a trilogy billed as one designed to answer the lingering questions that no one were asking, this second film somehow will leave audiences even more confused and with more questions. The film’s characters, and their questionable decisions, once again advance a plot filled with the worst type of jump scares (and sadly there’s a lot of them), and incredibly tame and uninspired kills that mostly take place off-screen.

In the end, The Strangers: Chapter 2 certainly possessed some genuine potential going into it but unfortunately, this trilogy has essentially been dead on arrival, squandering every single bit of potential it had along the way. Even as someone who was excited about this new trilogy, it’s hard to feel any sort of excitement or anticipation towards the already shot third chapter, and barring the reception of this second chapter, it will be interesting to see when it is released. All things considered, this latest installment simply isn’t worth audiences’ time or money, even if they may be massive horror fans.

still courtesy of Lionsgate/Cineplex Pictures

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/