(Caution: Minor spoilers ahead.)
I have not seen The Strangers. I went into this “sequel” with no prior knowledge of the first film and I think Strangers: Prey at Night stands well on its own. You don’t need to see the first one to follow it. From what I’ve read they aren’t really related. So, it’s not a sequel in the sense that it’s a continuation of a story, but it does share the same villains.
Those villains though… The actors were great at communicating without speaking, their characters came across very well but, they weren’t scary. They were actually pretty amusing, I laughed out loud a few times. (No one else did though, so…maybe it’s just me?) The tension building was good, and the music choices were interesting, but overall I just didn’t find it frightening.
Now we’re getting into the potential spoilers. This movie, while entertaining, was extremely predictable. They spend so much time trying (and failing) to make you sympathize with the daughter, that you know she’s going to survive. What happened with her brother was a little less predictable, but still predicable at about half way through.
The victims were so stupid. Just. So. Stupid. I don’t want to ruin the movie so I’ll just give a couple of examples. Firstly, do people really feel obligated to answer the door when someone knocks? Especially in the middle of the night? Hell, I don’t even answer my door in the middle of the day unless I’m expecting you. Next, you are in the middle of nowhere, alone, and you have just discovered a couple who have been brutally murdered. What do you do? Split up, of course. Okay, it worked for Scooby-Doo. Whatever. But the second thing you do? Go back to your trailer, which you left unlocked, and not search it. Yeah, that’s reasonable. Which leads us to the death of the third victim. Dollface, I think, has a knife. Just a regular kitchen knife, and is cornering two of the victims. They outnumber her, do they fight back? No, of course not. Um, do they grab something, anything, to use as a weapon? Hmm? Nope. Well, one does try to find a knife, but Dollface already has it. So, they just run into the bathroom and scream “Leave us alone!” Like that’s going to help. Okay, moving on, one more thing to point out. Even after all of this, they’re running around with no direction and screaming. I… Yeah. Okay. Maybe be stealthy? No?
Overall, this was fairly entertaining, totally worth the couple bucks I paid to see it. I would watch again on a streaming service but I probably wouldn’t fork out the money for a DVD. If you enjoy amusing villains who chase down hapless, stupid people then you’ll probably enjoy Strangers: Prey at Night. However, if you want more story in your horror… keep looking.