Director: Johannes Roberts
Writer: Ben Ketai (Screenplay) Bryan Bertino (Original Screenplay)
Starring: Christina Hendricks, Bailee Madison, Martin Henderson, Lewis Pullman, Emma Bellomy, Damian Maffei, Lea Enslin
Plot: A family of four staying at a secluded mobile home park for the night are stalked and then hunted by three masked psychopaths.
Tagline – Let us prey
Runtime: 1 Hour 25 Minutes
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: What Not to Do in Horror Movies
Story: The Strangers: Prey at Night starts as a family mother Cindy (Hendricks), father Mike (Henderson) and teenage children Luke (Pullman) and Kinsey (Madison) are traveling across country because Kinsey is a trouble maker (we never learn what she does other than skipping a few classes) is being put in a boarding school, along the way they are stopping off at a secluded mobile home park with family.
Upon their arrival they notice the place is empty and it isn’t long before the iconic Strangers Dollface (Bellomy) Man in the Mask (Maffei) and Pin-Up Girl (Enslin) start stalking them around the park. Tonight, will be a battle to survive.
Thoughts on The Strangers: Prey at Night
Characters – Cindy is the disappointed mother and the end of her rope when it comes to dealing with Kinsey and she feels old, this is all we learn about her. Mike is the dad, that sums him up. Luke is the soon to be attending college baseball player, he does try to bridge the gap between himself and Kinsey, trying to be the big brother. Kinsey is the trouble maker apparently, she is being set to boarding school for something she did and is your typical rebellious teenage daughter character. The Strangers seem to have had a makeover too, they don’t seem as sadistic as I remember them, as usually they like to play with their victims more. When it comes to writing the characters, this film does a terrible job, as we see by ALL of the decisions they make in the film.
Performances – The bad characters does effect the acting because the four in the family have next to nothing to work with, other than run and scream, make as much noise as possible while trying to hide and having awful chemistry especially between the parent characters.
Story – The story here follows a family which are going to be stalked by the returning Strangers, we have a bigger environment for them to play in, but this time it does seem harder to understand their plans because they seemed to like torture, but this time they are swinging for kills. This ends up turning the idea into a weak slasher film over any sort of psychological thriller, the decisions being made by the characters are hilarious and certain moments seem to have a character run 10 metres and forget where they just were. You will spend a lot of time rolling your eyes at the decisions being made in this film.
Horror – As the original Strangers in one of the best home invasion style movies, making this horror expand didn’t seem to give the horror moments enough to go on, the trailer has also given away all of the best scares.
Settings – The bigger setting does create an atmosphere at times, and the shots we are given do look great, which does get the best bit of the praise in the movie, the problem comes with this setting not suiting the Strangers MO.
Special Effects – The effects are getting points because the attacks look brutal and this does have great camera work for creating the shots.
Scene of the Movie – There are some brilliant looking shots around the park.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Decision making.
Final Thoughts – This is a complete mixed bag of a horror, the visual creations are wonderful as are the music, but they just can’t save a film filled with the worst character decisions in most horror movies.
Overall: Well shot horror, terribly written characters.
Rating
