James’s review published on Letterboxd:
Nothing original here.
The film follows a couple on a road trip for their 5 year anniversary as they find themselves the targets of a trio of home invaders who attack them for seemingly no reason.
Well, this was something I was pretty interested in checking out. If you saw my review for the original film, you likely saw that this was something that I had sort of grown up around (tl;dr, my family loves it, I'm mixed on the film) and upon hearing that the series would not just get a reboot, but a full on trilogy shot all at once got me pretty interested to see what director Renny Harlin and his crew had cooked up, and so far it's just more of the same. I know that's something that seems pretty derivative, but this film really lacks originality. The story is basically the same, most of the scares are borderline identical to those found in the 2008 cult classic, a lot of the dialogue is similar, even the ending (outside of the credit scene) is pretty much ripped from the first movie. It really feels more like (and I know I'm not the first person to say this) a CW adaptation of the original film than a full on reboot meant to restart the series. That's not to say there's literally nothing new here, as there are a few new scenes to improve the pacing of the original story and a couple of new set pieces added into the mix (one set in a crawlspace is actually pretty well done), but those additions are few and far between.
I also just don't think it's as well made as the original film, with the gritty realism of the original replaced with a much more clean style. The first film relied on heavy shadows, handheld camera work and haunting sound design to really craft a creepy atmosphere, but that's replaced here by a far more safe, sanitized and, ultimately, generic look and feel to it. Harlin has never really been a director capable of bringing major thrills to the big screen, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 and Exorcist: The Beginning showcase that beautifully, but his scares here feel even lazier than the ones found in those films. Most of what he does here are jump scares, with none of the creeping dread of being stalked that the original brought to the table. It just guts the film of what should make it stand apart by just making it yet another generic home invasion movie.
Still, I do have to be nice to the cast here and say that they actually did a pretty decent job with what they were given. Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez lead the cast this time around, and while I do think that their early scenes are a little too YA, they eventually find their groove once they come under attack by the trio of masked psychopaths. They really aren't given a whole lot to do all things considered, but they have good chemistry and are convincingly terrified by their current situation. The killers are also pretty solid at being intimidating, even if that's really all they get to do here. I know the marketing has been playing up that we get to see how these three become the Strangers and uncover their motives, but those revelations must come later, as here they really don't do much here with their origins nor motive. The bulk of the supporting cast is also pretty solid, but most only appear for one or two scenes before disappearing while we wait for Chapter 2 (including the excellent Richard Brake who just sits in the background for a scene and doesn't so much as get a single line here, what a waste).
In the end, this really wasn't very good, and I can only hope that the second and third films will be more original, more brutal, more scary, and, most importantly, more interesting as they delve into the Strangers' lore. If they're just going to keep copying what came before, there's really not much of a point in making this trilogy.
