THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 Stalks Its Way Onto Rotten Tomatoes... With A Score Of 13%

THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 Stalks Its Way Onto Rotten Tomatoes... With A Score Of 13%

We weren't expecting much from this one after the trailer, but didn't quite anticipate this level of lambasting! The Strangers: Chapter 1 has arrived on Rotten Tomatoes with a score of 13%.

By MarkCassidy - May 18, 2024 02:05 PM EST
Filed Under: Horror
Source: Via FearHQ

The first instalment in a new Strangers trilogy arrives in theaters this weekend, and the reviews have been pretty merciless so far, with one critic going so far as to call the home invasion slasher "one of the worst" horror films they've ever seen.

With 53 verdict counted, The Strangers: Chapter 1 currently sits at an abysmal 13% on Rotten Tomatoes.

We're not sure why anyone would have been expecting very much from this after what might honestly go down as the worst trailer of the year (see below), but it's fair to say the majority of critics were less than enthusiastic about what sounds like a beat-by-beat rehash of the original.

Check out some reactions below.

You get the idea.

Director Renny Harlin shot the entire trilogy back-to-back, so there are two more movies coming... whether we like it or not!

"[It was] the challenge of a lifetime, but I also really embraced it," he said in a recent interview. "On a Monday morning, I could be shooting the second chapter, and Monday afternoon I could be shooting the first chapter, and Tuesday morning I could be shooting the third chapter. it was incredibly demanding for the actors, for the continuity in terms of the make-up and wardrobe, and for my director of photography, because we wanted to create a visual language that develops so that the movies get bigger, more epic, as we go [on]. It just kept all of our juices pumping all the time"

"Maya drives across the country with her longtime boyfriend, Ryan, as the pair begin a new life together in the Pacific Northwest. Along the way, their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon and they are forced to spend the night in an isolated Airbnb home. Through the night they are terrorized by three murderous masked strangers."

The movie stars Madelaine Petsch as Maya, Froy Gutierrez as Ryan, Rachel Shenton as Debbie, Gabriel Basso, Ema Horvath, Florian Clare as Chris Sampson,  Rebecka Johnston as Lucy, Miles Yekinni as Marcus, Ben Cartwright as Rudy, Janis Ahern as Carol, Ryan Bown, Brooke Lena Johnson, Ella Bruccoleri, Stevee Davies and Brian Law.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 is now in theatres. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 have not been officially dated.

About The Author:
MarkCassidy
Member Since 11/9/2008
Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.
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marvel72
marvel72 - 5/18/2024, 2:08 PM
I thought it looked pretty good from the trailer.
KennKathleen
KennKathleen - 5/18/2024, 10:11 PM
@marvel72 - great comic boo-. Wait- what??!
ImBatman4realz
ImBatman4realz - 5/18/2024, 11:52 PM
@KennKathleen - this was literally my reaction. Why is Josh & Mark “reporting” on this movie when it has nothing to do with their beloved comic books 😂
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 5/19/2024, 12:16 AM
@marvel72 - so did I.
Loved the first one and thought the sequel was more than adequate.

I'll watch this but when it streams.
IAmAHoot
IAmAHoot - 5/18/2024, 2:25 PM
I thought the trailer was fine, just in and of itself. But, "Witness how the strangers became the strangers", is so gosh darn stupid; that's literally what the original movie was.
BearShirt
BearShirt - 5/18/2024, 5:04 PM
@IAmAHoot - thing is, this annoying site doesn’t do their research in order to report using false sensationalism. I’d stop coming, but there’s not a lot of places on the internet where that can be avoided. However, the director pretty much stated on Talk is Jericho yesterday that the first movie is pretty standard, the concept is explored in movies 2 and 3. He states the real concept is to follow the character Liv Tyler played in movies 2 and 3, but that he felt the need to restart because picking up with Liv Tyler sixteen years after the original would be disjointed. I don’t fault you for not knowing that, but since the Ring Report and Comic Book Movie are sister sites, you would think those two might be a little closer to the context, but instead they go with the sensationalism of reporting on what Rotten Tomatoes said, which is itself simply an aggregation of what some people who got journalism degrees and over value their own opinions think about the movies that come out. I’d stop coming to this site, but avoiding sensational on the internet is like going to the circus to stay away from clowns.
IAmAHoot
IAmAHoot - 5/18/2024, 10:25 PM
@BearShirt - Have you even seen the movie?
SATW42
SATW42 - 5/20/2024, 9:32 AM
@BearShirt - "the director pretty much stated on Talk is Jericho"

stopped reading here
philinterrupted
philinterrupted - 5/18/2024, 2:39 PM
WATCHING THESE 2 ATTRACTIVE DUMB FUKCS FUMBLE THEIR WAY THROUGH THIS MOVIE WAS MILDLY INFURIATING.

NOT AN ORIGINAL IDEA TO BE FOUND IN IT. IT'S LIKE WATCHING SOMEONE TRY TO SCARE YOU BUT THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY WHAT THEY RE DOING IS SUPPOSED TO BE SCARY.


JUST WATCH THE ORIGINAL, IT'5 EXECUTED BETTER.
JustAWaffle
JustAWaffle - 5/18/2024, 2:50 PM
@philinterrupted - User Comment Image
ImBatman4realz
ImBatman4realz - 5/18/2024, 2:56 PM
@philinterrupted - First/original is definitely the best of the 3 movies.

It’ll be interesting to see what Chapters 2 & 3 do with it
philinterrupted
philinterrupted - 5/18/2024, 2:57 PM
@JustAWaffle - I didn’t mean to do all caps. I copy and pasted from a post I made somewhere else and it came up that way. I didn’t have the energy to fix it.

Sorry for yelling.
philinterrupted
philinterrupted - 5/18/2024, 2:58 PM
@ImBatman4realz - I don’t have high hopes. It seemed like the lowest common denominator of movie. Plus it’s Renny Harlin.
BearShirt
BearShirt - 5/18/2024, 5:08 PM
@philinterrupted - you may be right, but you’re only using harsher words to state the same thing the director said in an interview released yesterday on Talk is Jericho. He outright says the real concept is to follow the final girl through the second and third movies, but they felt they needed to remake the first since Liv Tyler is sixteen years older than she was when she was the final girl in the original. It’s this site, which actually has a wrestling division and could have easily found that information since Jericho is currently the “For The World” Champion on AEW, but reporting on things with full context doesn’t seem to be something Comic Book Movie does all that often.
philinterrupted
philinterrupted - 5/18/2024, 5:41 PM
@BearShirt - I think the movie was bad. Forget about it not being a complete story which alone makes it bad. Everything that happens is contrived. These two characters were poorly written and acted equally as bad.

This is not the same character as Liv Tyler’s. Her name was Kristin this movie the character is named Maya. They’re also not in the same point in their relationship as the original.

There is no depth to what is happening. If you want to say that’s because the story isn’t done fine, but it makes for a horrible first movie. You need to make each movie have a complete narrative. If you plan on sequels, great, but the stories have to work on their own as well as together.

I’m well aware of these movies and nothing Chris “Hogan 2.0” Jericho is going to pull in an interview is going to enlighten me. The FTW championship has always been idiotic when it wasn’t attached to Taz.
ImBatman4realz
ImBatman4realz - 5/18/2024, 2:40 PM
Yo @MarkCassidy — you are near insufferable as Josh.
Here’s a thought — why don’t you watch the movie for yourself and see what you think instead of copying and pasting other people’s opinions and declaratively saying the t “sounds like” the worst horror movie ever. You literally say “whether we want it or not” regarding the sequels, when you very clearly indicate that you haven’t seen it. Here’s a newsflash for you — film reviews are supposed to be after you see the movie 🙄. You’re doing typically Josh”ery” all over this garbage review.

Secondly, the movie isn’t a remake/prequel/reboot. The three movies are standalone sequels. This movie was decent and frankly the audience scores are on par with the 2 previous movies. My own opinion is that it was better than Prey at Night, but it’ll play better once Chapters 2 & 3 are released. All that being said, Chapter 1 leaves more unanswered than revealed which is exactly why they want us to watch the other two.
BearShirt
BearShirt - 5/18/2024, 5:12 PM
@ImBatman4realz - thank you. Except for the honest review (my wife doesn’t like horror movies, so I don’t watch them all that often and can’t give a real review of this one), you said exactly what I would say to the author of this ridiculous clickbait. I think it’s worse because I listen to Talk is Jericho, and feel like the author should have had some inclination of what Renny Harlin said there considering The Ring Report and Comic Book Movie are sister sites. But anyways, thank you.
MarkCassidy
MarkCassidy - 5/19/2024, 7:53 AM
@ImBatman4realz - I didn't review the movie. I simply referenced the fact that a lot of other people were very negative about it. It's a review roundup... That involves sharing critics' opinions. I haven't seen it, but I thought the trailer looked absolutely appalling and, by all accounts, it is. Sounds to me like you really liked it and are a bit salty that others didn't.
SATW42
SATW42 - 5/20/2024, 9:45 AM
@BearShirt - OK, you've now said essentially this comment 3 times so I'll go ahead and say this is a really weird take.

Just because it is a sister site doesn't mean they follow everything that is related to that site.

Posting reactions to a movie doesn't require doing the research of listening to a garbage podcast that most WRESTLING sites don't listen to, unless its an episode that actually pertains to wrestling, which this one didn't, or when hes giving crackpot conspiracy theorists a platform.

"You'd think you'd listen to this random podcast a wrestler hosts since your sister site you don't write for is about wrestling and they that sister site doesn't have an article about this very specific podcast but you should've known about it through osmosis"

You sound insane.
SATW42
SATW42 - 5/20/2024, 9:50 AM
@MarkCassidy - I still can't believe before writing this article about people's opinions you didn't watch this movie AND listen to an entire podcast a wrestler hosts because your sister site is about wrestling. you know for "context"
LSHF
LSHF - 5/18/2024, 3:13 PM
Can't wait for Chapter 2!
IAmAHoot
IAmAHoot - 5/18/2024, 3:56 PM
@LSHF - Said the folks who would wait for a long time...
LSHF
LSHF - 5/18/2024, 3:58 PM
@IAmAHoot - I'm seriously LOL!
SuperCat
SuperCat - 5/18/2024, 3:38 PM
User Comment Image
GhostDog
GhostDog - 5/18/2024, 3:47 PM
Insulting film. Absolute dogshit.
Chekkarma
Chekkarma - 5/18/2024, 3:48 PM
Off topic, did anyone else watch that fan made Viking Logan short that was just released?? Forgot how to post links on here but it’s pretty dope.
BisonScarBlood
BisonScarBlood - 5/19/2024, 2:49 AM
@Chekkarma -
Oberlin4Prez
Oberlin4Prez - 5/18/2024, 3:49 PM
Comicbookmovie.com? Yup still the same site.
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