The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018)

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All things considered, I probably like this one just a touch more than the original. That said, however, it's kind of like saying "this piece of black licorice  is better than that piece of black licorice" (and I do NOT like black licorice!) Again, things are pretty damn basic, there's not a whole hell of a lot to it, and the characters are mostly pretty bland. However, I will say in this chapter's case, a couple of them kind of grew on me in time. But again, it's almost like developing a taste for alcohol - nasty at first.

The film kicks off with the "Man in the Mask" (Damian Maffei) "Dollface" (Emma Bellomy) and "Pin-Up Girl" (Lea Enslin) invading a trailer park in Kalida, OH, and killing a middle-aged couple. None of the actors from the original are back to reprise their roles, and isn't that the beauty of slasher films involving masked characters? I mean, just look at how many Jason Voorhees' there have been over the years. The nice thing here, though, is everyone replacing these roles does a good job, and I was none the wiser. This is not like comparing little Jason from 'Part II' to monster zombie Jason from 'Part VII.'

The next day, the family of four who become the victims of the masked trio's stalking in this chapter arrive at the trailer park to spend some family time together before the daughter, Kinsey (Bailee Madison) leaves for boarding school. While her mother, Cindy (Christina Hendricks) and father, Mike (Martin Henderson) try to keep things civil, Kinsey continues to be a brat who we immediately don't like. And her brother, Luke (Lewis Pullman), isn't much better. However, these are the aforementioned characters who eventually grew on me.

I have to admit that I appreciated how the film allowed some room for liking this brother-sister duo. Once you get them on their own, they're quite nice to each other, and it's like they keep up their bickering for appearances. They also end up making a pretty good team throughout the film. On top of that, once again, I liked the villains here because they are truly scary and somewhat eerily realistic in their nature. Although a lot of the actual physics in some of the attacking and fighting back is... questionable.

Anyway, that's basically all there is to it. Eventually the family finds themselves going up against the "Strangers," who are trying to kill them off one by one just because, and it's just about as chilling as it was last time. The only exception here is that I'll give it credit for a lot of the kill/fight scenes being far more intense and creepier than last time. The film basically amped everything that was good about the last film up a bit, but it's still not quite enough to save things altogether.

Once again, things here focus on some sort of a family/social speed bump, like in the last one when a proposal fell through. This time around, it's tension between Kinsey and her family for being sent to boarding school. But also once again, the whole situation doesn't really enter into things in the long-run. It's kind of just there to create tension enough to make Kinsey grow up a bit as well as add some sort of "life's not always great, but could be worse" lesson of sorts into the mix.

With not much more to say on the matter, I can say that it's a pretty faithful sequel to its predecessor, altogether. But having said that, this is still very standard slasher horror with that home-invasion plot we know all too well at this point. A horror newbie could watch these back to back and maybe take a few more footsteps into the genre with relative ease. But for someone who might be a gore hound, or into the more psychological, it's just okay. Passable for what it is, but a low pass. There has been better since.

3/5

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