THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT
Who’s that knocking at my door?
CERTIFICATE TBA DIRECTOR Johannes Roberts STARRING Christina Hendricks, Martin Henderson SCREENPLAY Bryan Bertino, Ben Ketai DISTRIBUTOR Vertigo Releasing RUNNING TIME 85 mins OUT 4 MAY
T his belated sequel to Bryan Bertino’s expertly crafted home-invasion horror The Strangers (2008) moves the action from deserted suburbia to deserted lakeside resort. And that’s not the only way it slices up the formula: with its ’80s tunes (Bonnie Tyler, Kim Wilde), John Carpenter-esque score and pool-set climax, this is as much The Guest as slasher movie.
This time, it’s a dysfunctional family (mum Christina Hendricks, dad Martin Henderson and teen kids Bailee Madison and Lewis Pullman) being stalked by mask/burlap hood-wearing psychos, while director Johannes Roberts
(F, 47 Metres Down) favours moodily murky visuals torched by fetishised violence. The pay-off is disturbing, not always in a good way, and the nihilism chillingly chic: asked, sobbingly, “Why are you doing this?”, one killer responds: “Why not?”
Genre fans will enjoy nods to Christine and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. But Roberts’ use of widescreen is no match for Bertino’s killer technique, and the three Purge films we’ve had in the interim have dulled the edge.
THE VERDICT
A fun, sometimes distasteful Friday-night frightener that gets the blood pumping but won’t freeze it like the original.