The Strangers: Prey at Night

A mild improvement over its decent predecessor, The Strangers: Prey at Night follows a family of four (Christina Hendricks’ Cindy, Martin Henderson’s Mike, Bailee Madison’s Kinsey, and Lewis Pullman’s Luke) as they arrive at a remote trailer park for an overnight stay – with violence and chaos ensuing after the title characters arrive on the scene. Filmmaker Johannes Roberts kicks off The Strangers: Prey at Night with an eye-catching pre-credits sequence that seems to bode well for what’s to come, although it’s equally clear that the narrative’s initial shift into the exploits of the aforementioned family of four doesn’t exactly hold a lot of promise – with the thoroughly generic nature of these people compounded by a series of competent yet far-from-magnetic performances. It’s clear, then, that The Strangers: Prey at Night benefits from a palpable sense of escalating tension within its first half (despite the characters’ penchant for behaving like typical horror-movie victims), and there’s little doubt, as well, that scripter Ben Ketai’s willingness to upend the viewer’s expectations plays a key role in the movie’s ultimate success. And although Roberts’ matter-of-fact handling of the various kills contained within the picture’s second half results in an oddly flat atmosphere (ie that tension he spent so long cultivating vanishes almost entirely beyond a certain point), The Strangers: Prey at Night climaxes with an entertaining and unapologetically ludicrous final stretch that ensures it ends on a decidedly positive note – with the end result a better-than-average horror sequel that’ll hopefully spawn further installments.

*** out of ****