Posted in: Horror, Lionsgate, Movies | Tagged: film, horror, renny harlin, the strangers

The Strangers Director Refers to the Upcoming Trilogy as a Reboot

The director attached to the upcoming Strangers trilogy is revealing that the upcoming films have reboot-like qualities.

Ever since its release in 2008, the home-invasion horror film The Strangers has become a popular title with genre lovers, earning itself a (sort-of) sequel several years later. Now, the franchise is finally poised to make its grand return with a newly envisioned trilogy that's looking to become its own entity entirely. But don't just take our word for it – here's what's currently being said about The Strangers: Chapter 1.

The Strangers Trilogy Filmmaker Hints at a Character-Focused Reboot

During an interview with Screen Rant, Renny Harlin, director of The Strangers trilogy, was asked how the film plans to address the past. Harlin explained, "My three chapters are based on the first original movie. They have nothing to do with any kind of sequels. Basically, the first movie starts where the original movie started at. It's different. The characters are a little different. The situation is a little different, but it's basically, you could say, that it's a remake of the original movie, the first chapter. It does add and subtract and change things to a certain degree, but I think it was very important for the fans of the original movie to offer them a similar kind of experience but an updated version."

The filmmaker further clarifies, "Then we go exploring things that was not answered in the original, such as who are The Strangers and why is this happening. Of course, a lot of the appeal of the original movie is you just don't know. It's just random, completely blind, horrible violence. But we go deep after the first movie; we start exploring who they are, and we follow our main character, Madelaine Petsch. We follow her through these three movies." Later, concluding, "By the end of the three movies, we've answered a lot of questions everybody had after the original film."

When previously discussing the films, Harlin promised that there's a lot to look forward to, explaining, "[Producer Courtney Solomon] just asked me if I knew the original if I was interested, and I said, 'I love the original. What's going on?' And you were kind of like, 'Well, you should read this thing,' and then I opened the file, and it's 280 pages long. I'm like, 'What the heck?' I start reading it, and I can't put it down. It took me, I think, nine hours to read it, and then I talked to him again, and then he explained the whole concept to me, and I said, 'This is genius.' This has never been done before. We really looked at it like one giant epic movie that is going to be made into three chapters, but for us, it was one huge story, and it was really a brainchild of his."

The Strangers: Chapter 1 arrives in theaters on May 17, 2024.

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