Review: THE STRANGERS – CHAPTER 3 Fails to Justify the Trilogy’s Existence

When reviewing The Strangers: Chapter 2 out of Fantastic Fest last year, I noted that the film had an identity crisis, and tried to give a little grace to Renny Harlin’s unfortunate second outing in his ill-advised trilogy. I come to you with no grace today. The Strangers: Chapter 3 isn’t just bad or struggling to figure out what it wants to be; it’s borderline unwatchable.

For all of Chapters 1 and 2’s warts, star Madelaine Petsch (Maya) was still giving an admirable performance with what she had to work with. The same cannot be said for Chapter 3, but the issue doesn’t rest on her shoulders alone. Every single performance in the trilogy’s closer practically screams, “Can we go home yet?” It makes sense, given that the project was shot all at once with grueling schedules. Still, whether the bored, monotoned acting was because they knew how bad the material was or were simply exhausted having filmed all three entries back-to-back isn’t really important when the end product looks the way it does. 

In fairness, the greatest performances of the year couldn’t have saved Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland’s inexcusably bad screenplay. Predictability isn’t always a bad thing in film. Sometimes the point is that you know where you’re going and the journey is just so fun that it doesn’t matter. Here though, predictability meets every bad decision in the book. Those bad decisions don’t just exist within the narrative, either (though if I have to watch Maya crash one more car so help me…). Indeed, the ninety-minute film takes several unnecessary side quests that add nothing of value to the story (one of which opens the film); treats something it outright told its audience twice as some kind of reveal; introduces new characters meant to be impactful without establishing anything meaningful about them at all; and elects to have a cop shoot an unarmed Black man in a franchise that’s meant to be known for its creative kills. In the Year of our Lady 2026! 

José David Montero’s cinematography does little to help here, though most of the issues fall on editing and fascinatingly poor direction from Harlin. There isn’t a single frightening or unsettling scene in Chapter 3. In a franchise known for its unnerving nature, such things need to be central to your visuals. Here, they can’t even be accused of being an afterthought. 

The Strangers: Chapter 3 has exactly one thing going for it, and that’s a soundtrack that the movie simply does not deserve. You can see the thought process behind the song choices, and the hope that they might be jarring to the audience as they juxtapose against what’s playing out on screen, but there’s little success to be had there. Really, classic rock (and classic rock cover) fans just get a bit of reprieve from the film they’re sitting through.

Every issue about the film — and the trilogy as a whole — circles back to the same problem: not knowing was the point. The reason The Strangers is such a jarring story is because you know nothing about the killers and they have absolutely no motive beyond “because you were home.” By explaining the Strangers’ origins and motivations, you remove every single thing that makes them interesting as antagonists. The fact that all of this takes three times the amount of time than the first film is only overshadowed by the fact that Maya’s arc is both rote and misguided. Overexplain the old, do nothing interesting with the new is not how you get audiences interested in your “vision.”

In every way, The Strangers trilogy fails to justify its existence. While it may be true that not all art has to, it does need to have something going for it in order to be considered meaningful or pertinent. Unfortunately, the sole success of “buy music good” isn’t enough to make the final entry into the ill-conceived trilogy interesting by any measure.

Movie Score: 1/5