NEVER TRUST STANGER

THE STAKES ARE RAISED IN RENNY HARLIN'S ALL-NEW HORROR SEQUEL,THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 2

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WHEN SFX LAST SPOKE TO director Renny Harlin, he was gearing up for the release of The Strangers: Chapter 1, his remake of Bryan Bertino’s 2008 home invasion horror sleeper hit. Sixteen months later, he concedes that the film struggled to step out from the shadow of its predecessor.

“It was frustrating, but it was exactly what we expected,” he says. “I can’t think of any movie ever that’s been remade, and people say, ‘Great thing that you remade it,’ and ‘It’s even better than the original.’ I love the original. We all love the original Bertino movie.”

For Harlin, the lure was the opportunity to push the story forward through two more films. “To do what we, as movie fans and filmmakers dreamt of - which is, okay, what if it didn’t end there? What if one person survived and we followed them? I would have this incredible opportunity of doing, in essence, a four-and-a-half-hour movie about these characters.

“We knew that it came with the curse of having to start by remaking the first movie - and getting murdered by the original fans!”

HORROR HOSPITAL

That curse is lifted in Chapter 2, which picks up the following day with Maya (Madelaine Petsch) recovering in hospital under the watch of the local sheriff's department. Needless to say, her respite is short-lived. The Strangers - their killing spree now the talk of the town - soon track her down.

Wearing only a hospital gown, Maya is pursued through the hospital’s deserted corridors from the ward down to the morgue. The white-knuckle sequence inevitably recalls a certain horror sequel. Harlin laughs; it’s not the first time he’s heard the comparison.

“People have seen the trailer. At conventions and when I’ve met friends, everybody says, ‘Okay, was