Last year, director Renny Harlin released The Strangers: Chapter 1 — the first of a planned trilogy rebooting one of the best horror movies of the 2000s — and now he’s back to give us round 2. The Strangers: Chapter 2 is set to hit the 2025 movie calendar on September 26, with Madelaine Petsch reprising her role as Maya Lucas. The first of the series was panned by critics, so will the sequel fare better?
After getting feedback on the first movie, Renny Harlin and co. reportedly did reshoots on the second and third chapters, but the changes apparently didn't win over the critics. Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting says instead of amping up the stakes for next year’s final installation, Chapter 2 is just a chase movie filled with asinine scenarios including a bad CGI boar attack. The critic rates it 1 out of 5 skulls, writing:
The middle entry [feels] like a throwaway bottle episode that’s disregarded by even its creators. Petsch isn’t enough to drag this misfire through to its exhausting finish. Save for one or two inspired shots, Chapter 2 feels like Harlin has checked out already, deflating all momentum this trilogy might have had. A post-credit tease weakly sets the stage for the final chapter, a job that this installment was meant to achieve. But Chapter 2 throttles and chokes out any lingering interest in the Strangers and this confounding trilogy.
Tyler Nichols of JoBlo says he actually liked the first chapter for its slasher aspect, but this film was practically devoid of tension since we know Maya makes it to Chapter 3 on the 2026 movie calendar. It also dials back the violence after an already-tame first chapter. Nicols gives The Strangers: Chapter 2 a “Not Good” 4 out of 10 and says:
I found myself annoyed at how little progress was actually made in the story. We find everything out in the first five minutes, and very little changes throughout the runtime. In fact, narratively, it doesn’t even feel like we’re getting an entire film as it just sort of ends. I was shocked when the credits started rolling. I get there’s another film but at least the first one had a complete arc.
Rafael Motamayor of SlashFilm also rates it 4 out of 10, saying it’s better than the first one, but that was a low bar. Chapter 2’s biggest mistake, according to Motamayor, is adding backstory for the titular killers and thus taking away from the random “because you were home” of it all. In the critic’s words:
The movie tries to explain the origins of the Strangers, slowly building up some larger conspiracy and cycle of random killings, while also letting us get to know the three people under the masks. The problem is that to give them backstories is to take away from the randomness of the killings, and to give us an actual motivation for the murders feels like a complete betrayal of the franchise.
It should be said that in all of the reviews I read, the critics are all giving Madelaine Petsch her due, as she proves to be game for whatever bizarre set pieces await her character. They also all mention the CGI boar, so it must be bad.
Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com touches on both of these subjects, calling the boar scene “one of the most ridiculously conceived and executed things I’ve seen in a horror film in years, something that doesn’t make sense physically or thematically.” The critics rates the movie just 1 out of 4 stars and says:
The creators of this cash grab are aggressively unwilling to go much of anywhere at all. The ‘Two Towers’ of this series is a leaden bore, a movie that alternates between making no sense at all and insulting the intelligence of the poor souls who see it. Harlin can still compose a shot or two—he knows how to frame a menacing figure in a doorway or backlit by headlights—and star Madelaine Petsch is innocent, totally committed to her physical performance, but it’s almost more disheartening to see her put through the motions for a movie with no internal logic or respect for its audience.
Jamie Graham of Empire gives it 2 out of 5 stars, saying it was saved from 1-star ignominy for Renny Harlin’s ability to frame an eye-catching shot and craft a decent jumpscare, as well as for Madelaine Petsch’s committed performance. Graham concludes:
Originality is in short supply, and the storytelling makes hardly a lick of sense as Maya flees from the home-invasion subgenre into slasher and survival horror territory. … At once explaining too much and not enough, this middle segment of the trilogy fails to amp up the stranger danger. Perhaps the scariest thing is the end title: To be continued…
It looks like the critics have reached a consensus, as The Strangers: Chapter 2 currently stands at 14% on Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer from 21 critics so far. If you want to check out the upcoming horror movie — or see what that wild boar is all about — don’t let the bad reviews stop you. The movie hits theaters on Friday, September 26.
