As a horror franchise, The Strangers is best known for slotting into the “home invasion” subgenre – but that’s what makes the new 2025 release The Strangers: Chapter 2 a unique title in the series. After the previous movie saw Madelaine Petsch’s Maya terrorized while staying with her boyfriend in a rental property, the sequel has her being hunted through the eerie town of Venus, Oregon, and the story shifts into more “slasher” territory. What that means is that Petsch ends up doing a whole lot or running and crying, and it was an experience that was both exhausting and an opportunity to show off one of her special skills.
I interviewed the actress earlier this week during the virtual press day for The Strangers: Chapter 2, and in the discussion of her switching into a more proper Final Girl mode, I made note of the ubiquity of two demanding activities in her turn. For starters, there are many scenes where Maya is featured fleeing for her life, with homicidal psychopaths constantly on her tail looking to stab her full of holes, and that meant that Petsch wasn’t feeling any kind of guilt when she was skipping days at the gym during production. She told me,
Oh, it's incredibly cardio intensive. I didn't have time to go to the gym there. I wish I did, but I didn't have time. I think I would sleep for like five hours a night, if that. But I did feel like I got my workout in on set every day, so nothing to worry about.
It was an intense shoot in general. What makes the new trilogy of Strangers movies special is the fact that a full trilogy was shot consecutively, with production taking place across about two months in Bratislava, Slovakia back in late 2022. Chapter 1 features Maya doing a lot of hiding and screaming, but Chapter 2 is big on her moving her feet.
Fortunately for Madelaine Petsch on the physical exhaustion front, one thing that didn’t exacerbate the hard work were the filming sensibilities of director Renny Harlin. I asked the actress if the cardio scenes were all the more challenging because of multiple takes, but she explained why that wasn’t an issue:
You know, actually Renny is a fast shooter, so most of the time I'd be like, ‘Hey, we only got one. Maybe we do one more for safety. I don't know.’ So I'm more of the worry wart on set. Renny would be like, ‘We got it, we can move on.’ And I'm like, ‘No, no, let's just do one more for safety just in case. You never know.’ So we have found a good balance there.
That covers the running, but what about the crying? Maya is constantly shedding tears of terror throughout The Strangers: Chapter 2, and that meant that Madelaine Petsch could use her talent for crying on command. I asked her how long she has had that particular skill, and she recalled that it’s something she’s been able to do for years (and she guiltily admitted to using it to her advantage frequently when trying to get stuff from her mother and father. Said Petsch,
God, I don't know; ask my parents – poor things. I think I cried a lot whenever I wanted to as a kid. It used to be a manipulation tactic. Now I refuse to do that. But when I was a kid I definitely used that to my advantage.
Also starring Gabriel Basso and Ema Horvath, The Strangers: Chapter 2 arrives in theaters this Friday as the latest addition to Halloween season 2025.
