★★☆☆☆
A DECADE ago a little film called The Strangers appeared on the horror scene that managed to provide a tautness and sense of an omnipresent threat that haunted beyond the credits. The same can’t be said of this wholly unneeded sequel which replaces any sense of foreboding creepiness with violence for violence’s sake.
Parents Cindy (Christina Hendricks) and father Mike (Martin Henderson) head off with rebellious teenage daughter Kinsey (Bailee Madison) and son Luke (Lewis Pullman) on a getaway trip to a relative’s secluded trailer park before Kinsey is sent off to a boarding school for troubled teens.
Once they arrive, however, they find themselves under attack by a group of mysterious mask-wearing, blade-wielding strangers. Who are they and why are they doing this? That’s the question that so permeated the first one but, with the exception of a half-hearted line towards the end, it’s barely addressed this time. The “based on true events” shtick means absolutely nothing here.
The initial concept of masked strangers appearing out of the shadows in the safety of a home has been drained of its “get under your skin” uneasiness – the commitment of a horrific situation to mundane everyday life is itself rendered dull.
After a needlessly protracted build-up, we’re left to watch a generic group of characters running around and screaming for their lives, making the kinds of stupid decisions that only happen in horror films that lacks character dimension or just plain sense.
It wholeheartedly dives into the pull of horror tropes that will surprise no-one except absolute newcomers to the genre. There’s nothing here to make it feel at all fresh, its embracing of tropes we know all too well just comes across as rinse, repeat laziness.
One quite effective set-piece involving a bloody struggle in a public pool aside, we’re left with a film that feels as icky as it is tiresome and, most crucially, far from the frightening experience intended. At least the performances are solid which means the family feels convincingly scared even if we’re not.
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