THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT

US, 2018, 85 minutes, Colour.
Christina Hendricks, Martin Henderson, Bailee Madison, Lewis Pullman.
Directed by Johannes Roberts.

There seems to be quite some unanimity about this film. Critics and public were against it. It is a sequel to the 2008 thriller, The Strangers.

This is a fairly straightforward slasher movie. It introduces us to a bickering family, the teenage daughter not wanting to go away from home to boarding school, to be away from her friends. She sulks. Her older brother is playing sport but goes along willingly for the trip. She is played by Bailee Madison and he is played by Lewis Pullman. The parents, loving but also quarrelsome at times, are played by Christina Hendricks and Martin Henderson.

The film opens in a sinister way, an old woman in bed, her pet dog, a knock on the door, opening it, suspicious, being attacked by young woman in a mask, her being murdered.

It emerges later that this old lady is host to the family on their way to the school.

After some bickering again, some more sulks, the parents trying to cope, sending out the older brother to speak to his sister, as well as a sinister young woman at the door, there is an attack and, by the 30th minute of the film, Christina Hendricks has been dispatched. By the 50th minute, Martin Henderson, who has been searching for his daughter, coming across the body that his children had discovered, is also murdered.

An older sinister masked man also appears along with the young girl, threatening the children, dispatching a police officer sent to help by the 65th minute.

However, there are a lot of confrontations, car crashes, burning trucks, hold up on the bridge, an attack in a swimming pool… But the young man and his sister survive.