Fans of The Strangers franchise are in for a treat with the upcoming trilogy — and all three movies have already been filmed.
The 2024 slasher, which takes inspiration from its predecessors, stars Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez as a couple on the road who are forced to face off against masked killers. Director Renny Harlin noted that his love for the 2008 hostage film shaped his vision for his version.
“I remember the experience of seeing it,” he told Entertainment Weekly in October 2023. “I didn’t really know anything about it when I saw it and I just loved it. I thought it was fantastic and it’s stuck in my mind as one of my favorite horror films.”
Harlin continued: “When this opportunity came to me, the idea of not doing a remake or a reboot but doing a trilogy based on the original film, I thought it was an incredible opportunity.”
According to Harlin, the search for their leads was lengthy but necessary.
“We looked long and hard for our scream queen. When I spoke with Madelaine I just knew that she was an exceptional person, exceptional actor, and that’s what it took to play this part. In the same way, after looking long and hard, we found Froy Gutierrez, who is another wonderful young actor,” he detailed. “We wanted a couple who felt natural and relaxed together. Their relationship, maybe it’s not identical to the relationship in the original film, but it’s something that feels very natural and very real, and that to me was the key to this movie and this trilogy. It’s the realism.”
Scroll on for everything to know about the upcoming series of movies:
What Is the Premise?
According to the synopsis, Maya and Ryan are a couple who drive across the country together to start a new life. When their car breaks down, they are forced to spend the night in an isolated Airbnb home. The couple are subsequently terrorized by three murderous masked strangers.
Who Else Stars in ‘The Strangers’ Remake?
Petsch and Gutierrez are joined by Rachel Shenton, Gabriel Basso and Ema Horvath. The film also stars Florian Clare, Rebecka Johnston, Miles Yekinni, Ben Cartwright and Janis Ahern. Ryan Bown, Brooke Lena Johnson, Ella Bruccoleri, Stevee Davies and Brian Law round out the cast.
Has the Entire Trilogy Been Filmed?
All three movies were filmed concurrently in Bratislava, Slovakia, which Harlin called “the challenge of a lifetime” for him.
“I also really embraced it. On a Monday morning, I could be shooting the second chapter, and Monday afternoon I could be shooting the first chapter, and Tuesday morning I could be shooting the third chapter,” he told Entertainment Weekly in October 2022. “It was incredibly demanding for the actors, for the continuity in terms of the make-up and wardrobe, and for my director of photography, because we wanted to create a visual language that develops so that the movies get bigger, more epic, as we go [on]. It just kept all of our juices pumping all the time.”
What Is ‘The Strangers’ Trilogy Based On?
The original home invasion horror film was released in 2008 and starred Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman. Their characters, Kristen and James, stay at a vacation home, which is situated by three masked criminals. The screenplay was inspired by the infamous Manson family Tate murders from 1969 and a series of break-ins that occurred at director and writer Bryan Bertino’s home when he was a child.
A sequel was released in 2018 starring Bailee Madison, Lewis Pullman, Christina Hendricks, Martin Henderson, and Damian Maffei.
When Will ‘The Strangers’ Be Released?
The first movie in the Strangers franchise is coming to theaters on May 17, 2024.
What Can Fans Expect?
In October 2023, Harlin confirmed the movies would reveal the killers’ identities and their origins. He also noted that the trilogy is neither a remake nor a reboot.
How Did Madelaine Petsch Step Up to the Filming Challenge?
“When I took this task on, it felt far too large for anybody to ever handle. Like truly, I thought, ‘I’m over my head.’ But then when I got there — all three films took place in a short amount of time. So [once I approached it like] I was doing one long movie, it all made sense to me,” the actress exclusively told Us Weekly in July 2023. “I was able to fit this puzzle together as if I was basically making one long movie or a television show or anything else. It was actually quite easy to get my brain around it once I realized the span of time it takes place over.”
What Did Madelaine Petsch Tease About the Story?
In July 2023, Petsch opened up to Us about the research she did for the project.
“I’m a very big horror fan and The Strangers is probably the first movie I ever saw that really scared me. When I got the script in my inbox, I went back and rewatched it. [I wanted to] find out what really was so scary about those films and they’re really not jump scare [movies],” she shared. “It’s really not about that. It’s just so like bone chilling would be the word that I used because it’s kind of like the original home invasion films. Yeah. Where there is no rhyme or reason to it. So we were able to take that and elevate it.
How Were the Masks Created?
“We felt it was central to the movie that the masks are the same,” Harlin told EW in October 2023. “The masks in The Strangers are not like the Batsuit or something that evolves over years. To us, the Strangers are the Strangers, and I, as an audience member, wanted to see them just the way they were in the original film. Is there a place where you can find these masks? No. It was a process of studying what they were like, how they were made, how they fit on the actors’ faces, how [to] create that same impression. It was one of the real challenges of the movie.”
How Is This Different From the Original?
Harlin said it was important not to leave “unanswered questions” with their trilogy.
“In the beginning of the [original] movie, you find that Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman are fighting, you never find out what they’re fighting about,” he noted in October 2023. “We can answer questions here. We spent a lot of our time fine tuning how to answer those questions for original fans, how to make sure that there are a lot of pieces of homage to the original fans and that they are excited and feel like they’re along for the same ride that they’ve loved forever while making it more modern, making it longer, and answering questions.”
