The Strangers Trilogy First Look Released

When The Strangers landed in theaters back in 2008, it quickly captivated audiences with its imposing invaders who infiltrated a couple’s home with no real motivation or goal, a formula that was replicated in 2018’s The Strangers: Prey at Night. The premise is set to be revived with an entire trilogy of new Strangers films from Renny Harlin, with the first photos from the upcoming films having been released today. As expected, the photos tease the return of the masked figures who terrorize our protagonists, who are played by Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez. Check out the photos below before The Strangers films are released in 2024.

The reboot is described, “From master director Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger, Die Hard 2, The Exorcist: The Beginning) comes a new trilogy of terror. In Chapter I, Madelaine Petsch (TV’s Riverdale) stars as a young woman starting a new life with her fiancé. Suddenly, during a road trip stop in a remote vacation rental in the woods, they become the prey of a mysterious gang of masked strangers who attack without warning or reason. What begins as a fight to stay alive becomes one woman’s journey of courage and cunning in this horror series bridging three compelling films.” 

The upcoming film was written by Alan R. Cohen & Alan Freedland and directed by Renny Harlin.

“I remember the experience of seeing it,” Harlin shared with Entertainment Weekly about the project. “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.”

He added, “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.”

A key component of making these new films so effective was the casting choices, with Harlin describing how he knew he had found his leads.

“Obviously Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman did a fantastic job in the original film and those were some big shoes to fill,” the director pointed out. “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. We wanted a couple who feel 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.”

Despite being a new take on the material, it was integral to the adventure that the masks were replicated authentically.

“We felt it was central to the movie that the masks are the same,” Harlin confirmed. “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 were they made, how they fit on the actors’ faces, how [to] create that same impression. It was one of the real challenges of the movie.”

While the original The Strangers and The Strangers: Prey at Night weren’t directly connected to one another, the director teased how this trilogy will expand on the core concept.

He noted that the premise “is close to the original movie in its set-up of a young couple in an isolated environment in a house and a home invasion happening for random reasons.” He then expressed that the second and third films “explore what happens to the victims of this kind of violence and who the perpetrators are of this kind of violence. Where are they coming from and why?”

Stay tuned for details on the release of The Strangers trilogy.

Are you looking forward to the movies? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!