- Lionsgate debuted the first footage of The Strangers: Chapter 1 at New York Comic Con, featuring Madelaine Petsch among others.
- The movie is directed by Renny Harlin and explores unanswered questions and the mystery behind the strangers’ actions.
- Harlin has confirmed that the film is not a replacement for the original, but rather a deep dive into the story.
Lionsgate has revealed the first footage from their upcoming horror film The Strangers: Chapter 1 at New York Comic Con, giving a glimpse of Madelaine Petsch and the masked strangers. This marks the beginning of a new trilogy in The Strangers franchise and is sure to excite and frighten horror fans. The clip from The Strangers: Chapter 1 can be viewed below:
The official synopsis for the film is as follows: “From director Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger, Die Hard 2, The Exorcist: The Beginning) comes The Strangers: Chapter 1. Madelaine Petsch (TV’s “Riverdale”) stars as a young woman on a road trip with her fiancé. But when they stop at a remote vacation rental in the woods, they become the prey of a vicious gang of masked strangers who attack without warning or reason, and must use courage and cunning to survive one long, terrifying night.”
Renny Harlin directed, and Alan R. Cohen, Alan Freedland, and Amber Loutfi wrote the script. The film stars Riverdale’s Madelaine Petsch, whom Harlin has praised: “She’s not the replacement of Liv Tyler. She’s completely in her own universe and in her own class. Playing this character was so demanding, and I honestly can’t even imagine any other actor who could do this, and as we were making the movie, we said to each other, we won the lottery.”
Other cast members include Froy Guitierrez (Cruel Summer, Teen Wolf) and Gabriel Basso (The Night Agent, Super 8).
Harlin said the new trilogy aims to give fans what they loved about the original—random violence and mystery—but with its own twist. “In the whole development of these movies, our goal has been to make sure that we give the fans something that they loved about the original film — the randomness of the violence, the mystery of it all. To me, it’s almost like if the original movie was your favorite meal in your favorite restaurant, we wanted to make sure that we go back to that same restaurant, with the same food, but we add our own spices to it and take it further,” Harlin stated.
Harlin went on to promise that the new trilogy would delve much deeper into the story than the previous films. “But what made this so fascinating to me when Courtney sent me the script, which, by the way, was 280 pages long, was that yes, we are making the remake of the original film because we love that film, and we think that there’s a whole new generation who should experience it, but we are going much deeper. We are exploring those questions that were left unanswered in the original — the why of it, and the reason behind it, and all the mystery,” he explained.
The Strangers: Chapter 1 is set to be released in 2024.