The Strangers: Chapter 1

Personally, nihilistic horror hits me as more unpleasant and depressing than engagingly scary. Such bleakness bleeds out tension, making for a remake that is merciless but also exhaustingly familiar.

The Strangers no longer looks like something that can happen to anyone, but rather something that can only happen to someone in a Strangers movie.

The original was a tightly wound nail biter, full of looming dread, but this one runs on fumes: there's no tension or atmosphere, just recycled beats from the original, played like a cheap cover song.

Once we're able to see Harlin's new trilogy as a whole, “Chapter 1” might feel more essential to the 4.5-hour experience. Right now, it just feels overly familiar.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 is everything WRONG with the horror genre.

Chapter 1 doesn’t establish enough of its own identity to make it memorable or set it apart, but it’s just functional enough to raise curiosity for where we’re headed next.

Renny Harlin’s reimagining of Bryan Bertino’s 2008 psychological thriller is thin on scares and plot

...exceedingly (and perhaps excessively) familiar territory that’s employed to periodically watchable yet progressively underwhelming effect...

It smartly utilises all the tropes of a good horror but does so with an extra layer of intelligence that elevates it beyond its shlocky potential.

Blunted by horror clichés and dumbness...