‘The Strangers: Chapter 1’ review: A sonata of screams and torture

A floorboard creaks. Maya’s throat chokes itself. The door knob rattles. It turns out to be Ryan. (Image via X)

Picture this. A serene cabin on the outskirts of a quaint town. Your 5th anniversary with your boyfriend. A road trip turned forest adventure. Love in the air. Quite surreal.

Until..until one knock, an aggressive one at that, changes everything.

Reader ye be warned. ‘The Strangers: Chapter 1’ spoilers ahead.

The film begins with a pan of a forest. An ominous string of chords in the background makes you understand at the very beginning that the dense forest hides something evil, something sinister.

Maya (Madelaine Petsch) and Ryan (Froy Guiterrez) are road tripping to Portland for a job that Maya is applying for. The trip gets exhausting and they both decide to grab a bite. They take a short detour to a small town called Venus in Oregon. The couple stop at a diner.

They step inside and it’s as if the world stops for the people who were already inside. Everyone immediately stops what they are doing are stares at the strangers in the diner.

Their car peculiarly stops working as soon as they get done with the food and they have no other option but to stay at an Airbnb 5 miles outside of town.

What starts as a romantic night under the stars soon turns into a full on gore fest.

There is a knock on the door. Then another. Then another. A thump rather than a knock. Ryan opens the door and it is a little girl whose face is completely hidden due to the lack of light outside. She asks, “Is there a girl called Tamara here?”

Ryan takes a second and says no.

She leaves.

Then she comes again.

An ominous game of cat and mouse begins when Maya, alone in the house at that moment, realises that there is someone inside the cabin. The lights suddenly switch off. She wobbles around a strange house with a flashlight that kept flickering because of her fidgety hand. The phone falls from her hand and as soon as she picks it back up..BOOM! There is a woman with a mask on her face in front of her. Maya screams and runs. She hides herself in the closet.

A floorboard creaks. Maya’s throat chokes itself. The door knob rattles. It turns out to be Ryan.

The film has a slow start and an even slower chase. There were many cliched jump scares but they still were flinch worthy. The film could have done with better scares, a better plot, and only one chapter would have sufficed. The director Renny Harlin has been working simultaneously on chapters 2 and 3.

The intensity during all the scenes of Maya being alone in the house with the three villains - Scarecrow, Dollface, and Pin-up girl - was one of the coolest parts about the film.

During a scene, Maya is playing Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven on the piano and she is unaware that Scarecrow is siting right behind her. It was ao cool that someone whispered "Oh bhai" in the audience.

It was amazing to see Madelaine Petsch in something that is not ‘Riverdale’. She did a splendid job with her character and we can’t wait to see what she does in the upcoming chapters. Welcome to the badass final girls club, Madelaine.

If you are looking for something predictable and bloody to watch, this film is a good way to spend an hour and a half.

It will not scar you for life or traumatise you in your dreams but the villains will definitely stay with you till you at least reach home. Scarecrow is iconic and sinister as ever in this 2024 reimagination of ‘Strangers’ 2008.