Sometimes, as a critic, you find yourself covering a beat so arduous that you contemplate an early retirement. For me, here at Inverse, that was Lionsgate’s newfangled The Strangers trilogy. What started with a gutless remake led to an abysmal Chapter 2, but surely, I prayed, the epic conclusion couldn’t get any worse. Writers Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland had already butchered Bryan Bertino’s masterstroke of rancor-thick horror beyond effectiveness. The bar was in hell; the only movement was upward, right?
Welp! If there’s anything positive to say about The Strangers - Chapter 3, it’s that Renny Harlin’s warcrime of a three-pack is over and can’t hurt us anymore.
