We were joined on the Popternative show by director Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger) to discuss The Strangers – Chapter 2, the second instalment in The Strangers trilogy starring Madelaine Petsch (Riverdale, About Fate).
Released in theaters on September 26, the new horror film follows The Strangers who learn that one of their victims, Maya (Petsch), is still alive. They decide to return to finish the job, and with nowhere to run and no one to trust, Maya must survive another horrific chapter of terror as The Strangers – driven by a senseless, unceasing purpose – pursue her. The Strangers: Chapter 1 premiered in May 2024.
Gabriel Basso (The Night Agent, Super 8) and Ema Horvath (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, What Lies Below,) also star.
One of the challenges for the films as a whole was deciding on the masks: “The masks were a big deal. Just on a practical level, you don’t think about it, but [the original The Strangers] was made [17] years ago, [so] are we going to make them? Do they exist somewhere? Can we just go get them? That was a no. Do we want them to be exactly similar or do we want them a little bit different? We had these long conversations about this and in the end, I said to everyone, ‘it’s The Strangers and we should stick to what it is.’ It should be exactly what it was,” Renny says.
Watch the full conversation with Renny Harlin below.
The Strangers – Chapter 2 is playing in theaters.
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