‘The Strangers: Chapter 2’ Opening Is a Game of Hide and Seek

You may not know it, but we’re a few weeks out from The Strangers: Chapter 2. To help drum up interest for the film, Lionsgate’s put out a clip from the first few minutes of the film, which picks up where 2024’s Chapter 1 concluded.

Last we left off, Maya (Madelaine Petsch) survived the attack from the titular Strangers that left her boyfriend Ryan dead, and she ended the film recuperating in the hospital. But before she can worry about her health bill, she realizes that she’s not as free of the masked murderers as she thought, leading to her scrambling to avoid them any way she can, including hiding out in the morgue.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Petsch teased this next chapter in the The Strangers saga would offer more insight into the town of Venus, Oregon. The events of the sequel will span “almost the entirety” of the town, the actor said, and zero in on about 15 townspeople to understand how Venus got like this. Two particular characters of interest are Gregory (Gabriel Basso), Maya’s fellow roommate in the hospital, and Danica (Brooke Lena Johnson), the hospital nurse tending to them both.

Petsch called the value in the Strangers franchise its lead killers being “just real people who want to kill you” and said they’d also get some fleshing out during Chapter 2. What that entails, Lionsgate is keeping close to the vest, but what Maya goes through will take a toll on her “mentally, emotionally, and physically. We help the audience see that by showing a lot of her point of view and her questioning reality because she’s so exhausted…she’s starting to lose her grip on reality.”

This is a “character-driven horror” film, said Petsch, who also teased the already-made Chapter 3 could “turn [Maya] into a killer. When all three come out and people watch them, they’ll get that satisfaction they’re looking for.” We’ll see how that turns out when The Strangers: Chapter 2 hits theaters on September 26.

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