Bailee Madison as Kinsley proved to be a fierce heroine as she overcame her fears to protect her family.
Credit: @teasertrailer
“The Strangers: Prey at Night,” sequel to the 2008 horror film “The Strangers,” was released on March 9. The series is known for its masked killers, the Strangers, who are seemingly everywhere at once, constantly sneaking up on their innocent victims. The motives for these psychopaths are presumably nonexistent. In response to the classic horror film question, “Why are you doing this?” one of the masked killers answered in the first film “Because you were home.” In the second film, the explanation given was simply “Why not?”
The senselessness of the murders as a theme in horror movies is ultimately very effective. Anyone can be a victim, so it has the effect of true horror. What the second film did differently from the first that makes the film much more engaging, but takes away some of the anxiety, was set the murders inside of an off-season trailer park for vacationers surrounded by a fence in a rural area. In the original film, the victims are trapped inside of a house while they are tortured, but in this film, the cast mobilizes throughout the large property. The attack becomes a game of cat and mouse when the family scrambles to hide from the masked killers until brother-sister duo Kinsley (Bailee Madison, “Just Go With It”) and Luke (Lewis Pullman, “Battle of the Sexes”) decide to start fighting back to avenge their parents. Watching the two work together and look after each other adds a touching layer to the otherwise gruesome flick.
The fight scene near the pool was by far the best part of the film because of the visuals. The film takes place at night in the woods just off a dirt road, so the scenery is mostly dreary except for this one scene, which makes it really stand out. It is a stunning sequence when the pool lights come on as Luke battles the ax-wielding Man in the Mask (Damien Maffei, “Closed for the Season”) in an epic stand-off while “Total Eclipse of the Heart” (1983) by Bonnie Tyler played among the electric palm trees.
In many ways, “Prey at Night” played it just right for modern audiences in this sequel a decade after the original film that featured Liv Tyler. The soundtrack is completely composed of ‘80s pop songs much like 2017’s most popular horror film “It” and Netflix’s ever-popular science-fiction, horror show “Stranger Things.” Some of the songs featured are “Kids in America” by Kim Wilde (1981), “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” by Air Supply (1983), and “I Think We’re Alone Now” by Tiffany (1987).
Also similar to “It” and “Stranger Things,” the kids prevail to fight the monsters in “Prey at Night.” This emerging theme as the new norm in horror is exciting and well-received in the current climate of school walkouts and student-led protests. Generation Z is brave and capable, and they want to see themselves portrayed as such in media. The days of slasher flicks in which teens make asinine choices to land themselves in helpless scenarios leaving them cowering at the feet of their killers seem to be over, and the filmmakers that have not yet caught up will be in for rude awakenings at the box office.
“Prey at Night” claims to be based on true events, but in actuality, the film and its predecessor were just loosely based on the Charles Manson cult murders of the 1960s, according to horror news outlet Bloody Disgusting, so the trailer park fiasco was merely a tall tale after all.
This film is rated R, but it isn’t too gory and there’s little sexuality, so any viewer over the age of 13 should be able to enjoy it.
