The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018)

It took a good decade, but a sequel to "The Strangers" has finally been released. I honestly wasn't the biggest fan of the first film - though I found it to be an enjoyable enough 'home-invasion' flick and appreciated the rather harsh way in which it ended. I went and checked out "Prey at Night" at my local cineplex and, I gotta say, overall, I had a fun time sitting through this one.

The set-up has to do with a family of four (mom, dad, teenagers...) who are carting the angsty daughter off to a boarding school, but first they decide to drive out to the grandparents' trailer park for an awesome family 'getaway'. Turns out, their relatives have been killed off by the 'Strangers' clan and the rest of the park is devoid of residents so the family soon finds themselves up against the masked sadists in a 'cat-and-mouse' game...

Like the first film, this sequel isn't 'mind blowing'  and has its obvious problems, yet I have to admit, I quite enjoyed seeing a mindless stalk-n-slash movie in the theater again. This kinda shit seems to have been heavily phased out of mainstream theatrical releasing in favor of the endless output of box-office dominating superhero mash-ups and racially "aware", pretentiously fawned over psychological thrillers like "Get Out". Not to say I LOVED "The Strangers: Prey at Night". The characters were traditional and bland and I especially disliked how they went with a TOTALLY "Hollywood"-style ending - a complete 180 from the first film. Still, some alright suspense and some fairly decent kills (though this thing is FAR from a bloodbath). In all, this one's an enjoyable way to blow an hour and a half.