The Strangers: Chapter 1

**The Strangers: Chapter 1**<ref name="chapters">The home-invading killers are back in first look at multi-movie horror saga *The Strangers Trilogy*</ref> is an upcoming American slasher horror film directed by Renny Harlin and written by Alan R. Cohen & Alan Freedland. It stars Madelaine Petsch, Froy Gutierrez and Gabriel Basso, as of now, and will be distributed by Lionsgate. The director confirmed that the film is neither a remake nor a reboot, but an standalone sequel.

It will release theatrically by Lionsgate in 2024, with two more sequels expanding the story in new and unexpected ways.

## Plot

### **Plot Outline**

*The new Strangers film will follow Maya as she drives cross-country starting a new life with her fiancé Ryan in the Pacific Northwest. When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers.*

## Cast

* Madelaine Petsch as Maya
* Froy Gutierrez as Ryan
* Gabriel Basso
* Ema Horvath
* Rachel Shenton as Debbie, the sister of Maya. Though whether she’ll appear just in the franchise opener or across multiple films is not yet clear.
* Ella Bruccoleri as Jasmine
* Ryan Bown as Jeff Morell
* Brooke Lena Johnson as Danica
* Florian Clare as Chris Sampson
* Ben Cartwright as Rudy
* Rebecka Johnston as Lucy
* Miles Yekinni as Marcus
* Janis Ahern as Carol
* Stevee Davies as Dougie
* Sara Freedland as Annie
* George Young as Howard
* Pablo Sandstrom as Neil
* Pedro Leandro as Deputy Walters

## Production

### Development

On September 13, 2022, it was revealed that Lionsgate was tapped in to standalone sequel the 2008 horror pic *The Strangers*, which entered production in Slovakia. Renny Harlin is directing the film, which will be the first in a trilogy, having locked in a deal to helm the subsequent pair. Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland wrote the franchise launcher, to be distributed worldwide by Lionsgate. Courtney Solomon is producing alongside Mark Canton, Christopher Milburn, Gary Raskin, Charlie Dombeck and Alastair Birlingham. Andrei Boncea, Dorothy Canton, and Roy Lee are exec producing, with Rafaella Biscayn, the Slovakia-based Frame Film SK, Johanna Harlin, Juan Garcia Peredo and Alberto Burgueno serving as co-producers.

### Filming

Production took place in Bratislava, Slovakia with filming from May 2022 to October 2022.

### Casting

In September 2022, Madelaine Petsch, Froy Gutierrez and Gabriel Basso joined the cast in lead roles. In October and November 2022, Ema Horvath and Rachel Shenton joined the cast, respectively. According to the website ITamaraHome.net, Ella Bruccoleri, Ryan Bown, Brooke Lena Johnson, Florian Clare, Ben Cartwright, Rebecka Johnston, Miles Yekinni, Janis Ahern, Stevee Davies, Sara Freedland, George Young, Pablo Sandstrom and Pedro Leandro will be involved in the film.

## Trivia

* The website ITamaraHome.net, which is a website dedicated to *The Strangers* franchise, revealed a lot of tidbits about the film, including cast and characters.
	+ Ironically, the site url *istamarahome* is a play on Dollface asking Kristen and James the infamous quote: "*Is Tamara Home?*"
* Harlin admits that casting his two leads was a testing task: "Obviously Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman did a fantastic job in the original film and those were some big shoes to fill," says the director. "We looked long and hard for our scream queen. When I spoke with Madelaine I just knew that she was an exceptional person, exceptional actor, and that's what it took to play this part. In the same way, after looking long and hard, we found Froy Gutierrez, who is another wonderful young actor. We wanted a couple who feel natural and relaxed together. Their relationship, maybe it's not identical to the relationship in the original film, but it's something that feels very natural and very real, and that to me was the key to this movie and this trilogy. It's the realism."
* The way the director tells it, a similar amount of effort was put into recreating the masks worn by the killers in the original movie as into picking the cast: "We felt it was central to the movie that the masks are the same," says Harlin. "The masks in *The Strangers* are not like the Batsuit or something that evolves over years. To us, the Strangers are the Strangers, and I, as an audience member, wanted to see them just the way they were in the original film. Is there a place where you can find these masks? No. It was a process of studying what they were like, how were they made, how they fit on the actors' faces, how [to] create that same impression. It was one of the real challenges of the movie."
* Harlin shot all three films simultaneously last year in Slovakia. The director says the production was, "the challenge of a lifetime, but I also really embraced it. On a Monday morning, I could be shooting the second chapter, and Monday afternoon I could be shooting the first chapter, and Tuesday morning I could be shooting the third chapter. it was incredibly demanding for the actors, for the continuity in terms of the make-up and wardrobe, and for my director of photography, because we wanted to create a visual language that develops so that the movies get bigger, more epic, as we go [on]. It just kept all of our juices pumping all the time."
* Renny Harlin, director of the next three films of *The Strangers* franchise, is teasing that the trilogy opens up a whole new universe that could potentially lead to more installments in the future.
	+ Said Harlin, “I definitely see more movies and it’s almost like – that’s why I don’t even call it a trilogy – I call it the first three movies of the Strangers Universe,” Harlin said in an interview with *ComicBook*. “And the way the third movie ends, if people thought that the original movie ended in a titillating way because Liv Tyler sort of gasps in the end of that. And you question, like, ‘Did she live, what happened?’ If you thought that was thought-provoking, I think that when the third movie ends, you are like, ‘Oh my God, what’s, what’s gonna happen now?'”
* Harlin also called *The Strangers* films “an exploration of what happens to a person mentally and physically” after being a “victim of incredible violance.” Added Harlin, “In the end of the third movie, you have more questions than answers and I definitely see a bunch of new movies coming after that, and just continuing her story,” Harlin added. “So instead of going the route of the original film and the sequel of it, the sequel was about the strangers attacking some other random people. Our focus is our central character and her journey and where she’s gonna go.”

## Gallery

### Videos

The Strangers- Chapter 1 (2024) Official Clip ‘Knock, Knock’ - Madelaine Petsch
## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `chapters`
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 ‘The Strangers’ Remake In Works At Lionsgate From Director Renny Harlin; Madelaine Petsch, Froy Gutierrez & Gabriel Basso Set For First Title In New Trilogy
3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 The Strangers (2023) > > Cast
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 ‘The Strangers’: ‘LOTR: The Rings Of Power’ Actor Ema Horvath Joins Lionsgate Remake
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 ‘The Strangers’: Rachel Shenton Boards Lionsgate’s Horror Remake
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `cast'`
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 ‘The Strangers Trilogy’ Director Renny Harlin Teases The Beginning Of The “Strangers Universe” With Next Three Films