The Strangers: Prey at Night Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

The Strangers: Prey at Night Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 27, 2018

Time flies at warp speed on the movie release schedule. It's actually been going on 10 years now since The Strangers debuted to positive reviews, a long time to appreciate the film and also a long time to forget it. In a crowded genre (and a densely packed movie landscape in general), a decade is an eternity to wait for a sequel, particularly when the name brand isn't exactly part of the popular lexicon (i.e. A Nightmare on Elm Street or Jason Voorhees). The Strangers: Prey at Night isn't so much a sequel (hence perhaps the reason why it's subtitled rather than a "2" slapped on it) but rather another chapter in the story of a trio of masked killers who quietly, methodically, and brutally slay for no apparent reason. It's a solid Slasher film, very well made and brutal as necessary, overcoming a dragging first act and empty characterization by sheer force of intensity and craftsmanship in its second and particularly third acts.

A dysfunctional family -- father Mike (Martin Henderson), mother Cindy (Christina Hendricks), son Luke (Lewis Pullman), and daughter Kinsey (Bailee Madison) -- on the verge of bankruptcy to pay for rebellious daughter's stay at boarding school packs up to spend the weekend in a trailer park with relatives. They arrive to find the place all but abandoned. They settle in but quickly realize they're not alone. Luke and Kinsey, out exploring the place, stumble across a trailer with the front door wide open. Inside they discover a pair of badly mutilated bodies. The family soon finds itself stalked by a trio of killers -- Dollface (Emma Bellomy), Pin-Up Girl (Lea Enslin), and Man in the Mask (Damian Maffei) -- who will stop at nothing to hunt and viciously murder their prey.

The story is really that simple. The movie frustrates with an overlong opening act that strives to give some personality traits to the family which ultimately mean little in the larger picture. They're all generic cut-outs, classic fodder filler whose constructions serve only to put them into position for the slaughter. That's contrasted with the killers, who are as anonymous they come -- classic nameless, faceless, mute killers -- and as brutal and methodical as any the screen has ever seen. The Strangers: Prey at Night takes full advantage of their ruthlessness. The kills are raw and brutal and hard to watch, usually set into motion with an agonizingly effective build-up to the moment and punctuated by a lingering shot on the dying characters that add an intimate depth to the carnage and allow the viewer to all but experience those dying breaths in which the actors, to their credit, seem very capable of shaping with overwhelming emotion as the viewer can all but see their lives slowly flashing before their eyes. Music always compliments the moment with impressive selection chops and scene enhancement (“Total Eclipse of the Heart” is particularly effective), complimented by an 80s-inspired genre score (and a great title card, too) that altogether raise each murder scene’s effectiveness many times over.

It's that opening act that's the movie low point. It takes far too long for anything of interest to happen, and the flat characterization and predictable tropes see the movie stall out before it even gets going. It's only by sheer force of will, skill, and moments of intense operatic violence that the movie recourses a third of the way through and, by the end, all but dispatches the bad memories of less than an hour prior. The flat characterization certainly doesn't help the audience sympathize when they act foolishly. Even in the high point moments of violent chaos, the film, and its characters, struggle through classic bouts of hesitation, when the audience will be clamoring -- screaming -- for a character with a gun to pull the trigger on one of the killers, the classic "just shoot, idiot!" moment that every Horror film seems to incorporate. Apparently this individual never watched Die Hard: "Next time you have the chance to kill someone, don't hesitate!" Good advice, at least for victims in Horror movies, anyway. All in all, though, this is very good movie once it gets going. Intense, almost sadistically violent, and very well photographed and scored elevate it well above typical genre fodder that's overwhelming the bottom of the barrel.

The Strangers: Prey at Night Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

While screenshots should not be used as the end-all, be-all tool used to judge a Blu-ray's video quality, the ones included with this review do at least give an idea of how very dark The Strangers: Prey at Night appears in almost every scene. As the title suggests, the film takes place at night, with the opening minutes the only real reprieve from low light venues offset only by the warm glow of dim lamps, splashes of neon, or vehicle headlights. The good news is that black levels often reach the point of intensive depth, managing to often find that goldilocks level of perfection where shadows are dense and purely dark but details are not lost when they shouldn't be. The image is rather noisy, intensely so in a few places, unsurprising given the film's near relentless low light structure. Colors don't have much of a chance to shine. They're more complimentary than anything in most instances, with even the Dollface and Pin-Up Girl masks are not able to reveal their finer colors with regularity. Cindy's red hair and blue shirt are color highlights when given the lighting opportunity and a poolside scene lit by intense neon lights represents the most agreeable, varied, and vibrant color in the film. Resultantly, details are never able to sing. The transfer largely, by its nature, devours the finer textural qualities that would otherwise be on display, but one of the killer's burlap sack hood finds a good amount of textural intimacy when light allows, while general clothing, facial, and environmental details are capably revealing as the situation permits. The movie is not a visual powerhouse, favoring atmosphere over visual dazzle, but it compliments the movie and the Blu-ray handles it about as well as can be expected, particularly considering the movie's midlevel digital production.

The Strangers: Prey at Night Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Strangers: Prey at Night features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The opening music presents with some interesting discrete effects and total stage engagement, making the 5.1 channels at its disposal sound like more. Just as soon as the listener gets into the beat, though, the track goes effectively dead silent. Music is never shy about expressing itself through multiple channels, whether 80s-inspired score or popular songs from the decade that portend and support various kill scenes. The track offers some good discrete effects beyond music. A heavy-handed beating on the front door in chapter six plays firmly off to the right hand side, for instance. Some throaty engine revs, an explosion, a few gunshots, and various gory sounds are present with top-tier clarity and aggression in well balanced support of the grisly story and scenes. Dialogue never falters in any area of concern.

The Strangers: Prey at Night Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Strangers: Prey at Night contains an alternate ending, a music video, and a few featurettes. The disc also features two cuts of the film: Theatrical Version (1:25:37) and Unrated Version (also 1:25:37). I initially though this to be a glitch but the commentary, which is available on the theatrical cut only, is not an audio option when selecting the Unrated cut. A DVD copy of the film and a Movies Anywhere digital copy code are included with purchase.

• Alternate Ending (1080p, 1:51).
• Music Video (1080p, 2:29): "Prep for Night" -- Director's Cut.
• A Look Inside The Strangers: Prey at Night (1080p, 1:50): A micro plot recap by way of quick interview snippets with scenes from the film mixed in.
• Family Fights Back (1080p, 2:02): Another plot recap with a little more focus on the characters while recycling most of the same film clips as the piece above.
• The Music of The Strangers: Prey at Night (1080p, 2:46): A piece with a slight bit more meat than the previous two. Director Johannes Roberts and Actress Bailee Madison discuss the opening song, the 80s-inspired score, and popular music in the film.

The Strangers: Prey at Night Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Strangers: Prey at Night is a surprisingly effective film that overcomes a slow, uninteresting opening act with an intensive, no-holding-back series of violent events. The killers are frightening, silent machines of mayhem, which allows the emphasis to remain on the grotesque violence. It's very atmospheric and smartly scored, too. Don't give up during the first act. The second and third act payoffs are well worth the wait. Universal's Blu-ray is fine, featuring solid enough video under the movie's overwhelming dark constraints, excellent audio, and a handful or throwaway extras. Recommended.