REVIEW: THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 2 (2025)

 By Stephen Pytak

There are hundreds of slasher movies out there. And it’s hard to say which ones are going to win over fans of the genre and which ones will be criticized and left for dead. 

I wasn’t a fan of The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024), so I wasn’t really looking forward to the second part of this planned trilogy.

When The Strangers: Chapter 2 was released on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025, the critics ravaged it, knocking it way down on the Tomatometer.

As I type this, it's rotten at 17 percent.

The New York Times called it "hackneyed and silly." 

I’ve been having a rough week. I wasn’t rushing out to see Chapter 2. And I actually thought about skipping it altogether.

But I found some time to check it out a 1:20 pm screening today, Oct. 2, 2025, at the AMC Fairgrounds in Reading, Pennsylvania. 

I plunked down $8.39 for a ticket. And I’m glad I did.

Chapter 2 is relentless and clever. And I’m going to give it four stars out of five.

It includes some very interesting moments. And there are payoffs, including one we’ve been waiting for since the original came out in 2008.

As I watched it, I started to compare it to other slasher films I've seen in recent times.

And I think it's better than Halloween Kills (2021), Halloween Ends (2023), Terrifier 3 (2024) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025).

Chapter 2 is the second best film in The Strangers franchise. The best is the 2008 original. Coming in at number three is The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018). And at the bottom of the list is the first entry of the new trilogy. 

Gosh, this trilogy got off to a rough start.

I didn't think Chapter 1 was a good stand-alone film. I wasn't invested in the main characters. Honestly, they just weren't all that interesting. And since Chapter 1 followed many of the same beats as The Strangers (2008), I wasn't hooked. On a scale of one to five, I'd give it a 2 I guess.

I wasn't expecting anything from Chapter 2. But I liked the trailer. And I thought it was much better than Chapter 1. 

There's a lot to like here.

Let’s start with the basic plot. No, it's not the most original plot. But slasher films, even the ones that are the most beloved, don't always have the most groundbreaking scripts either.

This is a part two which follows the final girl to the hospital.

Now we’ve seen this scenario played out a dozen times, in films like X-Ray (a.k.a. Hospital Massacre) (1981), Visiting Hours (1982),  A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) and Bad Dreams (1988). Plus Laurie Strode dealt with hospital scenarios three times in her cinematic existence (twice with Jamie Lee Curtis and once as Scout Taylor-Compton).

But The Strangers: Chapter 2 manages to weave in a few twists to make the most of it.

It’s here that we set the tone for the film. It's dark. It's creepy. And it's well-edited, lean and mean.

Somehow, The Strangers have our final girl's phone number. They call. She answers. We're off and running. And they're all business.

Then something happened which made me start to root for our final girl, "Maya," played by Madeleine Petsch.

It was the scene in the hospital morgue. I want to spoil it. But I hope folks who read my review will give this film a look and enjoy seeing this sequence for themselves. This was the part that made me sit up and pay attention.

Petch is an executive producer on this trilogy. And I haven’t read enough interviews with her to understand why she took the lead role.

She didn’t win me over in Chapter 1.  She was just the girl next door stuck in a film which came off as a so-so remake. She was no Liv Tyler. And I didn’t care if she lived or died.

But the scene in the morgue was a turning point, the most interesting scene we've seen Maya in so far. It's intense and it's well played. You can tell the wheels in the character's head are turning. She has to escape from the three masked killers who are pursuing her and she has been backed into a corner.

So that scene made me wonder, what else does The Strangers: Chapter 2 have to offer? Is it, by chance, better than the critics would have you believe?

The hospital scene also made me realize I hadn’t seen a film about The Strangers quite like this before. Of course, the trailer gave me that impression. 

I wanted the follow up to at least try to do something different.

And, it seemed, the filmmakers were doing just that.

Speaking about something different, I know some critics enjoyed going on about the scene with the wild boar.

This takes place around midpoint. Maya has escaped from the hospital, had a few adventures and found herself deep in the woods, nursing her wounds while making a campfire.

Suddenly, there's a strange noise.

And, boom, there's a wild boar.

Honestly, it played out a lot better than I thought it would.

It's a wild sequence involving the beast trying to gore our final girl while she hides in an abandoned car. Then while trying to escape on foot, she had to fight the thing one on one.

Again, Petch really shines here. It's a crazy sequence, but she sells it. And the CGI boar isn't all that bad. I thought it was fun.

The critics also complained about collections of flashbacks, some from Maya’s point of view, and some from the point of view of one of the three killers, “Pin-Up Girl.”

"Pin-Up Girl" from "The Strangers: Chapter 2 (2025)." Copyright 2025 by Lionsgate.

I thought the flashbacks would be distracting.

But they were weaved into the plot pretty well.

And one of them solved a mystery fans of the series has been talking about since Bryan Bertino’s The Strangers was released in 2008.

“Is Tamara home?”

I’m not the biggest fan of the big name director helming this trilogy. I guess my favorite films by Renny Harlin are Die Hard 2 (1990), The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990) and The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996).

He’s okay I guess. 

I remember he was once married to Geena Davis. And I remember he was once in the running to helm Alien 3.

Anyway, I get the sense he was doing what he could to work with what he’s got to work with, and trying to do something interesting with The Strangers mythology while trying to make an intense cinematic experience.

So I’m curious how Chapter 3 will turn out. And since Chapter 2 isn't spinning box office gold I wonder, will I get a chance to see it on a big screen? Or will I just have to catch it on streaming?

RATING (On a scale of 1 to 5): 3.5.