Our interview with Lionsgate “The Strangers: Chapter One” movie, Director Renny Harlin and producer Courtney Solomon @Strangers_Film @Lionsgate #TheStrangersMovie
From master director Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger, Die Hard 2, The Exorcist: The Beginning) comes a new trilogy of terror. In Chapter I, Madelaine Petsch (TV’s “Riverdale”) stars as a young woman starting a new life with her fiancé. Suddenly, during a road trip stop in a remote vacation rental in the woods, they become the prey of a mysterious gang of masked strangers who attack without warning or reason. What begins as a fight to stay alive becomes one woman’s journey of courage and cunning in this horror series bridging three compelling films. Written by Alan R. Cohen & Alan Freedland. Directed by Renny Harlin.
In Theaters Nationwide May 17, 2024
Criticólogos:
I want to give you props because I love it when we see a movie that is going to be divided by chapters, you always have this in the back of your mind. Okay. How is this first chapter going to end? How are they going to leave it? This one stands for itself. So it’s not all about it’s not a big trailer or the second part. So I wonder what were the challenges of dividing the story into 3 movies?
Renny Harlin:
Well, it was, of course, a challenge to in one go, shoot three movies. But it was also an amazing opportunity because instead of telling one 90 minute, two-hour story, you can expand it into a 4.5-hour epic odyssey where you can really explore the story and the characters in a whole new kind of way. And I’m very glad to hear what you said about the first movie standing on its own. Of course, we describe it as one gigantic movie that is broken up into three chapters, but we want each movie to also stand on its own, of course.
And that was the goal but at the same time, we definitely think that at the end of the first movie, there are a lot of questions unanswered that the audience is dying to learn more about, and that’s why we offer the second and the third movie. And rather than your traditional sequel model, where you make one movie and then a few years later you make another movie, a sequel, and so on, and the characters change and settings change and everything changes. This is really a story that basically takes place in five days with the same characters, and you see the psychological change, uh, and effects of these events, not only in the victims but also in the perpetrators. And that’s what we found, uh, to be an incredible, incredible opportunity that you maybe get once in your lifetime as a filmmaker.
Courtney Solomon:
And I think to add to what Renny said, because I agree with everything, you know, by the end of the second movie, the stakes are even higher. So if you can believe by the end of the first, you were left there. By the end of the second, you’re like, and we’re pretty sure you’ll be this way. You’re like, oh my God, right? And then you’re left there. And, you know, I think the biggest interesting thing was, is because we shot it all at once. So it’s a giant movie. And then when you’re editing it, you get there and you’ve watched so many times in the edit, we were like, well, we could end it here, or we could go a little further because it’s already shot and we could end it here, or we could rein back and we could end it here.
So that’s the part that, like, it never occurred to me when we endeavored to do it. Oh my God, when we’re in the editing room, we actually have those choices because we shot the whole thing at once. We could end it in different places if we wanted to. So that’s part of what happens as you sort of mold it in the editing process.
Criticólogos:
Renny, you have done all sorts of genre movies you know, action and horror movies. What aspect of those other projects do you still incorporate into this project that people can see?
Renny Harlin:
My goal has always been whether I’m doing action or horror, to shoot the movie in a way and put it together in a way where the audience feels like they are in the movie, that they are in for the ride, and they can relate to the characters and feel what the characters are feeling and really be in the in the movie theater, holding onto the seat. Having those moments when you jump out of your seat and so on. But never, uh, never cheating.
Never, never just going boo to the audience because you can do that with music or sound or visuals, but especially with, With the Strangers. We want it to be always very honest to this genre of horror movie, which is realistic horror. We wanted to create a situation that any audience member could relate to and feel like that could happen to you anytime, anywhere. And that was the goal. And taking what we’ve, uh, learned and making different types of movies in different types of genres, doing it with the visuals, doing it with the sound, doing it with the music, and really putting the audience, uh, in the driver’s seat. That’s the biggest goal.
Criticólogos:
These are reimagined versions of some of the other similar films. What stands out from this version specifically when compared to the others?
Renny Harlin:
Well, first of all, obviously there was the original The Strangers in 2008, 16 years ago. We didn’t want to make a remake or a sequel to that. We wanted to reimagine the stranger’s universe and wanted to do this really bigger-than-life story that is 4.5 hours long and really examines the victims and the killers. And, uh, then we broke it up into three chapters. And what’s special about the first movie is that it sets up the situation.
There’s a couple on a cross-country trip across, the United States. They go to a little town, they go to an Airbnb, and there’s a home invasion. And we wanted to give certain touchstones that the audience can relate to if they’ve seen the original film 16 years ago. So they feel like, okay, this is called The Strangers for that reason. But at the same time, we wanted to create our own movie and our own three movies, and the first movie sets everything up. And it’s incredibly frightening because you are introduced to this completely senseless sense of violence and dread.
And then the second movie takes us another step further, and then the third movie really wraps it up and, and grows, in epic proportions compared to the first movie. So you kind of have to see all of them. Then eventually, hopefully together, maybe when all the movies have come out, uh, our dream is to put them all together and have people come and see your 4.5-hour horror odyssey.
Courtney Solomon:
Yeah, I would just add, I mean, everything Renny said. Absolutely. And I would just add that from the original 2008 strangers. Our. They created something which became iconic in itself and became something that people were really, truly terrified by. And so our goal wasn’t to remake that our first chapter if you want to call it the first act of our large script if you want to call it, we thought to ourselves, how are we going to ever like, you know, we have to service our own thing.
But the setup was so good, and the story we want to tell goes so far beyond and really gets into both the characters of the protagonist and the antagonist in a much deeper way. But you know. We wanted to reimagine that, but we wanted to make sure that we honored the great parts of it that everybody loves, so we could tell the bigger story we wanted to tell. And that was literally like, you know, a goal and, you know, feel like we did that. And then when people go into the second part and the third part, they’re going to be like, oh shit, I’m so glad they started there.
See the interview below:
Trailer:
