The Strangers: Chapter 1 Releases Chilling New Trailer

 The Strangers: Chapter 1 trailer is now online – watch it above. This Strangers prequel stars Riverdale's Madelaine Petsch and Netflix's The Night Agent's Gabriel Basso as Maya and Gregory (respectively), the new couple who are doomed to be the prey and/or victims of a chilling group of masked killers who are stalking random homes. 

Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2) will be the director of the prequel; the cast list hints that this story will be bigger in scope than director Bryan Bertino's original film, which starred Scott Speedman (Underworld), Liv Tyler (Captain America: Brave New World), a brief appearance by Glenn Howerton (Blackberry), and three actors in freaky masks. The Strangers: Chapter 1 will have more bit characters like townspeople – but the real curiosity is the logline in the trailer that this film will reveal how "The Strangers" became the killers we see in the original. It's an odd angle to take: the idea of the randomness of the killing, plus the complete lack of identifying or explaining the killers themselves, are arguably the core elements that made The Strangers resonate with horror fans, despite it being a low-budget indie ($9 million) with a pretty obvious outcome from the start. 

Of course, those freaky masks did a lot of heavy lifting in terms of The Strangers becoming iconic in the horror genre, and clearly influencing later works like The Purge franchise. That's branding power that Renny Harlin recognizes and made sure to tap into for this prequel film: 

"We felt it was central to the movie that the masks are the same," Harlin told Entertainment Weekly last year. "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."    

What Is The Strangers Prequel About? 

From director Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger, Die Hard 2, The Exorcist: The Beginning) comes The Strangers: Chapter 1. Madelaine Petsch (TV's Riverdale) stars as a young woman on a road trip with her fiancé. But when they stop at a remote vacation rental in the woods, they become the prey of a vicious gang of masked strangers who attack without warning or reason, and must use courage and cunning to survive one long, terrifying night. 

The Strangers: Chapter 1 is written by Alan R. Cohen & Alan Freedland and directed by Renny Harlin. It has a theatrical release date of May 17th.