‘The Strangers: Chapter 3’ movie review: About time to put this killer to pasture

This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard, Queen Hippolyta declares in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, while watching the play put up by Bottom and the Rude Mechanicals. One wonders what the Amazon queen would have said if she had to sit through The Strangers: Chapter 3. At least the Rude Mechanicals had the Man on the Moon and his dog, and Bottom providing the laughs.

Renny Harlin’s The Strangers: Chapter 3 is the fifth instalment in the series, itself a reboot of the 2008 film about a trio of masked, sociopathic home invaders. Harlin, who has directed cult action films including Die Hard 2 (1990) and Cliffhanger (1993), directed the new trilogy back to back.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024) finds Maya (Madelaine Petsch) and her boyfriend taking a detour to a small town called Venus in Oregon. After car trouble forces them to stay the night at a lonely cottage, they are terrorised by three masked strangers, Scarecrow, Dollface, and Pin-Up Girl.

Maya is the Final Girl, and after killing Pin-Up Girl in The Strangers: Chapter 2 (2025), she is still fighting the other two, not even having time to clean her face or change her bloodstained hoodie — that is dedication for you.

The Strangers: Chapter 3 starts with a lovely cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound of Silence’ by Shelby Carter. Then there is a ponderous definition of a serial killer and we are off. There is some annoying back and forth in time from three years ago to 12 years ago to the present or some such.

We learn the sheriff’s son was wicked even as a little boy and, for some strange reason, the judge thought it was fine to let the boy be.

Sheriff Rotter (Richard Brake) is up to no good—the surname might be a clue. There is Gregory (Gabriel Basso), a Venus local wandering about dropping loaded hints. The best twist was how the third Stranger joined the gang.

A still from ‘The Strangers: Chapter 3’
| Photo Credit:
Lionsgate

Meanwhile Maya is limping around (without washing her face) while her sister, Debbie (Rachel Shenton), has come from Portland in search of Maya.

There are so many inexplicable things happening like why does Scarecrow not kill Maya? Why does he give her a knife and cut her ropes? Why are the Strangers killing people? Why was this movie even made? That last question repeatedly comes to mind as people are getting poked in the stomach and fed to the meat grinder. Unmasking the Strangers strips the last bit of interest from this lackadaisical psychological thriller.

As it begins so it ends—with a lovely song, this time it is Moody Blues’ ‘Nights In White Satin’. When the lights came up after the fairly interesting end-credit sequence, one is left thinking why was this film released in February, which is usually the time for love or award heavies.

The Strangers: Chapter 3 is currently running in theatres