By Filmmaker Renny Harlin has confirmed to Variety that “The Strangers: Chapter 2” is set to be released in September or October this year.
The date announcement comes less than two weeks ahead of “The Strangers: Chapter 1” hitting United States theaters on May 17th. Harlin adds the trilogy’s concluding entry will be released at “the beginning of next year”.
Madelaine Petsch, Froy Gutierrez, Rachel Shenton, and Gabriel Basso star in the first film which reimagines Bryan Bertino’s 2008 home invasion horror film. That starred Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman as a couple terrorised by three psychopathic masked strangers.
Harlin tells the trade this reconception of the original into a new trilogy of three 90-minute films was part of the appeal:
“If it had been a straight remake or a sequel, I wouldn’t have done it at this point of my life. I have such respect for the original film and am somewhat intimidated by the quality of it.
Simply doing a sequel or remake didn’t appeal to me, but this was such an opportunity to have four and a half hours of a case study of victims of a violent crime and the perpetrators and what makes them tick and how it affects a person who goes through this.”
He adds that a 4.5-hour single film supercut of the entire new trilogy is being discussed as a possibility to be released after all three films have come out:
“It’s in our heads. This is definitely what we want to do. We want to cut together the full arc. We know exactly how to do it, then we’ll create a movie and see who are those diehard fans who will come to the movie theater for four and a half hours.
I don’t know if we need to have an intermission so people can get some food and go to the bathroom, but I definitely want to have that event and see if people take four and a half hours of dread and fear and terror and despair.”
Harlin’s past forays into straight horror include “A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master,” “Exorcist: The Beginning,” and “Devil’s Pass”.
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