I didn’t much like 2008’s The Strangers because I had the feeling that it didn’t quite know what it was supposed to be.

Despite the movie being based upon a real crime, the Keddie murders, the antagonists appeared almost supernatural, vanishing and appearing in various places without a sound.

Locked doors were no obstacle, which fed my my sense of hopelessness:

There was literally nothing you could do to stop them. They entered without a sound, did whatever it is they wanted, and vanished just as quickly.

Though most importantly the protagonists didn’t stand a chance, so what’s the point? I enjoy horror movies, but I don’t tend to be drawn to slaughter for it’s own sake.

Taking that into account, 2018’s followup, The Strangers: Prey At Dawn is a much better movie. There’s a a bit of that pseudo-supernatural nonsense from the first movie, but there’s less of it.

And most importantly the killers are revealed to be simply humans and the protagonists actually fight back.

And that’s not to say that they’re successful in fending off the killers, but nor do they hopelessly accept their fates, either..