Renny Harlin attends "The Strangers: Chapter 2" Special Screening at AMC Century City 15 on September 16, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. Phillip Faraone/Getty Images Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text When THR last caught up with filmmaker Renny Harlin, he explained how he shot his reboot trilogy of The Strangers in just 52 days. 2024's The Strangers: Chapter 1 ended up being a financial success, grossing $47.4 million against an $8.5 million budget. However, the audience's criticism that the new story overly mimicked Bryan Bertino's 2008 classic was something Harlin and his team took to heart. Thus, they reopened the hoods of Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 in order to fine-tune both installments through 28 days of additional photography. (Chapter 3 received three of those weeks.) Related Stories Movies Madelaine Petsch Faces Masked Pursuers Again in 'The Strangers: Chapter 2' Trailer Lifestyle Madelaine Petsch Shines in Tory Burch's Collab With Viral Swedish Candy Brand BonBon "We listened to the audience. There were a lot of hardcore fans that were unhappy with the first movie. One reason being is that you can't remake a classic without people feeling like you're doing it all wrong," Harlin tells The Hollywood Reporter. "However, we had to do the first one that way in order to set up the scenario for the continuation of the story. So we knew that it was going to be tough, but we listened and read the commentary." Opening in theaters on Sept. 26, The Strangers: Chapter 2 puts Madelaine Petsch's Maya back on the run from the titular masked attackers. But in between nail-biting set pieces, Harlin intercuts flashbacks that shed light on a couple of the Strangers, specifically the childhoods of Scarecrow and Pin-Up Girl. "These sociopaths have no rhyme or reason, and that's part of the fascination of these films. But at the same time, the audience wanted to know more," Harlin says. "That was the major exploration we did in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. It was about revealing more without making it trivial." Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 originally had a subplot involving a present-day investigation into the Strangers' identities, but upon further review, Harlin and co. realized that such a story thread didn't fit the DNA of the franchise. This change in direction via additional photography likely limits the overall role of Andor star Joplin Sibtain, who plays Billy Bufford, an investigator for Oregon State Police's Internal Affairs. "In retrospect, I think we mistakenly took a path of emphasizing the investigation into these killers. We realized that's not at all what this series of movies should be about," Harlin shares. "Investigating clues and figuring it out like a kind of whodunnit was completely the wrong path." Similar to how Harlin rebooted Bryan Bertino's 2008 horror classic, Jaume Collet-Serra and Lily James have now applied the same approach to Harlin's Sylvester Stallone-led actioner, Cliffhanger (1993). Naturally, he's a bit conflicted about the idea, but he's ultimately rooting for the new take. "In a way, I am flattered that I made a movie that was successful enough and well-liked enough that someone thinks that it's worth spending a lot of money to do it again for a new generation," Harlin says. "But then there's a little bit of a feeling like somebody is messing with your baby. I still wish them all the luck in the world. Having now done a remake myself, I know it's a super big challenge." Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Harlin also teases the "shocking" conclusion of his Strangers trilogy. *** Lately, some notable directors (Denis Villeneuve, George Miller) have said how much they dislike dialogue, and what struck me about The Strangers: Chapter 2 is how little dialogue there is. The majority of the movie is Madelaine Petsch's Maya running for her life from silent attackers. Were you challenging yourself to not overly rely on dialogue? Yes, and I have to admit, I didn't know that other directors have been talking about this subject matter. That's interesting. But, yes, it was on purpose. We were thinking about the structure of the three movies and the fact that people tend to think that the movie in between is filler. They sometimes think it's just a bridge to get to the spectacular conclusion. So we wanted to make sure that we gave the middle movie its own personality and treated it as its own movie in the most powerful way possible. I always felt that the second movie should be a survival movie, almost like First Blood or something like that. I wanted to challenge ourselves to get out of the cabin and into the world of the town and its surrounding areas. I wanted to create visual dread and terror and suspense without the typical fast-cutting and jump scares and dialogue. So it was intentional. The premiere w