In 2008, a film came out that shocked audiences to their cores. Heavily influenced by the Manson Family’s murder of Sharon Tate and the Keddie Cabin murder, The Strangers was all about the horrific atrocities of a random murder and the terror of knowing that, for some deranged people, causing harm to others brings them joy.
“You hear all the time, these obituaries of people who are randomly attacked,” director Bryan Bertino told IGN in 2007. “What I wanted to do was tell those people’s stories. I wanted to get inside that house at the moment a horrible thing happens. The movie is a very perspective-based horror film about what it would be like if someone came to your door.”
Earning over $82 million at the box office against a budget of just $9 million, The Strangers was a surprise hit, but the franchise went dormant for an entire decade before it finally got a sequel in 2018. Then, from 2024 to 2026, a new trilogy was released to some mixed reviews.
Read on to discover how to watch all The Strangers movies in order, including where they’re streaming on Prime Video, Tubi, and more.
The Strangers (2008)
The original film stars Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman as a couple in a strained relationship who arrive at a remote cottage. But soon after arriving, there’s a knock at the door and a young girl asks if someone named Tamara is there. From there, it becomes a fight for their lives after they discover a sadistic group of friends want to kill them, simply because they can.
The Strangers is both terrifying and gut-wrenching. It’s so senseless that it makes you angry, but then you remember that there have been very real instances of serial killers who target completely at random. Suddenly, the anger turns to fear as you realize this kind of pointless torture is something actual people have had to endure.
If you love movies that really play with the concept of psychopaths who cause harm for the sheer thrill of it, like Funny Games (2008), this is the film for you.
The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018)
After a decade, The Strangers returned. In The Strangers: Prey at Night, the strangers have set a trap for a family who are visiting their relatives in a rural trailer park in Ohio. Whereas the first movie seemed to be about the pure terror and madness of the strangers, the sequel has more of a survivor focus, showing the lengths an ordinary family will go to when suddenly (and randomly) placed in a life-or-death battle.
The movie also brought in some star power, with Christina Hendricks and Lewis Pullman in the cast, but ultimately, it fell pretty flat. It’s hard to sell a movie without a plot or reason, especially with characters you don’t know or care about, and who you know are just going to get murdered. In the first Strangers movie, it was a novel concept that worked. But doing it again really showed how tired and flimsy the premise is.
Ultimately, the movie only grossed $31 million worldwide. Still, this is a subgenre that has a devout following. If you loved movies like Vacancy (2007) or The Collector (2009), this will likely be an enjoyable film for you, even if it’s a little stale.
The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024)
While some assumed The Strangers: Chapter 1 was going to be a prequel, it actually is the first movie in a consecutively-shot remake trilogy. The film stars Madelaine Petsch as a young woman staying in a cabin with her boyfriend (Froy Gutierrez). The film is basically a complete remake of the first, copying it almost exactly.
And, yeah… basically that’s it. If you want to rewatch the first movie with different actors, or are Gen Z and are like, “Who is Liv Tyler? I’d rather watch Madelaine Petsch,” then this is the film for you. For everyone else, you know exactly how this story goes.
The Strangers: Chapter 2 (2025)
In the finale of the first film, Petsch’s character escapes after her boyfriend is brutally murdered. The Strangers: Chapter 2 is then one giant, never-ending chase scene. It also dives into the backstory of the strangers and explains how they became the crazed killers they are (spoiler alert: they’re just psychopaths who enjoy causing pain, like we already knew).
Chapter 1 was a box-office success, grossing a modest $48 million. Chapter 2, however, was panned by audiences and critics alike. Again, the big problem with this franchise is that the entire point of The Strangers is that there’s no point. It’s about the horror of people who kill at random. Trying to create a trilogy for a film that’s literally plotless gives you three plotless movies. The film grossed a little under $22 million at the box office, proving that perhaps this trilogy wasn’t the lucrative idea the filmmakers had initially imagined.
The Strangers: Chapter 3 (2026)
Slightly redeeming itself from Chapter 2, the final The Strangers movie actually gives audiences something to work with. Yes, the plot of The Strangers: Chapter 3 is unbelievably silly (the entire town and sheriff know about the killers, and they aid and protect them… yawn), but we hit a point where something interesting finally happens. Petsch’s character, Maya, is forced to watch the murders or be murdered herself.
Finally, the trilogy brings something… anything… different and new. It’s too bad that it didn’t come until the last 30 minutes of The Strangers: Chapter 3. Still, it will be interesting to see how this final chapter performs since it feels like the freshest, most unique take in the entire trilogy. If you love horror movies that have a great victim-killer twist, like 2012’s No One Lives, this will likely be your favorite film of the entire trilogy.
