‘The Strangers: Chapter 3’ Review: Devils in Disguise
Nytimes reports that the final installment in the trilogy reboot of "The Strangers," the 2008 home invasion film, brings the masked nonsense to a close but offers few worthwhile returns, calling it an empty trilogy that suffers from a world-expanding, tingle-extinguishing treatment.
Madelaine Petsch returns as Maya, the young woman who survived the home invasion in the second chapter, and again confronts the signature villains: a trio of disguised killers who, in the original, were affectingly creepy anonymous monsters with mysterious motives.
Renny Harlin’s direction leans heavily into loud jump scares and other obvious slasher elements, the review says, with action and chases moving slowly and flashbacks meant to explore the killers’ motivations that have no bite. The returning writers Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland sketch Maya thinly, describing her as a shapeless, cookie-cutter final girl.