Renny Harlin Says Fan Outcry Helped Retool Chapter 3

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.)

“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.

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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 was the first time I watched the movie with an audience on the big screen, and it was really nice to see that it seemed to work with that audience. They seemed to appreciate the fact that we were doing longer shots, longer takes and deviating a little bit from your normal slasher movie. 

You originally shot your entire Strangers trilogy in 52 days, and based on the financial success of Chapter 1, you then had the luxury of adding around 23-to-28 days’ worth of additional photography. How radical were the story changes?

After the 52 days, we were like, “We wish we had a little more time to concentrate on this and that. There’d be one thing that was a little cheesy, but we just had to do it [at the time].” So we were always hoping and praying that we could go back. And then, like you said, with the success of the first one, it was possible.

We listened to the audience. We looked at the responses, and 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. 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. 

We realized that people were really keen on knowing more about the Strangers and understanding a little bit more about where they come from, while appreciating the fact that the killings are random. 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, and that was, I would say, the major exploration we did in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. It was about revealing more without making it trivial, like, “This person grew up like this, and the reason they are killing is because they hate their father.’”

There was an element that went from the second movie into the third movie, and 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. It should be about the psychological exploration of Madelaine’s character — the mental and physical toll that this insane situation takes on her — and then an exploration into what makes the Strangers tick. Investigating clues and figuring it out like a kind of whodunnit was completely the wrong path. 

So, for the third movie, we probably did a little more than three weeks of additional shooting. And for the second movie, it was a little more than a week.

There’s a Chapter 3 trailer in the mid-credits of Chapter 2, and there’s a rather bold indication of what’s to come. What else can you say about the concluding chapter? 

I obviously don’t want to give away too much, but people say that the second movie has a sequence that really surprises them. It’s something that they would never expect in a movie like this. So, in the third movie, I would say that the whole psychological development of these characters, both protagonist and antagonist, takes a turn that is very rooted in reality. I believe in it wholeheartedly, but it’s really, really unexpected. It’ll take the audience by a huge surprise, and it’ll be so interesting to see how they relate to that. Like I said, I believe it’s completely rooted in well-researched psychological reality, but it’s quite shocking.

We’re here talking about a reimagining of The Strangers. Similarly, one of your most famous films, Cliffhanger, has also just been rebooted. How do you feel about a different team telling a new story? 

That’s a good question. I’ve thought about it, and I haven’t been able to really come to a conclusion about how to feel. 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. 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, and I hope they succeed. It’s always good for all of us when movies work and succeed. 

I have no idea where the movie was shot and how or anything like that. But with today’s CG technology, you can do landscapes, digi-doubles and all kinds of stuff that we couldn’t do when we shot the original movie [in 1992]. And it was a blessing because that forced us to go to the Italian Alps and shoot everything for real. That was part of the success and the charm of the movie. So, for the filmmakers’ sake, I hope that they didn’t have to shoot it in a studio and do everything CG because the audience will smell it.

We talked previously about how you’ve made ten movies in the last six years or so, and I didn’t have the chance to ask you about it in the context of your former Die Hard 2 collaborator, Bruce Willis. Did his health-related retirement put things into perspective for you at all? Is that a partial reason for why you’re working so much?

That’s an interesting question, but I haven’t really thought about it. I would say that the biggest factor was meeting my wife at the tail end of COVID. We just celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary, and we have a three-and-a-half year old daughter. She was three weeks old when we started shooting The Strangers, and now she’s three and a half, which gives you an idea [of how long we’ve been working on these movies]. We also have a year-and-a-half-old son. So they’ve given me a whole new lease on life and a purpose in life and an inspiration in life, as well as a responsibility to build a legacy and do something good and meaningful. 

I was always a hard worker and I always loved what I did, but work was all I had. Outside work, I was a little adrift in life. And now that I’m grounded, I have so much more to give and to do. Of, course, I want to spend time with my family, but my family still travels with me [on location]. I have them around as I do this stuff. So I just feel so productive and that I can do anything. I might even have four movies coming out next year, and at least three are theatrical releases.

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The Strangers: Chapter 2 opens Sept. 26 in movie theaters.