1/3 of a Movie.

After celebrating our 350th episode with From Dusk Till Dawn (listen), revisiting Katsuhiro Otomo’s iconic anime Akira (listen), and stopping over in Bodega Bay for Alfred Hitchcock‘s The Birds (listen), Trace and I have opened the Horror Queers Patreon vault to release our full-length episode on Renny Harlin‘s The Strangers: Chapter 1.

In the film, a road trip for Maya (Madelaine Petsch) and Ryan (Froy Gutierrez) goes horribly awry when they encounter car trouble and spend the night in the small Oregon town of Venus. After some bizarre interactions with the secretive locals, the long term couple find themselves the subject of a brutal home invasion at an isolated cabin in the woods.

What follows is a desperate bid for survival against a trio of masked assailants – Scarecrow (Matúš Lajčák), Dollface (Olivia Kreutzova) and Pin-Up Girl (Letizia Fabbri) – whose motivations are unknown. All Maya and Ryan know for certain is that they’ll need to hide, run, and fight if they plan to survive the night.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 353: The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024)

Before we dive into Renny Harlin’s long overdue sequel, The Strangers: Chapter 2, we’re opening the Patreon vault to discuss Chapter 1.

We have a lot of thoughts about this first film, its negative reception, and how to evaluate what is really 1/3 of a single film.

Plus: Rural horror, comparisons to the Fear Street trilogy and the Cabin Fever remake, groaning at inhaler drama, debates about character stupidity, our favorite jump scares, and the perils of late night fridge repair.

Bonus Drinking Game: Trace sighs or Joe says “exciting”

Cross out The Strangers: Chapter 1!

Coming Up Next: We’re dipping into satire with a look at queer director Gus Van Sant’s To Die For (1995), starring an iconic Nicole Kidman, just in time for its 30th anniversary!

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 424 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Cry Wolf, The Long Walk, Him, The Conjuring: Last Rites and, to tie in with that last one, a brand new audio commentary on The Conjuring 2!