Usually Hollywood doesn’t miss a beat when it comes to sequels.
So when “The Strangers” hit cinemas back in 2008 and made $82.4 million from just a $9 million budget a follow-up was expected to be instantly greenlit and then released soon after.
But things didn’t quite unfold so succinctly, as the follow-up “The Strangers: Prey At Night” is now only being released into cinemas, a full 10 years after the first film.
I recently had the chance to speak to “Prey At Night’s” Johannes Roberts, who directed the script co-written by the original’s writer and director Bryan Bertino, and I asked him that very question.
“You see it happen a lot. The movie just gets caught up in other stuff. Relativity Media went bankrupt, and then years just went by and suddenly no-one has made the movie.”
“They have been trying to get it off the ground for 10 years, because the first one was really successful. I think it went through many different directors. It was a funny journey.”
Despite the gap, Roberts insisted that he was still heavily inspired by “The Strangers,” but also tried to put his own spin on the franchise.
“The first one is great, I think Bryan did an amazing job. The use of space and sound is just phenomenal. I just loved the slow burn of the building and it is all about the characters up until the knock. I think it is a really, really cool movie.”
“This one is less nihilistic than the first, and is more enjoyable because the family fight back, and it is almost operatic, what with the music and the burning cars. But it still fits into the world of the first one.”
You now judge for yourself whether that’s true as "The Strangers: Prey At Night" has just been released into cinemas.
