413: The Strangers: Chapter 2 (2025)

SPEAKER_04 0:04

When I was a young warthog. Okie season, greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hacker Splash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. It's Tamra Home. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are for a movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

A total joke, a waste of time, or a splash. Totally killer, unintended.

SPEAKER_04 0:31

We believe forwards for everyone and asked for writing these movies with a perspective we've gained from our varying walks of life and the phones of favor you fancy most. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slash enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the classic horror connoisseur, Sean.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Who's Tamara?

SPEAKER_04 0:46

This week we're checking out the second chapter of a planned trilogy intended to relaunch a franchise.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

And be sure to check out our B-side at the end of this episode where we dive into horror movies that could have been TV shows.

SPEAKER_04 0:58

Now in episode 331, we checked out the first entry of a new trilogy brought to us by director Rennie Harlan. Harlan's vision was built upon a single 280-page script that was later divided into three chapters. The entire production for all three films took place over 52 days in Slovakia, and when assembled, it's intended to become one long four and a half hour movie. Now Harlan intended for this trilogy to serve as a new era for our franchise that started in 2008, but it hasn't lived up to its predecessors quite yet. While we gave Chapter 1 two slashes and one hack, it now sits at 21% on Rotten Tomatoes. The first film set up the story of a couple, Maya and Ryan, fighting to survive a night of terror at the hands of three masked killers. This film, however, continues where we left off and finds us stranded in a small town with no escape and facing another relentless night of violence. This film currently sits at 18% on Rotten Tomatoes, but does it actually improve on the groundwork laid in chapter one? Buckle up, folks, you're about to find out, because this week we're talking about The Strangers, Chapter 2. Now, Sean, what were you expecting going into this one?

SPEAKER_02 2:09

I mean, we all know how chapter one ended. If you watch chapter one, we know how it ended, and I'm expecting this one to pretty much pick up right where chapter one left off and continue the story. That's what I would imagine is gonna happen based on how that like mid or post-credit scene ended, right?

SPEAKER_04 2:27

Yeah, I think that's a fair assessment. I okay, when we watched the first movie, it felt to me like we were doing even what Star Wars has done, what any of these requel trilogies have done, which is you spend the first movie kind of re-treading familiar ground, really welcoming in fans of the franchise or the previous IP and just trying to give the audience maybe what they want. Now I'm not saying that the Stranger Chapter One gave everybody what they want, but I expected this to be a big pivot from that. I figured, hey, whatever we've seen in the past, we have now seen here. So chapter two has to be completely fresh. And one thing that did really sink into my skin a bit, and I was actually really looking forward to it, when we got that end scene in chapter one, I was getting a little bit of Halloween two energy. And as we got more trailers for this film, as we got some reactions from the theater, I went into this thinking, man, I don't know if this is gonna be everything maybe I hoped it would be, but I think I'm gonna have fun with it just because of the Halloween two of it all.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Yeah, I mean, I'm with you. I think that one, there are a lot like going into this movie as you already opened this episode, right? There's a lot of negative reviews for this movie already. But if you remember, like I don't even think chapter one was well received either, and it currently stands not well received and not scoring much higher than this one where it stands right now, just like you said. So I don't know. I enjoyed chapter one. I think we know chapter two is going to build off of that. It's very interesting. I feel like we just don't know where it's gonna go, and I guess we'll see what happens.

SPEAKER_04 4:08

Yeah, man. I I was open to it. Again, we had this episode, it was me, you, and Binx. Binx wasn't a fan of the first one, she hacked it. But when I went into this and really sat into the theater, open to new, open to change, I found myself honestly feeling bored. This is a movie that felt like it moved way slower than it needed to. And there's so much in it that feels like it's supposed to be really suspenseful or really jarring or very creepy and unsettling, but it does that for so much of its runtime that it completely loses his effect before also throwing in a random scene, which I'm sure we'll get to in the spoiler zone, that felt like it came out of literally nowhere. I felt like, are we watching the Lion Game?

SPEAKER_02 4:55

Oh my god, for sure. I really actually can't wait to talk about that scene. If you know, you know already, right? But I gotta say, like I get it, like I get what you're saying, like with the whole movie, there's just a lot of it just going, right? And I guess it could feel maybe overused in a way, but I gotta tell you, I think that I enjoyed it. Like the pacing, there were moments where I feel like the pacing was off, but it wasn't due to that aspect of the film. It was due to a very specific other aspect of the film. And I think me watching this whole segment or this whole journey of this character or these characters going through the runtime, I was kind of entertained by it. I'll tell you what it really felt like though. It felt like everyone was in on it in this movie. Like this whole fucking town, it felt like this whole fucking town was in on it.

SPEAKER_04 5:53

Yeah, I mean, that's a little bit of the feeling that we got even from the first movie, with just looking around the diner and thinking about how Maya and Ryan were received in that moment. This is one of those small towns where everybody looks and feels suspicious. That's just the reality of it. As soon as you're an outsider in here. And looking back to chapter one, I didn't mind that very much at all because it was a little bit new, a little bit fresher for the franchise. Thinking about especially where we were with the strangers in 2008 and The Strangers Pray at Night, this is an isolated couple or family with no one else to play with besides the strangers. And in this, you're really thrown into a whole town, and it almost in some ways feels like the reboot of wrong turn that we got a couple years ago. So I was open to that, but I think my struggle is that I was surprised how ineffective it felt here. It felt like, okay, we're building up to something and we're gonna have something to say about it, but I don't feel like they did anything super meaningful with it, and that was such a big disappointment for me. I felt like I didn't have the investment in the town, and it felt like it was just trying to pull wool over my eyes, but it was like completely transparent. Like you're not kidding anybody here, you're not like giving me a compelling angle to this story, and instead we get a character who you know I really enjoy Maya as a character, but I got a little tired of her getting further and further into this movie because I'm like, okay, listen, we're really stretching out every ounce of moment she's on screen and we're doing too much.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

Yeah, I don't know. I didn't mind that. I definitely agree. I think Maya as a character really carried the film. Did we get too much of it? I don't know. Time will tell as we kind of discuss and unpack this movie. I think that the movie generally is really there's a lot going on here. I think a lot of mixed feelings. There's I actually think there are good moments of suspense and tension. I think there's moments that felt silly that made me question why it was even in the movie at all. But I think one of the things that might surprise you the most about this film, and I know it surprised me, but the move away from being primarily in a house was very interesting for this franchise, right? And you're saying open to change. And I think that's a pretty drastic change for what this universe, this franchise, what the strangers are all about, right? And so it is very interesting that move away from just being in the house. And I think that there are also, to your point, some disappointing choices that this film made for sure. For you know, from like the use of some of the special effects to I would say the overuse of story would be the most disappointing aspect of this film.

SPEAKER_03 8:38

Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 8:39

Yeah, I think that's where it really comes down to. There were definitely some questionable choices that were made for this one, so it's kind of a mixed bag for sure.

SPEAKER_04 8:48

And that mixed bag is what's so disappointing, Sean, because okay, we talk about moving away from one house. The Strangers Prey Knight did that, right? They went from a house into a community, and within that community, you had bodies that were being located in houses, you had a family being stalked and preyed upon, which is so great. And that movie, even then, wasn't as good as the original, but it really carved its own identity. It has an iconic pull scene, there's a lot happening there, and where that movie kind of fumbles a little bit is towards its ending, which made me a little concerned. I'd mentioned earlier the Halloween 2 that this movie projected. I was worried that they'd go the direction of The Stranger's Prey at Night. And if you haven't seen it, I don't want to spoil too much of that movie, but that's where I think I got a lot of a good thing, but there can be too much of a good thing. And I found myself bored of the thing that I really enjoyed about this movie the most, which again is that cat and mouse game. It's like cat and mouse, cat and mouse, cat and mouse. At this point, the mouse is dead. Why the fuck is the cat still playing with it? You know what I mean? Like, let's just move on at this point. And I'm not saying that anybody's playing with a dead body here, but it does it just it lingers so much. It lingers so much, and it in some ways for me disrupts the atmosphere, it disrupts the tension, and it reduces how frightening the strangers can be. I ah man, when we think about the original film, that shot of this sackhead scarecrow walking into the background behind Liv Tyler, you don't get that here. Because when you get people in atmosphere, you feel like you've been so exposed to it that it's completely numbing.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

Yeah, that's very, very true. I think when we think about how scary this film is, you're spot on, right? Like I do think that it did build some good tension pretty well in some specific key areas, and I think it does attempt a few jump scares here and there. But yeah, the tough part is that everything that made the original Strangers scary is pretty much lost the more this movie goes on. So it is a tough one. Like it did lose some of that momentum or some of that magic that the strangers had, and we always talk about what are some of the scarier horror movies. And the strangers always pops up because it legitimately is scary for how random and how like unknown it is in like the whole like because you were home thing. You know what I mean? So it loses a little bit of that touch.

SPEAKER_04 11:27

It does, and this really just circles right back to the same argument that I've certainly had about Halloween over the years. The first Halloween is considered iconic, and for me, it's so impactful because Michael Myers was the little boy next door who randomly killed his older sister and is now the embodiment in shape of evil. We don't know the backstory, we don't know the why. The further franchise goes on, they try to explain. There's multiple different reasons as you go on. However, when you get into Rob Zombie's reboot and this remake, he then all of a sudden paints the childhood of Michael Myers in a completely different light and creates a world in which anybody could become Michael Myers, really. With it's it's like a lighting a fuse in a powder keg room. And while there's still something there about Michael Myers innately having something in him, it was a matter of like nurture, not just nature. And that's where I think this movie tries to play, right? This movie it throws you into an environment in which you don't have it doesn't feel as random. It is random. Like we don't know initially what's going on here, but there's enough happening in these movies that remove that feeling of random. You get to know things that I wouldn't really care to know. So just like the 2007 Halloween for me destroyed a little bit of the mystique and the lore, this movie is eroding that same mystique, that same lore. And it's a choice, right? It's a principle, it's a philosophy, it's the entire uh thesis of the film, and just really uh, you know, insisting that maybe the strangers that we had were the friends we had along the way. And we don't even know who the fuck these people are yet, right? But when you thrust yourself into a small town like this and you make everybody seem suspicious, it's just okay. No one's really a stranger after all. At this point, it's like the acquaintances.

SPEAKER_02 13:18

Yeah, it's definitely interesting some of the choices that were made in this film. I think some bold choices were made. I think not all of them were the right choices. And I think instead of feeling original for the choices that it made and the differences that it made in how it's gonna tell this story and how the story's gonna unfold, it ends up feeling less original for its use of familiar tropes in horror slashers. Because what ends up happening is like you get a whole slew of just constant familiar horror tropes, which you know it's again kind of a mixed bag. There are some times where it's fun when people are making poor decisions and things like that where you just want to react and yell at the screen and have fun with that. There is some fun in that for sure. But does it make it original? No, it makes it kind of just very familiar, and that's okay sometimes, but does that hold up against the rest of the franchise? I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 14:18

Yeah, see, here's the scenario here, Sean. This is a movie that can't read the room. This is a movie that walks into a conversation, has a couple great points to make, can keep up with the first 10 minutes, and then dominates and spams the chat. Like that's what this movie is doing. It's doing too much of its one note, and it takes up any of the air that's left in the room, so everyone else is just suffocated by it. And that's my biggest struggle because listen, I'm a slasher enthusiast, I love slasher tropes unapologetically. It can be the most reductive thing, and I'm still usually a fan of it. I usually have a really good time. But this movie managed to take a lot of a thing that I love and still overdo it, which I mean, really, Sean. I'm gonna I'm gonna really I should have said this is my biggest surprise of this movie. My biggest surprise was that I and said I and the movie ended. I'm like, what the fuck do you mean there's a part three? Sean, we've always known there's a part three. We've always known it's a planned trilogy, and yet here I was so ready for it to be over that when this movie ended, I was like, fuck, what do you mean?

SPEAKER_02 15:28

Yeah, it is gonna be interesting, the part three of it all. But look, I'm not necessarily it's a I'm not necessarily mad at the way that the movie ended with Maya as a character, I guess. I I'm not I'm just not all that thrilled. Much like most of the fans, I'm sure, with the way they ended with this reveal of some backstory or some origin story for some of these characters, didn't like that really at all. I think the little mid-credit scene was interesting for sure. Like we know, like you said, we knew there was a chapter three coming, but when we got there, we were like, holy shit, they're actually making a chapter three. But at the same time, and I know we can talk about it more in the second half, but I don't know how I feel about it. Again, I think it could be interesting. I think this could be like the movie that really divides the fans, and I think that the third one could potentially bring some people back together. I don't know. It's very interesting because I was getting some like Last House on the Left vibes for sure.

SPEAKER_04 16:33

If we get even 10% of Last House on the Left, it'll be a better movie for it. I remain open to the idea of what chapter three can do. I'm not convinced, nor am I super sold based on what we get in the mid-credit scene that we get at the end of this movie. I saw some of those moments. I'm like, oh no, what do you mean that's what happens? It's just it's a lot. It's a lot, John. And that's where man, I usually feel like I can find so much good in something, and I do have plenty to compliment in this movie. We'll get there in the spoiler zone for sure. But I feel like this was just such an experience where I just I wasn't mad, I was just disappointed. And that's such a fucking bad way to feel in a franchise that I love. Now, I can't wait though to see where you land on your rating. I have a feeling we're gonna be split, but we'll see. Before we actually score this film, Sean, how would you describe the gore score?

SPEAKER_02 17:31

Yeah, the gore level in this movie is, I think, fairly tame. There are kills and there is blood, but it's not excessive. And when it comes to the stabbings and the attacks, they're shot with uh they're shot with these quick edits, these quick cuts rather than lingering close-ups. And so this movie leans more into the chaos and the psychological aspect rather than the gore. So the gore level is fairly tame. It's a fairly tame medium. It's enough to remind you that it's a slasher, but it's not the kind of movie that makes you cringe too much from graphic effects.

SPEAKER_04 18:07

And what about the animal report?

SPEAKER_02 18:09

Oh, it's hogwash.

SPEAKER_04 18:10

Oh fuck, I can't wait to talk about this. Let's go ahead and get into our ratings then. The Strangers Chapter 2, 2025, baby. Let's go. Was it a hack or was it a slash, Sean?

SPEAKER_02 18:22

Well, if I'm going first, listen, I think The Strangers Chapter 2 takes the relentless cat and mouse tension, like you said earlier, from the earlier entries, and I think it pushes it into this near constant pursuit, right? That's what we're really talking about. It is literally a near-constant pursuit, this whole movie. I think this movie thrives in trapping you in the chase. I think it's trying to keep you locked in step by step with Maya as she fights to really uh outrun her tormentors, right? That's really what we're getting here. And I think it's really Madeleine as Maya that makes this movie delivering a gripping performance that doesn't just make you root for her survival. I think it also makes you feel the weight of her psychological trauma. And I think that, you know, when you really think about it, it's not just like this Scream Queen run, right? Like it's not like just that. It's not like one of those games where you're just running through a fucking whole thing. Like, what is it, like Crash Bandicoot or whatever, you're just running through a level. I think it's a descent into what happens when terror refuses to really let go. And the unfortunate part is that the film does stumble by over-explaining what was better left a mystery. And I'm sure almost everyone would argue that the backstory really slows down the momentum, causing the pacing to really drag the movie in some spots. And don't even get me started on the CGI in this movie because that shit cheapens some of the fear instead of amplifying it. Let's just be real. And so this one is really kind of a mixed bag, and that's kind of the theme right here. I see both sides of the fence. I see where both arguments are coming from. And, you know, even for all its flaws, here's the thing. I think this still, this movie still delivers an entertaining and sometimes unnerving ride that I think is still worth the trip, right? Like I think it, you know, it may be a stranger from the strangers when you pull off the masks, right? But uh, I just think there's something about it that still kept me entertained. It may not put the slash in slasher, but I did still have a decent time watching it for what it was. And for that, I think I'm gonna give it a soft slash.

SPEAKER_04 20:43

Sorry, I'm really just soaking this in. I'm really absorbing everything that you had to say. Sean, do you watch Family Guy?

SPEAKER_02 20:52

I have.

SPEAKER_04 20:52

You have, yeah. I used to be obsessed with Family Guy. First three seasons, three to four seasons, I feel like I could quote every single episode. There is a episode, or a clip from an episode, rather, that has been rather famous or viral, etc., because Peter Griffin is just like dragging the godfather. And he talks about the movie in in a pretty negative light, but he says it insists upon itself. And people often wonder what the fuck does that even mean. I also wondered what the fuck does that even mean. And so lo and behold, the strangest chapter two walked into my life. This movie insists upon itself. And I want to really zero in on what you talked about with Natalie not being able to really, as Maya, outrun anyone. That is such a beautiful reality of slashers, and actually why I tend to love them so much. The biggest thing for slashers is that when you have these final girl chases, you always wonder how the hell can you run where this person's always walking? And sure, we had some killers who Haul ass and thinking about ghost face tripping over himself and like he's in a fucking Scooby-Doo cartoon. Well, we'll take it back to Halloween, etc. You can't outrun the inevitability of death. You can't escape it because no matter how fast you run or where you go, it's always gonna follow you. That is an excellent premise. It has stood the test of time. We see it time and time again in horror movies, and people may be a little over it in some ways, but I think it's still really successful. This movie plays with that and it lingers in it. And for some moments it's really strong, but then it just stays too long. It insists upon itself. It outstays its welcome. It fails to read the room and really tighten up a package here. Somewhere in this movie, Sean, I am confident there is a good movie. But the problem is there's too much of it. And this movie outstayed its welcome. And anything that I think it it could have said with a lot of impact, it honestly fumbled by just ruining its pacing. So for me, it is a complete unrelenting, unapologetic hack. And with that, The Strangers Chapter 2 from 2025 has earned one hack and one slash. Now you can find this movie both in theaters at this moment if you're listening to this as its release date. Or you can also spend $25 to rent it on YouTube. Listen, you do you, you do what you want. Either way, stick around, join us in the spoiler zone so we can really dig into the why behind our ratings. See you in a bit.

SPEAKER_00 23:45

Well, every squeal is a lesson, and every lesson ends in terror. At Hogwarts, we don't just raise hogs, we educate them. Forget rolling in the mud, or swines specialize in sniffing out unsuspecting final girls. What majors like slash studies, ergonomics of fear, CGI illusions and digital hogwarts, and mud masking and camouflage? Your hog will graduate into a bona fide killer. Just like in the Strangers Chapter 2, where the hog left us wondering why, we at Hogwarts say, Why not? Why not give wild hogs the training they need to turn suspense into carnage? Why not arm them with the stealth of a masked intruder and the appetite of a midnight snacker? So whether your piglet dreams of lurking in shadows, mastering the art of awkward pasting, or even dabbling in unnecessary CGI illusions, Hogwarts has a program for them. Hogwarts School of Huntscraft and Piggery, where, when a stranger calls, a hog enters.

SPEAKER_04 25:12

Welcome back, folks. You're now entering the spoiler zone for the Strangers Chapter 2, which has earned one hack and one slash somehow. And we have a lot to unpack here, but before we get into the specifics of our ratings, let's go through those kills.

SPEAKER_02 25:25

Well, for all the pacing issues and the lack of genuine scares, this one still somehow manages to dish out 12 kills. 27, if you want to count the 15 mentioned deaths that took place prior to the events of this film. But it was really feeling like the fellowship on the strangers in this one because we literally got with my axe and my crossbow and my knife. But literally, all jokes aside, I gotta ask Chris which one of these kills had you knock, knock, knocking on Tamara's door.

SPEAKER_04 26:05

Bro, they were definitely taking Maya Mordor. Holy shit.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

That's what it felt like.

SPEAKER_04 26:11

What an incredible comparison. And the movie felt just as long, if not longer, than Lord of the Rings. At least Lord of the Rings I fucking really liked.

SPEAKER_02 26:20

Wow. Not that crazy. That's crazy. It did feel like a long journey, though.

SPEAKER_04 26:24

It was an eternity. It was an eternity in our hearts. Okay. Here's the thing. I don't know that I loved any of the kills. Right? I want to highlight a few that I was disappointed by. Not in like in a negative poo-pooing kind of way in the terms of them being like really poorly executed, but more so like I didn't want them to go. And I understand that in this movie they're trying to raise the stakes. You gotta compensate for a long fucking runtime emotionally with a higher body count. It's okay. I think the one that I will shout out is the deeply unfortunate, so sorry for you, kiddo, working in the morgue, who gets an axe to the chest. You just walked in wrong place, wrong time. Sorry, my guy.

SPEAKER_02 27:08

He literally just walked in at the exact wrong time. Literally. You couldn't have worse timing.

SPEAKER_04 27:17

But this is what I'm so bad. Like, imagine going to work, working in a morgue. I don't even know. I think he was just a member of the staff. You know what I mean? Like, I would like to think that maybe he was something to do specifically in the medical field, but he was carrying some like cleaning supplies. I'm like, could you imagine if you're there just as like a as a custodian, or maybe you are an intern, or you know what I mean, and you're some kind of like apprenticeship, whatever. You're in this shitty situation, you're working at imagine this guy, this might be the end of this guy's day.

SPEAKER_02 27:51

Yeah, it's unfortunate for sure. It's almost as unfortunate as the I mean, uh the kill just had so much opportunity, and I think most of these kills have so much opportunity. And when you said none of these kills really welled you, it's so true because you know he got axed in the chest, right? But literally it should have just been in the head or something, right? Like I thought would because you don't ever see it full on, right? You you see the axe get thrown down, you see the blood a little bit, and then you see the aftermath as the body's being dragged. But I I for sure thought he got axed in the head. It makes the most sense that he got axed in the head. This dude really likes to ax people in the chest or in the stomach. I don't know. That's like his go-to thing. It's very strange, but yeah, it's a tough one. Like all these kills, when you really think about it, they're either too quick, they don't show you enough, or they could have just been a little bit better.

SPEAKER_04 28:49

100%. And even just thinking about the ranch lady who catches Maya and then is about to spill tea on the sheriff before she's killed with a crossbow at this point. There's just so much of that where it's like, okay, we walk right up to the moment, and based on the words that are coming out of her mouth, you know she's not going to finish that sentence. So again, it erodes the mystique of the movie, it removes any shock value from the movie. It's shocking how poor the timing is in this movie. And I think if a lot of these things were just rearranged, recut, adjusted slightly, I think there could be a lot more impact. You know, we get towards the end of the movie, we have Danica and Chris and the other roommate found dead in the house. But that could have been a much deeper scene. That could have been a lot more, there could have been a lot more to be explained there.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

Yeah. I mean, when we think of what works in Slashers, right? The formula, if we're sticking to familiar formulas, right? It what really works in slashers is you kind of get like a run where the antagonist is coming through the house and taking all these people out. And they you may not linger in these scenes for very long, but you're at least getting the kills. And then you revisit them as you know, Maya is coming through the house, realizing that she's being attacked inside the house. And as she's running through the house, she's running into these dead bodies that just look like they got completely mutilated, could have been way better, could have been executed way better. We're thinking like Halloween does this shit.

SPEAKER_04 30:27

Oh my gosh, I was literally about to say this. In both Halloween 1978 and both Halloween 2 1981, you get the kills, and then you see that they end up being staged. Now, obviously, the strangers are on stage and shit. They're just letting them lay. However, we could have cut so much other stuff from this movie and gotten a little bit more of the kills.

SPEAKER_02 30:48

We could have gotten you could literally could have cut all of the backstory and just lingered in the kills, and it would have probably still been stronger for sure. Listen, everyone wants to know why they keep saying, Is Tamara there? You know, we do get to know that, but let's talk about little Tamara's death because you know we can maybe talk about it in scenes too, but just the death alone, pretty brutal for however old they were. I don't know. What were they like? What are we thinking? Ten, younger, a little older, give or take?

SPEAKER_04 31:20

Yeah, that's absolutely absolutely wild.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

To get beaten to death with a rock?

SPEAKER_04 31:27

I mean, hey, we throw it back again to little Mikey Myers fucking people up in his school, right? Even then, those kids were much older than this. Yeah, these were small, small children. Small schoolgirls and one schoolboy. And listen, I'm I'm curious to see with casting who they try to reveal Scarecrow to be. There's a lot of red herrings around, etc.

SPEAKER_02 31:50

But you don't think it's the you don't think it's the the happy face neck tattoo dude?

SPEAKER_04 31:56

Okay. Here's the thing. Maybe this might be me being a fucking clown. Okay? I'm fully about to share that. I could be completely fucking wrong. If this movie doubles down and actually makes him the killer after trying to just make him a red herring, it will be hands down the worst trilogy I've ever seen in my life. At this point, gotta commit to him fucking living at the end or something. I don't know. If they really fucking circle down to that, ugh, ugh.

SPEAKER_02 32:29

I don't know who it's gonna be. I just have this strange feeling that it could be him. Not to say that it will be. I think they also really tried to like, I guess in one moment it kind of debunked it, but like it they it felt like they really tried to push it on the sheriff. But the sheriff, if even if you just look at the hands and the size of the scarecrow mask dude, it's not him. It's not possible for it to be him.

SPEAKER_04 32:52

He's just complicit. That's what it is, Sean. He's just complicit in the entire thing. He's gonna allow the city.

SPEAKER_02 32:57

This whole town's fucking weird. The whole town's weird. But even with, and we're gonna I think we'll break it down a little bit more, but even with Tamara's death, like just the logistics behind that. I have so many questions. I have so many questions. I don't understand how this could be the start of everything and how it led to this, and how this town has let this happen.

SPEAKER_04 33:21

You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. If how these children were anything less than completely separated and fucking put away, I have no idea. Also, we didn't need to see a mouse die. That's it. I mean, we we heard it die, unfortunately. I could have done without that. That poor little mouse, you know.

SPEAKER_02 33:39

At least the horses didn't go.

SPEAKER_04 33:42

Literally, I thought at this point, what fucking animal are we gonna see that doesn't die? This is crazy. I'm glad the horses made it. And that was actually a concern from both places that we see these things. But man, that whole scene, that backstory, at first it's giving, okay, is this gonna be a thruple situation? Is it like this weird fucking situation in which these two girls grow up with this guy, they're both fighting for his attention. It's like a really twisted, archie betty Veronica situation, especially with Madeline Petch being from Riverdale. But we get further into this and she kills Tamara, and I'm like, I don't think I ever gave a single fuck if Tamara home was was home or not. I didn't need to know who Tamara was, I didn't need to know why Tamara was. You could have probably saved that, like made a better second movie, save that reveal for the third movie, and maybe it would have hit better. But in a movie where I'm already fucking bored out of my mind, guys, just stop.

SPEAKER_02 34:41

Yeah, it's a tough one for sure. I think that aspect of it truly probably ruined it for a lot of fans. And we'll dive into that a little bit more for sure. But man, for everything that this movie did, I think one of the better elements about this film was probably the cinematography. I think that we get some pretty cool shots, especially where like when we're in the woods, you know what I mean? So, like really capturing the atmosphere in this movie, I think those were some really well done cinematic shots.

SPEAKER_04 35:20

100%. This movie is beautiful to look at. I don't think there's a single moment I disliked visually besides the hog. And I actually want to circle back to the hog for just a minute because holy shit, when I watched this movie, Allie broke right next to me when I was a young morth hog, and it just fucking killed me. It's like you lost me at Pumba, bro. You lost me at Pumba. Any chance I wanted to give this movie, it was too much, too much to see this thing come out. You think it's gonna be some fucking Rottweiler or some other kind of animal. But when we get to this point, it was so fucking poorly acting. Okay, actually, I'm gonna circle back to that later in this review, but oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 36:02

Well, it can't be anybody's favorite scene, so it can't be either of us' favorite scene because it was so bad. So you might as well just let it go right now.

SPEAKER_04 36:09

Yeah, I mean, I don't know. Maybe it is my favorite scene. Who knows? No, I'm kidding. I no, okay, listen, listen. Here's the thing. Visually, I agree with you, Sean. This movie is stunning. A hundred percent it is stunning. The warthog, the hog, it's a boar, etc. It's some variation of this animal. I'm not a huge fan of it. But where this kills me, Sean, is we get so often in movies where a final girl goes from being the prey to being the predator. She goes through some kind of crucible and then she is now the one hunting down her opponent. Bro, you did that against an animal. And I'm not like disparaging or taking away from that. But for this to be the radical shift for her that like really puts her back in the driver's seat, I'm just like, uh, okay. This was not impressive. There are other girls who did more with less than this situation. And I also just think it's hilarious. And I'm thinking about like just the production of this scene, Sean. Could you imagine her just acting this out on her own because there's no fucking hog there? Imagine what that looked like. We always get those scenes, those behind-the-scenes photos of Kristen Stewart petting the guy in the gray mocap suit because there was no big fucking furry werewolf Jacob there. Hilarious.

SPEAKER_02 37:26

I think about this exact topic a lot when I watch any movie that I know is like all digital. You know what I mean? Like, how does somebody act when there's nothing there? Like, you have to like in in some aspects, you have to give them some kind of like kudos for even attempting to do something like that, but it's gotta be hilarious to watch. And yes, like the hog thing was outrageous. It was literally dumb, like it did not need to be in the movie. I don't actually think like it was the moment that really defined Mai as like I'm gonna be like turning this ship around, because I think after that, you're still seeing a lot of vulnerability from her as a character. I think there are some moments where you know she gets past that, and there are still some moments where I feel like she's you know, she's still struggling like mentally, right, with everything and not knowing who to trust and everything. So I think it'll be interesting to see like what they do as this third chapter kind of carries on the final part of the story, potentially, right? But yeah, the hog scene was so silly. I didn't know what was gonna happen. I had this strange feeling that it was gonna be a hog only because wild hogs are pretty vicious, you know what I mean? So I guess like you know, I guess it could have been they're out in the woods. Like, why would they have a dog sitting in a random cabin, like not even a cabin, like a random broken down shed.

SPEAKER_04 38:53

But why would you also have a hog in a broken down shed in the middle of the woods? Sean, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_02 38:58

Who knows? Who knows? They tried to fix it with their little backstory of playing with the hogs as kids, you know?

SPEAKER_04 39:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:04

And he's like, I'm gonna make these hogs do all kinds of things, or whatever the fuck he said. So stupid. The hog was dumb. It was literally hogwash. They literally need to do a you know a new cut of this movie and try to figure out what to do with that section. Like we were it's literally the uh Leonardo DiCaprio moment with the bear, you know? That's what it is. Jesus Christ. Yeah, okay. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 39:30

Okay, here's the thing though. This scene serves only to get her more fucked up and weak.

SPEAKER_02 39:37

Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 39:38

That's the only fucking thing. Okay, this is like Mark Hamill getting into a car accident. So in Empire Strikes Back, he has to get fucked up at the beginning of the movie to explain the scarring on his face. That's what this fucking scene is. And not that she in real life has that scarring, but you get through the movie and you realize that she's just keeping pace, she's like outrunning people continuously. Okay, you're doing that, you're not gonna have a lot of wounds, and you're a little less vulnerable. But this movie, this scene only serves to damage her, which is I don't know, man. It it just feels so poorly executed again. And I know I keep saying that I do have nice things to say about this. I want to circle back because we're talking about the cinematography of it. Honestly, even the hog scene, the way it's shot, does look pretty fucking good. It's just the hog that didn't look good. And the hilarity and the absurdity of the scene and this animal coming out of fucking nowhere, it kills the impact. But the way they block shots specifically and the way that they compose them. Oh my gosh. I'm thinking about even some of those wide establishing shots that we get of expansive land after we already know and sense that the strangers are still watching her, and then we get the confirmation moments later where you see them appearing in the background. This movie looks really good, and that's why I'm still so confident, and I'll be curious to see what happens in chapter three. But we could absolutely cut these down to a way better movie. Like the cinematography, the production team behind this deserves so much better than this rendition of the movie.

SPEAKER_02 41:11

It would be interesting. I wonder if you get like this like uh director's cut and make all three of them into one like long three-hour movie or something, and just like really condense them all down, get like the first segment, the second segment leading up to the finale. Could be interesting.

SPEAKER_04 41:27

Yeah. But listen, one thing that I actually really did enjoy until I didn't enjoy some moments of it because it was just too long, was the opening scene with the hospital. Not the opening scene where we get Shelly's face, where we get where we get Tin Up Girls' face asking if Tamara's home because we see a different kill that happened. I didn't need to open up the movie with that kind of lore drop. I didn't need that. We didn't need to know that that happened in 2021. I'm sure it'll come back to be relevant later on. But when we get Maya in the hospital and then all of a sudden shit goes down, and we get her in this like Laurie Strode-esque wandering around the halls trying to hide, trying to evade. There are so many moments in this that I really love. Again, some moments where it felt very it wasn't moving as fast as it should have. And again, it insisted upon itself and outstayed its welcome when we got a little bit too much of the I as the killer am going to open these things up one by one by one until I find her. That was a little much. But I'm thinking specifically there are moments where we get like red lights and she is just channeling this Lori Strode. She has the bandage on her left hand and she looks the part. You know what I mean? Like this, not necessarily a damsel in distress, but a vulnerable woman who has survived one hell of a fucking night. But oh my gosh, in this place where I am supposed to be healing, there is still danger. That was so good. At least much of it was really, really good.

SPEAKER_02 43:02

Yeah. I kind of wondered if this was gonna be your favorite scene. I think it is the strongest scene in the movie for sure. There are moments throughout the film that I really enjoyed, but it was really just because of some of the expressions and the reactions and things that we were getting from Maya as a character. But yes, I think the entirety of the opening hospital scene is probably one of the better scenes. Like the parts that we're talking about, the way the camera follows her, almost forcing you to want to peep around the corners as she you're like tilting your head with her, trying to see what's over there, right? The flashing red lights after they cut the power. She's hiding from them. It's a really good, like intro. It's like a it's a really good intro to a slasher, we'll say, right?

SPEAKER_04 43:51

Oh my gosh, Sean, I'm even thinking about the moment where he rounds the corner at the end of that long hallway, and then he starts running for her. I'm like, that's That moment is effective. That is the kind of shit that I want to see. But then again, they jump right back into a situation where eh, Chico's hiding in something and he goes opening something one by one. It's just like, okay, we're slowing this down again. It's a little bit much.

SPEAKER_02 44:16

Yeah, it did slow it down a little bit. I get it. The whole cat and mouse game as they're playing it, like trying to build the suspense and whatnot. I did think like the fact that Maya had to hide in the frickin' locker with her dead fiance was pretty intense. Like just to think about anyone having to do that at all. I guess it's better than going in there with some random body. But that I think was interesting and it was kind of like a yeah, it was a tough moment, I feel like. I think it was a really interesting moment for the dynamic of her character and like what you are shown that people are forced to do if you want to try to survive, you know?

SPEAKER_04 44:57

Yeah, I think that was an interesting move. I was so relieved that he wasn't one of the dead bodies under the sheets, and I was relieved that she didn't hide under a sheet.

SPEAKER_02 45:05

Yeah, I thought for a second she might be under the sheet, which would have been terrible because that's stupid. Or, you know, maybe she's like under the one of those things. I realize I don't think you can go under one of those things, so who knows? But yeah, I thought she was gonna get into one of those either with some random body. I didn't even, for some reason, I didn't think like I knew when she went in there that he would probably be in there, but I wasn't thinking she would go lay in there with them. I thought she might get into an empty one, you know, or something.

SPEAKER_04 45:32

Listen, if you're gonna climb into a fucking refrigerator with a naked dead body, it may as well be a naked dead body that you already know.

SPEAKER_02 45:41

Well, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, I guess it makes the most sense if you're gonna do it, you might as well do it with someone you know or you knew, right? Because it's a little bit easier.

SPEAKER_04 45:50

Unless she was completely surprised and just thought, I'll hop into this one and then realizes it's him.

SPEAKER_02 45:55

Yeah, that would be super unfortunate, super, super unfortunate. But listen, like there's some really good moments, I think, throughout the film that I think all involve kind of Maya and her journey, right? I think there's the whole car scene in the rain where she gets picked up, right? And it's like you really get to see like who do you trust. And it's a really a moment for the audience of like, you're still kind of playing off, like who in this town is in on it. It feels like everyone's kind of in the know. They're making you feel like everything's a little bit shady, and this town is a little bit shady. These people know what the fuck is going on here, they know what's happening, and so it's kind of fucking weird. But her kind of like going through these emotional waves of like, thank God, like let me get in here, let's go, and then realizing that wait, this is sounding a little suspicious, let me get out of here. Then she fucking like centers herself and she's going, then all of a sudden these dudes are getting in the car and she's seeing all this stuff go down and she makes her bolt out of there. I think those are some pivotal moments for her character.

SPEAKER_04 47:04

Yeah, here's my place of judgment. If you're gonna survive a horror movie, trust the lesbians, they'll take care of you. Granted, they got got every single lesbian in this movie got got. I'm presuming that there are three of them at least. But when you get picked up, I would find great comfort, you know, I'd find comfort in my people. And I I trust a nurse and a military veteran who are lesbians to really save the day.

SPEAKER_02 47:31

Okay, I hear you. I hear you. The counter-argument to getting picked up in a horror movie, though, is that at least half the time or more that you get picked up after escaping in the middle of nowhere on the road is you know, more often than not, the people that picked you up are in the know and they're in on it, and somehow you're getting looped right back into the bullshit. So can you blame her?

SPEAKER_04 47:57

Yeah, listen, you're not wrong, but also fuck this movie was too long. And at this point, she jumps out of a fucking moving car and it's just ah, it's just so much. It's just so much. It's more like I wanted us to fucking stay in the vehicle and use that vehicle as a literal vehicle to the rest of the plot to fucking deliver us somewhere more promising than her being fucking stranded again on her own, suturing herself in the middle of the woods, fucking crying and screaming. I just needed that whole section to be cut out. If you fucking stay in the car, maybe we have more fucking time for the kills later.

SPEAKER_02 48:31

Yeah, it's uh it's a tough one. There was a lot of questionable decisions happening here. You know, even the stuff that led up to you know the wild hog of it all, it's a tough one. Like, I I think even Ari and I were debating this coming out of the movie of like me saying that she just did some dumb shit. Like, why did she start a fire knowing that people are after her? Like you're sending smoke signals, but Ari's like, well, she has to survive. She's like maybe getting pneumonia, she's like shivering. Is she? You know, so you kind of so she maybe she needed to survive, and I'm like, maybe, but also shit, that just doesn't sound like a good time.

SPEAKER_04 49:09

Also, maybe you should have stayed in the fucking car, bitch. No, sorry. Maybe you should have stayed in the car.

SPEAKER_02 49:15

It's a tough one. It's a tough one. You just never know what's gonna happen. Think about being in that position. You know what I mean? Think about being in the position of everyone just see you like who do you trust? You've been through so much shit. Like you're in this every safe place that you end up, somehow, it goes to shit.

SPEAKER_04 49:31

I at least trust the fucking nurse who was paid to nurse me back to health. You know what? Odds are I'm gonna fucking take that bet.

SPEAKER_02 49:38

Do we trust the healthcare system?

SPEAKER_04 49:39

We don't trust the healthcare system, but I can trust some of the people in the healthcare system.

SPEAKER_02 49:43

That could be, that could be, but it all comes down to like thinking of characters in this movie. Is there maybe the issue with this movie? And I think they maybe tried to build the characters of who the strangers are and their backstory, and I think they maybe they were banking on the fact that we would really care about that. And but the problem is, is I don't think there's anyone else that you really want to talk about or care about other than Maya in this movie, and that's what the honest truth is the fact that no one cares about who the strangers are. And the truth is no one ever cared about who the strangers are. There may be a small percentage of people that are like, I want to know who these people are, but and even if you did now, do you want to know? Did you do you really want to know now?

SPEAKER_04 50:35

Yeah, there's something to be said about why we are so fascinated by strangers committing crimes in movies. Because it's such a at such a level of this random selection. It is simply from the original film because you were home. That's it. Any small, seemingly minuscule or relevant choice or decision you made could have put you on a path with your demise. And that's why I think we wrap our heads around that. Or is it the alternative, Sean? Is it the fact that so much crime is actually committed by people that you know and love? And we think about homicides, etc. We think about people who are killed by someone else, and how often is it that it's someone within like their household or a domestic partner? So is it so much of a fascination with a random, or is it more so that we don't want to like look inward and acknowledge the real dangers of the people beside us? Maybe, but either fucking way, this movie does a poor job exploring that.

SPEAKER_02 51:33

Yeah, I just think the choice to make this a love story for the antagonists was very, very bad. It makes you like you don't care for them as a couple. Is there any empathy that was felt at all? Like, no, there was no point to it. I'm like trying to figure out what the point of it all is, and I feel like there just wasn't any good point to it. So that's one of the most dis disappointing aspects of the film. If you're gonna reveal who they are, wait till chapter three and make it less weird. Like, I don't want to know about a childhood love triangle that went bad. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 52:15

Completely, completely. This was the wrong moment to do this, this was the wrong time, the wrong place. And it was also, I think, the wrong backstory to use or wield in this exact moment. There's a lot happening in this movie where they're telling things out of order, and of course it's intentional, and you had to kind of have to sit back and look at the stranger's chapter three and see how this really comes together. Although, Sean, I feel like this whole effort has been so misguided that I don't know if we're really ever going to get chapter three. Look at this, right? We had Exorcist Believer, we're supposed to have Exorcist Deceiver, and that got put on ice because of how poorly Exodus Believer did. And that was a way better movie than this one.

SPEAKER_02 52:56

Listen, if you're going to commit to a trilogy, you just have to commit to the trilogy. Give us the third and final installment and just follow through. That's the most important thing. You can't say you're gonna release three and release two and then quit and give up. At least give us a third one. Give yourself a chance to redeem yourself a little bit, right? And I think that you never know what could happen. You honestly never know.

SPEAKER_04 53:23

You really don't, and I think at the very least, fucking put this thing on Netflix, go straight to there. Listen, we had such a great time with Madeline as Cheryl in Riverdale. We can absolutely just live that. We can really channel that. I'm okay with it. In terms of the rest of the characters in this movie, it's interesting to me. Obviously, this movie was all filmed at once, so we have some of the characters in this movie already present. We already saw them in the background or existing within chapter one, but I still don't feel super compelled by any of them. That lore in particular, all I'm waiting to see is that Scarecrow is the sheriff's son. That's the thing that I think is really gonna end up fucking happening here, and that's why he's so complicit in everything.

SPEAKER_02 54:10

It's always the sheriff's son.

SPEAKER_04 54:11

Yeah, I mean, listen, we did watch Candy Corn.

SPEAKER_02 54:14

Yeah, we did. It you know what? That's probably what it's gonna end up being. It's gonna end up being like these happy face tattoos. This is all gonna end up being like the whole town is in on it, and they all are just taking part in this bullshit. I guarantee you, some weird shit, like there's a mass amount of people that are involved.

SPEAKER_04 54:34

Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's gonna be that. And anyone that they've killed along the way are the only townsfolks who were not complicit, or maybe move there a little bit after this whole thing happened and we're living peacefully, etc. That's I'm sure what it's gonna end up being. But I know I've dragged this movie a lot. I think the best part of this movie, quite frankly, is the potential that it had. I think as again, somewhere in this movie, there is a good movie. We have a strong actress in the lead role as this final girl. I just wish she was given something different to do or given less to do of what she was executing in this. I wish we got less of that. I think there's also a lot of potential here in terms of the strong way that we start with Halloween 2 energy. I think even the scene that we get in the ambulance or the EMT that private ambulance, that was giving me Halloween 4 energy with Michael escaping the night before Halloween. There's a lot of stuff in here that could be really, really good. It just needs to be tightened up a bit.

SPEAKER_02 55:34

Yeah, for sure. I mean, you literally could take the hospital scene, maybe throw the EMT shit in there, and then get to the house and cut out all of the woods, even though I love the cinematic shots of the woods. I think you can probably take all of that out and put the movie back to and put the movie back together. And I think that it would have been probably one, 30 minutes less, 20 minutes less, and still really, really good, and they could have focused on the kills.

SPEAKER_04 56:05

Yeah, okay, hear me out. This is like a loose cut base on this. We have hospital scene, exit, ranch lesbian gets killed, she wanders off in the middle of the night. We see her later in the woods. Perhaps she has the medical kit already and she's suturing herself, etc., because maybe she got that at the ranch lady, or maybe she got it from the hospital, etc., whatever, suspension of disbelief. Then we get picked up on the side of the road, we cut to something else like flashback-ish, or whatever the fuck we want to do with the strangers. We just need that as a cutaway. Then we jump back into the house, like you said, and we pick shit up from there. Sean, I think that is a great idea on your part. And I think, fuck it, let's get a copy of this movie just to try it.

SPEAKER_02 56:45

We'll definitely make it happen for sure. And listen, I still had a good time with it, but I do think that we can all agree that one of the worst parts of this film was the decision to tell you way too much about the backstory of the strangers. It didn't need to be again a childhood love story, it just negates everything about the first original film that we all know and love. So, from that aspect, it's gotta be the absolute worst part of this movie.

SPEAKER_04 57:13

Yeah, I'm really hating the idea that this is something where it's spur it's spurn from a little girl's envy and jealousy, and it's making it seem as though this little girl corrupted this wholesome boy. I don't like that angle one bit. I'm not a fan of that. And I do not want to re-watch this movie, Sean. I enjoyed chapter one, and I still wasn't gonna really revisit it before this because I felt like we got a lot in there, and I feel like it was pretty clear-cut. The only capacity in which I would consider re-watching this is in doing what we just said, it's in cutting it up and segmenting it out to try to make one continuous version of this movie.

SPEAKER_02 57:58

Well, I would still have a good time doing that, and I'm open for it for sure. I probably will watch this again when we get all three chapters, and I'll just do one, two, and three. I'm being honest. I will do it because they do, you know, they were they're seemingly shot all in one time. It's back to back to back on the story, presumably. So I think it's one of those trilogies where you can definitely just like put it on and have a marathon of it.

SPEAKER_04 58:24

You could, but it's gonna be four and a half hours, Sean, and I think that's too long to spend with Pumba in the middle of the woods. But for now, there you have it, folks. The Strangers Chapter 2 in 2025 has earned one hack and one slash. So far. We've certainly had a robust discussion here, but the conversation about how bad this movie is doesn't end here by any means.

SPEAKER_02 58:45

If you want to find out who's knocking on the other side of that door, consider supporting the show by visiting patreon.com slash hackerslash. This is where you can honestly enjoy even more of the show, including the bonus content that we've put out with early access, extended episodes with our B-sides, which of course are free sides for the spooky season, movie nominations, and live shows.

SPEAKER_03 59:07

We'll see you next time, folks. And remember, this shit's been going on for years.

SPEAKER_01 59:11

Let's get you back to bed.

SPEAKER_04 59:23

Alright, Sean, the real question here is do we need to continue having trilogies? Let's just point this out, right? We had Halloween. I'm never gonna fucking turn down a tralloween trilogy, let's be clear. But even that had a little bit of a rocky ending after a really successful first film. Then we have The Scream new trilogy. However, it also was cursed and plagued with the second and third entry. And that was more so for behind the scenes controversy. The only trilogy that comes to mind recently, especially a horror trilogy, are uh terrifier. But that wasn't initially planned as a trilogy. So that's okay. We are gonna get Terrifier 4 eventually, so I think that disqualifies it. But Fear Street, Fear Street was planned, intentional, and released week by week. I think that's the fucking move they should have made.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:18

Yeah, I Fear Street is definitely probably arguably the most successful one. I mean, would we call the new Evil Deads a trilogy?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:27

I don't know that they're fully structured and planned to be a trilogy. So I mean, like, sure they could be eventually, but they weren't the same premise of like the same filmmaking team and production team owning it from start to finish. You know what I mean? Evil Dead from 2013 and Evil Dead Rise have two completely different directors.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:44

I guess that's true, but they do kind of intertwine in the story.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:49

They do build upon each other, which is good, which is great. But we're also not at a third movie yet.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:55

We're not there yet, but we know it's coming. But we know it's coming. So I don't know. I'm just thinking if it does become a trilogy because I think that it would be a successful one, we definitely aren't just like the I think the problem with some of these trilogies is it almost feels like a cash grab, right? Like that's one of the bigger aspects that I think maybe horror fans don't like. We don't want to see you just pumping these movies out just because you think you can get money, right? And so if you do something like potentially maybe what Evil Dead has been trying to do, it potentially, and that is put out three, and maybe they'll continue, and then maybe it will also not be a trilogy just like Terrifier, but put out some really solid films that do tie into each other, but don't ruin the entire franchise.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:45

Exactly. And that's the thing about Evil Dead. It comes out in 2013. We don't get the lot the most recent one until very recently. So there's a huge gap there. It's not this again, the sequential trilogy that we're talking about. It's I think a really different case study on how to reboot a franchise, bring it back to life, but also do it the right way. Whereas Halloween, I think, was off to a stronger start. But then with COVID-19 and everything that was happening, throwing off production and them having to get creative on how they kind of come around that with Halloween ends. I think that posed some hurdles to a vision that was perhaps already kind of flawed. Let's be real. Scream 7 again, the new Scream trilogy again has those behind the scenes situations happening that I think is like really throwing in a lot of turmoil. But I don't know, man. I think it's outside of that Fear Street one, I don't and again, Evil Dead is is great. I think I'm just like classifying it differently in my mind. I can't think of another trilogy that I think is worthwhile to do.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:45

I mean, if we're thinking of modern horror and we're thinking like what would they do and what would they come out with as a trilogy, I think you have to do something original, just like kind of Fear Street did. I think that's why Fear Street was successful, right? Like it's not already a franchise that we've already gotten enough of the story of, and we're not just pumping out a trilogy just for that cash grab. And it really wasn't, right? It's a Netflix trilogy, and I think that fans really just kind of enjoyed it, right? Like it's a a very, you know, the the depth of the story was kind of cool. It was kind of fun. The way they carried it on, I think it was kind of fun. So if you're gonna continue to try to do trilogies in horror, at least like learn from that and learn from some of the ones that haven't been as successful and try to put out something a little more original that we haven't gotten that could be kind of fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:38

Yeah, I agree with that 100%. I think even thinking about Fear Street releasing the way it did on Netflix, I think this is an example of something that could have worked so much better as a TV show or a series, a limited series, a mini-series, something on Netflix, right? Or a streaming platform. And I'm so excited to get what we're gonna get with Crystal Lake, and we have Welcome to Dairy coming up very, very soon. It's entirely possible to take the premise of a film or expand the lore and mythology around a film by doing it in a slower pace and more intentionally, but also break it up episodically and actually create an arc that has impact.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:19

Yeah, it is interesting to see like what could be a TV series that you can really dive into, but also thinking of like how are you gonna carry this on for however many episodes for however long these episodes are. I'll tell you one that comes to mind, and it's it follows.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:35

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:37

It follows could definitely really benefit from being at least a limited series, maybe eight episodes long, something like that, where you're just like following you know how this is like going from person to person. It could be kind of fun. And there's a lot of movies that could be like that. The ring could maybe be like that. Like you just think of stuff like this, and it could work as a series.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:57

Yeah, there's been talk about there being a Halloween TV series. I'm not sure if that's still rumored or not, especially with all the news that we've gotten laden about lately about Halloween the game. I think that's pulling focus. But even that, like a series set in the world of the 1978 Halloween, even if it doesn't follow Lori Strode and her friends, I'd be super down for. But man, I'm wondering even like could Hellraiser be a good series?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:23

I think Hellraiser could definitely be a good series for sure, because you're following maybe the story of this puzzle box, maybe you're following a couple of characters. I don't know. It's an it's an interesting concept, right? You just it could be, it's just you gotta be careful, right? I think of you know, I think of what they just did with the alien series, right? And I gotta say, I think it had some people divided. I think there's some really hardcore alien fans that were like, eh, this wasn't really that great. You know what I mean? They made some interesting choices, and when you really think about it, like they made it. Really, a lot less about the alien that we're all know and like and love, right? The xenomorph. And it's a lot more about some other shit. And there was some really kind of like dumb stuff going on in that series. And so, you know, I'm not giving any any spoilers away for those who haven't watched the series yet. And I want everyone to give it its fair shake and kind of dive into that because it is a semi-fresh series, but I just think it's tough. Like you got to be careful when you're going after specific details, stuff that is beloved by fans, and how you're gonna handle either the previous events, the after events, whatever it is, whatever timeline you choose, just be careful. Just be careful what you do.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:46

Yeah, no, that's a really good take. I mean, man. I'm thinking about this, like take something beloved. And I know that people love Chucky, and I know people love child's play, but I don't think anybody use as universally loves Chucky the way they do with some of the other like Mount Rushmore of horror characters. And I think about the incredible success that the Chucky TV series had. Like I was more of a Chucky fan because of that series. It was just so well done and so good. I want to see that happen some more.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:18

Yeah, that was actually handled really well. If they can figure out how to recreate something like that with a good with what some kind of horror aspect, we'll see what they do with this Camp Crystal Lake. I really I don't know how, or Crystal Lake or whatever it's called, I don't know how it's gonna be. It's a prequel, right? So it'll be very interesting to see like what this all entails. But you know, again, hopefully it could be fun, but you gotta be careful. Chucky, I think, you know, kind of lucked out, and maybe it's because Chucky's just an entertaining little guy, you know what I mean? He's just an entertaining little guy, and he does some wild shit and he says some wild shit, and we're kind of here for that.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:57

Yeah, I think that series also really leaned into the camp of the franchise, which you have to know who you are and what you're doing and what you're all about. Because if you take it too seriously and you try to walk a fine line and then try to do some shit that the people aren't gonna love, then you're alienating yourself from the brand that you've already built over the course of decades, right? So I'm looking forward to it. I'm also looking forward to welcome to dairy. We're gonna have so much fun with that. I know that we're gonna find some way to talk about that in some capacity. Maybe that's in our Discord, maybe it's Patreon bonus content, etc. Either way, we'll have conversations about it. It's gonna be a fucking blast.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:35

For sure.