‘The Strangers: Chapter 1’ Review — New trilogy is off to a limp start

A review of the new horror film, in theaters now

A few minutes into The Strangers: Chapter 1, Maya — who is on a cross-country road trip, inexplicably driving from NYC to Portland, Oregon for a job interview — pulls out her phone. “Oh!” she says. “Ally says our funds came through!” Cut to a closeup on her phone, Ally Bank app pulled up, logo prominently displayed.

What funds, you wonder? Money from whom, and for what? Too bad. Money isn’t mentioned again.

I’m not anti-remake. In fact, I’m very pro-remake. I think — and I’m far from the first to say this — that especially in the horror genre, repetition is key. As Carol Clover and many others have written, horror functions like folklore, its power coming not necessarily from any one telling but from the re-telling. Horror draws its power from the familiar beats, the scare setups, and the archetypal, elemental pieces that come together in new ways to tell us something about what makes us afraid.

All of that is to say: even though I might be existentially upset about the fact that a movie like The Strangers is already being remade — even though that makes me feel old, because I saw the original in theaters when I was in high school and now here it is being redone for a…