Madelaine Petsch Archives

Review: ‘The Strangers: Chapter 1,’ starring Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez

May 17, 2024

by Carla Hay

Olivia Kreutzova and Matus Lajcak in a scene from “The Strangers: Chapter 1” (Photo by John Armour/Lionsgate)

Directed by Renny Harlin

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2008, in the fictional town of Venus, Oregon, the horror film “The Strangers: Chapter 1” (a direct sequel to 2008’s “The Strangers”) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with one Latin person) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A dating couple, who are on a cross-country road trip from New York to Oregon, experience deadly terror when they are targeted by three masked strangers at a remote house in the woods.

Culture Audience: “The Strangers: Chapter 1” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and the 2008 “The Strangers” movie, but this dull sequel is a pathetic imitation of the original “The Strangers” movie.

Froy Gutierrez and Madelaine Petsch in “The Strangers: Chapter 1” (Photo by John Armour/Lionsgate)

“The Strangers: Chapter 1” should be called “The Strangers: 1 More Cash Grab.” This sequel is nothing but a stale, boring and inferior retread of the original 2008 horror movie “The Strangers.” “The Strangers: Chapter 1” is supposed to be the first movie in a trilogy that happens directly after the events of 2008’s “The Strangers,” which wasn’t a very original movie in the first place, since it’s about killers targeting victims at an isolated place in the woods. But at least 2008’s “The Strangers” movie (starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman; written and directed by Bryan Bertino) was very effective in its creepiness and suspense.

Directed by Renny Harlin, “The Strangers: Chapter 1” was written by Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland. The movie is a complete insult to anyone who believed the lie that “The Strangers: Chapter 1” filmmakers said when they hyped “The Strangers: Chapter 1” as a movie that would explain more about the three mysterious, masked and unnamed murderers (one man and two women) who caused the terror in 2008’s “The Strangers” movie. “The Strangers: Chapter 1” is supposed to take place the day after the end of “The Strangers.” Viewers of “The Strangers: Chapter 1” will in fact learn nothing new about the three serial killers in this awful movie.

In “The Strangers: Chapter 1,” the three killers are described in the movie’s end credits by the types of masks they wear. The male killer wears a scarecrow hooded mask, so he can be called Scarecrow (played by Matus Lajcak), and he likes to use an axe in his murders. The younger female killer wears a doll mask, so she can be called Dollface (Olivia Kreutzova), who is the only one of the three killers whose speaking voice is heard the most. The older female killer, who wears a Betty Boop-styled mask and can be called Pin-Up (played by Letizia Fabbri), proves to be more unhinged than Dollface. The women are more likely to use knives, but all three killers can also use whatever weapon is at their disposal.

An example of the filmmaker lies about this movie is in a director’s statement in “The Strangers: Chapter 1” production notes. Harlin says: “This was not a remake, nor a prequel or sequel, of the original. This was an incredible opportunity to do something completely groundbreaking. This was one huge horror saga, divided into three chapters. The producers wanted to focus on what happened basically the next day, as the original 2008 film ended.”

What Harlin says about “The Strangers: Chapter 1” not being a sequel is completely false. A movie is a sequel if it shows what three of the main characters did the day after the events of a previous movie. Whoever the masked killers are in “The Strangers: Chapter 1,” they are wearing the same types of masks and target their victims in the same ways as the killers in 2008’s “The Strangers.” And there is nothing groundbreaking about a sequel that essentially copies (with no surprises) many of the same things that a previous movie did.

“The Strangers: Chapter 1” rips off the exact same concept as 2008’s “The Strangers”: The three killers target a young couple staying at a house in an isolated wooded area. The unmarried couple even has the same relationship issue in both movies: Someone in the relationship wants more of a commitment (in other words, marriage) than the other person is willing to give. In 2008’s “The Strangers,” the woman in the relationship turned down the man’s marriage proposal (in a rejection that is not shown in the movie) before they take their trip to the woods. In “The Strangers: Chapter 1,” the woman in the relationship wants the man to propose marriage, but he doesn’t really seem interested in taking their relationship to the level of marriage.

The couple at the center of “The Strangers: Chapter 1” (which takes place in 2008) are Ryan (played by Froy Gutierrez) and Maya (played by Madelaine Petsch, one of the executive producers of the movie), who are on a cross-country road trip from New York to Oregon, because Maya has a job interview in Portland, Oregon. (“The Strangers: Chapter 1” was actually filmed in Bratislava, Slovakia.) Ryan is driving for this trip. The movie never reveals anything else that’s meaningful about this couple except that the story takes place on the fifth anniversary that they started dating each other.

The opening scene of “The Strangers: Chapter 1” takes place in the daytime and shows a man in his late 20s or early 30s running frantically through a wooded area, as if he’s being chased. And sure enough, Scarecrow and Pin-Up come out of the shadows and corner him. Scarecrow takes his axe and beheads the man. Viewers later find out that this murder victim’s name is Jeff Morell (played by Ryan Bown), because his photo and name are seen on a missing person flyer at a diner in the rural town of Venus, Oregon, where Ryan and Maya stop to get something to eat. Don’t expect to find out anything else about Jeff in this mindless movie.

Predictably, most of the local people at the diner stare at Ryan and Maya with stereotypical “you’re not from around these parts” suspicion. A hostile-looking and intrusive waitress named Carol (played by Janis Ahern) overhears that Ryan and Maya have been dating for five years and scolds Ryan for “not putting a ring on it” yet. Don’t expect to find out anything substantial about any other people in this small town.

One of the few people at the diner who is openly friendly to Ryan and Maya is a waitress named Shelly (played by Ema Horvath), who helps the couple when Ryan and Maya need a place to stay for the night. Is Shelly really being helpful or is she setting up Ryan and Maya for something dangerous? Don’t expect the movie to answer that question either.

Ryan and Maya need a place to stay in Venus that night because when they leave the diner, they find out that their car won’t start. A mechanic named Rudy (played by Ben Cartwright) says he owns a car repair shop and offers to tow the car to the shop with his assistant Dougie (played by Stevee Davies) helping out. Rudy and Dougie were loitering outside the diner when Ryan and Maya arrived. Rudy tells Ryan and Maya that they have to wait until the next day to order any car parts that are needed to fix the car.

Ryan immediately thinks this is a scam; he suspects that someone tampered with the car so that Rudy could get some money to fix the car. Maya is more trusting and reminds Ryan that they almost crashed into another car when they were on the road because Ryan was distracted while driving. Maya thinks this near-accident could have something to do with the car’s malfunction.

Shelly tells Ryan and Maya that there’s an Airbnb cabin available in the woods. Shelly offers to drive them there after arrangements are made for Ryan and Maya to stay at the cabin. And you know where the rest of the movie is going if you know anything about “The Strangers” movie series, which also includes 2018’s “The Strangers: Prey at Night.”

Dollface is the killer who knocks on the house’s front door multiple times at night. And when someone answers the door, Dollface asks for someone whom she knows isn’t there. She has a monotone voice and is in the shadows, so whoever answers the door can’t really get a good look at her. Scarecrow does the most brutal kills, while Pin-Up often follows his lead. Pin-Up and Scarecrow appear to be a couple, based on their body language.

In “The Strangers: Chapter 1,” Ryan and Maya do all the nonsensical things that people in stupid horror movies do. One of the most idiotic decisions is during a scene when Ryan and Maya know that the home has been invaded. One of them finds Ryan’s cell phone inside the house but doesn’t use it to call for help and just plops the phone down on a table. In another scene, Ryan (who has asthma) loses his inhaler while trying to escape, but his asthma never becomes an issue and seems to magically disappear when he is running for his life or is frantically trying to free himself when he’s stuck somewhere in an enclosed space with the killers about to attack.

The performances by the movie’s cast members are nothing special. The screenplay is so lazy and formulaic, there is no real suspense. The last 15 minutes of the film are so bad, they’re almost laughable, although many viewers won’t be laughing if they waste time and money on this dreadfully weak horror flick. There’s an end-credits scene that looks absolutely ridiculous and will not create excitement for the next chapter in this limp story.

In the production notes for “The Strangers: Chapter 1,” director Harlin says of the movie’s three killers: “These are not robotic, masked madmen or madwomen. These are complex characters whose every move, expression, and act reflect the deeper threads and themes of the three movies.” Actually, the three masked killers in this movie are robotic and are not complex at all. (The man in this homicidal trio doesn’t even talk at all in the movie.) Speaking of masks, “The Strangers: Chapter 1” is nothing but a masquerade, pretending to be a terrifying horror story, when it’s just as hollow and soulless as the killers in the movie.

Lionsgate released “The Strangers: Chapter 1” in U.S. cinemas on May 17, 2024.

Review: ‘Jane’ (2022), starring Madelaine Petsch, Chloe Bailey and Melissa Leo

September 2, 2022

by Carla Hay

Chloe Bailey and Madelaine Petsch in “Jane” (Photo courtesy of Creator+)

“Jane” (2022)

Directed by Sabrina Jaglom

Culture Representation: Taking place in Los Angeles, the dramatic film “Jane” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Asians and Latin people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: After her best friend commits suicide, a teenager in her last year of high school sees visions of her dead friend, who seems to inspire her to commit various crimes.

Culture Audience: “Jane” will appeal mainly to people who are interested in watching mediocre and predictable movies about teenage girls who are catty and obsessive.

Melissa Leo in “Jane” (Photo courtesy of Creator+)

Heinously using suicide as a story gimmick, “Jane” is the type of formulaic teenage drama movie that looks it could have been made as disposable Netflix content. Too many plot holes and unanswered questions ruin any credibility that “Jane” tries to have. It’s yet another movie about havoc wreaked by a selfish, immoral teen who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. Expect to see “mean girl” scenes repeated to monotony in “Jane.”

“Jane” is the feature-film debut of writer/director Sabrina Jaglom (who co-wrote the “Jane” screenplay with Rishi Rajani), and it’s the second movie released by the Creator+ movie distribution company and streaming service. Creator+’s first movie is the romantic comedy “Diamond in the Rough,” released in June 2022. Based on these tepid movie offerings, Creator+ needs to come up with much better content that would be worth the price of a movie ticket. Everything about “Jane” looks like a made-for-TV movie.

“Jane” begins with the suicide of the movie’s title character. Jane (played by Chloe Yu), who is 17 or 18 years old, is seen jumping off of a plank overlooking a cliff. Jane attended a private high school in Los Angeles named Greenwood School for Girls, where the students are required to wear matching uniforms. It’s an elite prep school where students come from middle-class and upper-middle-class families. (“Jane” was actually filmed in New Mexico.)

Jane’s two closest friends at school—classmates Olivia Brooks (played by Madelaine Petsch) and Isabelle “Izzy” Morris (played by Chloe Bailey)—are devastated by Jane’s death, which happened at the beginning of the school year. Olivia and Izzy are both in their last year at Greenwood, and they both have high hopes to get into Stanford University, which is their first-choice university. During the course of the movie, Olivia and Izzy inflict mean-spirited bullying on people at their school, but Olivia is much more obsessive and more vindictive than Izzy is.

Olivia also has some serious mental health issues. Sometimes, when Olivia is overwhelmed with negative emotions, she faints. Throughout the movie, Olivia sees visions of Jane (who never says a word in the visions), usually right before Olivia does something cruel or illegal. Sometimes, Jane is seen silently encouraging Olivia to do something wrong, or Jane is seen doing something wrong, when in reality, Olivia is the one committing these acts.

You don’t have to be a psychiatrist to know that it’s Olivia’s way of projecting the worst parts of herself into her memory of Jane, in order for Olivia to psychologically disassociate herself from her own misdeeds. Olivia doesn’t come right out and say, “Jane made me do it,” because she never tells people that she sees Jane. (This isn’t a ghost horror story.) Instead, throughout the movie, Olivia pretends to be ignorant about certain things that Jane is seen on screen doing, but Olivia doesn’t want to admit that Olivia actually did these things.

Because the movie “Jane” is so transparent about this psychological duplicity, there’s no real suspense if you’ve seen these types of “bad girl with an alter ego” movies many times already. You already know that whatever nasty games Olivia is going to play, they’re going to escalate and get worse. And someone might end up physically hurt or dead. The only real curiosity might come from wondering how much Olivia will get away with and what will happen if anyone finds out her secrets.

“Jane” makes it looks like the mental unraveling of Olivia is triggered or aggravated because of Jane’s suicide and Olivia’s obsession to get into Stanford. However, it’s also suggested that Olivia’s mental health problems have existed long before her last year of high school, but Olivia has been able to hide these problems very well. When Olivia finds out that her application to Stanford has been deferred, she predictably has a minor meltdown about it. A sympathetic school counselor named Mrs. Billings (played by Ramona DuBarry) offers to work with Olivia to craft an appeal letter to Stanford’s admissions department.

Olivia is the captain of the school’s debate team, where she is accustomed to being the “queen bee.” But the arrival of a new transfer student named Camille Cortez (played by Nina Bloomgarden) threatens Olivia because Camille has experience as a school debater who went to a national competition. Greenwood’s debate team has only made it as far as a state competition. Camille gloats about this fact when talking to Olivia for the first time.

The teacher in charge of Greenwood’s debate team is an easygoing instructor named Mr. Richardson (played by Ian Owens), who wants Camille to possibly co-lead the debate team with Olivia. Not surprisingly, Olivia hates the idea and doesn’t want it to happen. Camille and Olivia predictably have a clash of egos, and they exchange thinly veiled insults at each other in their first conversation together in the debate classroom.

Camille tells Olivia, “I just think this team can really benefit from my leadership.” This comment sets Olivia over the edge. In full view of Mr. Richardson and other students, Olivia yells at Camille, “Fuck you!” And then Olivia faints. Even though Olivia later says she’s sorry for what happened, Mr. Richardson tells Olivia that she can’t participate in the team’s next debate, so that Olivia can take some time for self-care.

Olivia is very angry about this temporary suspension. And you know what that means: Olivia is going to find a way to get Camille out of the debate team. Olivia tells Izzy that Camille is a horrible person, in order to turn Izzy against Camille. Izzy and Olivia then find out that Camille left her previous school in New York because of a scandal where Camille accused a teacher of sexual misconduct. After an investigation by the school, the teacher was cleared of the accusation.

Olivia and Izzy don’t know the whole story, but Olivia comes up with the idea to create a fake online account to send unsettling messages to Camille about this scandal. They use a social media platform called Connect, which looks similar to Facebook. Olivia and Izzy’s plan is to make Camille so psychologically shaken, she won’t be able to concentrate, and she’ll fail on the debate team.

It just so happens that when Olivia and Izzy are hanging in Izzy’s bedroom, they find out that on Izzy’s laptop computer, Jane was using Connect and accidentally forgot to log out. Olivia and Izzy have the twisted idea to send the anonymous messages from Jane’s Connect account. Over time, their bullying from this account targets other people at the school.

One of the targets is a teacher named Mrs. West (played by Victoria Foyt), who gave Olivia a grade on an assignment that was below what Olivia wanted. Another person who becomes a victim of Olivia and Izzy’s wrath is a student named Josa (played by Kerri Medders), who begins dating a guy who broke up with Izzy. Olivia and Izzy’s revenge plot against Josa has much worse consequences than hurt feelings from anonymous social media messages.

Greenwood’s chief administrator Principal Rhodes (played by Melissa Leo) has a no-nonsense approach in interrogating the students at the school when the bullying gets out of control. But the movie’s biggest failing is that Olivia and Izzy are so obviously the prime suspects who would be the most likely to have access to the dead Jane’s Connect account. However, Olivia and Izzy don’t get the type of immediate scrutiny and suspicion from school authorities and other students that Olivia and Izzy would get if this were a story that happened in real life, not in a movie.

“Jane” also mishandles the issue of people’s Internet activities being easily traced by IP (Internet protocol) addresses if they don’t have a VPN service or another way of masking their IP address. Olivia and Izzy (who aren’t as smart as they think they are) don’t think about being exposed through IP address tracing until it’s too late, after they’ve already both logged on to Jane’s phantom account several times, using their own personal computer devices. This fear of being caught through their IP addresses becomes a subplot that eventually goes away in an implausible manner.

Another plot hole is in the investigation of something terrible that happened to Josa because of a deliberate action by Olivia and Izzy. In order for viewers to believe that Olivia and Izzy escaped suspicion, you’d have to believe that investigators wouldn’t think to ask Josa who could’ve possibly been responsible for the action that caused Josa serious harm. If investigators did ask Josa, she would most likely remember that the only two people who were with Josa right before this harmful incident were the same two people who gave something to Josa that caused this harmful incident. And those two people were Olivia and Izzy.

Olivia’s loving and supportive parents—Steve Brooks (played by Morse Bicknell) and Eleanor Brooks (played by Amie MacKenzie)—are oblivious to Olivia’s dark side and think she’s a good girl who’s grieving over the suicide of Jane. Olivia is an only child who has a lot of freedom to do what she wants when she’s home alone. Izzy’s parents or other family members are never shown in the movie. The movie’s big climatic scene is very problematic because it’s sloppily constructed and doesn’t take into account that DNA, fingerprints and cell phone tower records would place someone at the scene of a crime when that person claims not to have been there at all.

The cast members of “Jane” give adequate performances with their characters. Petsch (who is also one of the producers of “Jane”) has some chilling moments as the very emotionally disturbed Olivia. However, so much of “Jane” is a retread of “bad girls who pretend to be good” movies, there’s nothing in “Jane” that stands out as being completely original. “Jane” doesn’t sufficiently address all the mental health issues that the movie irresponsibly uses as plot devices. The ending of “Jane” might have been intended to be disturbing, but it really just looks like the filmmakers’ cheap and lazy way of leaving the possibility open that this forgettable movie could get a sequel.

Creator+ released “Jane” in select U.S. cinemas on August 26, 2022. The movie premieres on Creator+ on September 16, 2022.