4 Questions ‘The Strangers: Chapter 2’ Has To Answer
We are in the middle of a new trilogy of The Strangers movies. The trilogy has been described as an “odyssey” with The Strangers: Chapter 1 in particular characterized as “an homage” to the 2008 original. The first installment hit theaters last May, here are some questions The Strangers: Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 must answer when they comes out at some point this year.
If you haven’t seen The Strangers: Chapter 1 yet, make sure you stay after the film for a quick post-credits scene and stop reading this article here as spoilers are ahead.
1. Who is “Tamara”?
This isn’t a question people who have seen the first film likely had as it could easily be explained as a ruse to see who is in the house. Also, the lore the film is based on (writer Bryan Bertino recalled an experience from childhood where someone came to his door and asked for someone who didn’t live there) implied there’s no interesting answer to this question. However, a 2024 Variety article promised that the trilogy would answer this question. No information about Tamara was given in Chapter 1 so it must be coming in the next two films.
2. Are The Strangers the same people in all the movies?
The Strangers seem like the same characters from the other films. There are three of them: a man, a woman, and (seemingly) a teenage girl. The Strangers appear to wear the same masks in all the films. They also have the same Modus Operandi: unscrewing the porch lightbulb before knocking on the door and asking for “Tamara” and then terrorizing the home’s inhabitants.
There is one small clue that there may be more Strangers, however, as a variety of masks are shown in one of the closets in the AirBnb in Chapter 1. The masks and the opening kill make me wonder if perhaps “hunting cabin” is a community in-joke for the home being a location where Strangers routinely hunt humans.
3. Are The Strangers part of a cult?
Before seeing Chapter 1, I had a pet theory that the title characters are part of a religious cult. Evidence for this theory:
- A cult may also explain how The Strangers are active in South Carolina in the original, Ohio in Prey at Night and Venus, Oregon in Chapter 1.
- The Strangers knock on the door, similar to religious proselytizers.
- The Strangers always ask if “Tamara” is home, which could be like how proselytizers start a conversation with asking if someone knows about Jesus. Perhaps Tamara is a deity or leader in the cult or simply a code word cult members use to identify each other.
- We see literal religious proselytizers at the end of the 2008 film, and The Strangers stop to pick up a pamphlet from them. The proselytizers later find Liv Tyler’s character alive at the cabin, but her fate is unknown.
- Characters who seem identical to the proselytizers in the 2008 film are shown in town in Chapter 1.
- Chapter 1 depicts the townspeople as social conservatives, clutching their pearls when they discover Ryan and Maya have been dating for five years but are unmarried. There could be a connection to James and Kristen in the original being unmarried (a major plotpoint is that they are going to the cabin after James’ failed proposal to Kristen), or this could just be part of Chapter 1‘s homage to the original.
- In Chapter 1, Ryan is offered a tract a second time, when he picks up food at night.
One of the things I suspect Chapter 2 or Chapter 3 will definitely show is what’s inside the proselytizer pamphlets we keep seeing.
4. How do The Strangers track their prey?
The Strangers seem to be omnipotent while tracking their desired victims. They always seem to be one step ahead, able to silently creep throughout the cabin undetected and be exactly at the right place in order to surprise attack their prey. Do they have hidden cameras? Are they just exceptionally skilled hunters?
As this is a common characteristic of horror movie villains, it might just be part of telling a fictional story and not something we’ll ever get more information about.
While The Strangers: Chapter 2 still doesn’t have a release date, we do have a trailer: