Lionsgate gave the horror film The Strangers: Chapter 1 (read our review HERE) a theatrical release just three weeks ago, on May 17th, and during the film’s theatrical run it has managed to pull in over $33 million at the global box office. Now we have learned that as of this Friday, June 7th, horror fans will be able to watch this movie in the comfort of their own homes as Lionsgate is giving The Strangers: Chapter 1 a digital release tomorrow! It’s already available for pre-order on Amazon.
The Strangers: Chapter 1 was directed by Renny Harlin, who shot an entire trilogy of Strangers movies at the same time. We’ve heard that Lionsgate will also be releasing The Strangers: Chapter 2 by the end of the year, with The Strangers: Chapter 3 following soon after.
Madelaine Petsch (Riverdale) has the lead role in Chapter 1 and is joined in the cast of these films by Froy Gutierrez (Cruel Summer), Rachel Shenton (All Creatures Great and Small), Gabriel Basso (Hillbilly Elegy), and Ema Horvath (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power). The Strangers: Chapter 1 centers on Petsch’s character as she drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend (Gutierrez) to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest. When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers. Lionsgate plans from there to expanding the story in new and unexpected ways with its sequels.
The new Strangers trilogy was filmed in Slovakia. Courtney Solomon produced them with Mark Canton, Christopher Milburn, Gary Raskin, Charlie Dombeck, and Alastair Birlingham. Andrei Boncea, Dorothy Canton, and Roy Lee serve as executive producers. Rafaella Biscayn, Frame Film SK, Johanna Harlin, Juan Garcia Peredo, and Alberto Burgueno are co-producing. The first film has earned an R rating for “horror violence, language and brief drug use.”
Harlin has said The Strangers: Chapter 1 “is close to the original movie in its set-up of a young couple in an isolated environment in a house and a home invasion happening for random reasons.” Then Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 “explore what happens to the victims of this kind of violence and who the perpetrators are of this kind of violence. Where are they coming from and why?“
Will you be watching the digital release of The Strangers: Chapter 1 this weekend? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
