The Strangers: Chapter 3 - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Strangers: Chapter 3



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:

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Movie
Not going to lie here. I wanted to like this trilogy way more than I ended up liking it. I’m a lifelong horror fan, which means I’m very used to getting kicked in the teeth in regards to low-quality horror flicks, and generally liking most of them. But even I was a bit puzzled when I saw Renny Harlin’s name attached to the films. He was notoriously an action and Sci-fi guy from the 80s and 90s, and it seemed almost like a desperate attempt at revitalizing a career that ended 20 years ago. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the original The Strangers, and the trailer looked interesting. But both of the previous films in this trilogy just fell flatter than expected.

And now on to the third act in this 3-film, single narrative, trilogy. And before I go on, I MUST make it clear that this review is going to have a major spoiler in it simply due to the fact that this reveal is the very crux of the entire third movie. So if you haven’t seen the previous two films, then I would simply skip to the summary and decide if you want to watch it.

The film opens up with a vignette from several years earlier where young Scarecrow and Doll Face are looking for a new victim, only to jump literally to the very second that the previous film ended on in the forest. Scarecrow has just come upon the dead body of Doll Face, and grieves her loss, while Maya (Madelaine Petsch) runs to a nearby church to take refuge. And there she runs into the Sheriff’s son Gregory (Gabriel Basson), who pretty much lets her in on the obvious secret. He’s Scarecrow, and he’s . Giving her a chance to run, Gabriel sets out in pursuit of his prey for one last kill.

The film jumps back and forth heavily between the flashbacks of young Gregory and Shelly (Dollface), who were only introduced as killer kids in the last film. Now the entire focus is upon how Gregory and Shelly continued their killings, with the Sheriff’s (Richard Brake) involvement in covering up his son’s crime. In fact, a good 50% of the film is spent just exposition dumping the entire backstory for the two killers on the audience,e with only about 45%-50% left for the present day. And that right there is one of the biggest downfalls of the movie. We want to see Maya and three killers duke it out, not a whole lifetime story of how they got there. Evil is evil; it makes much more sense when you leave well enough alone.

The 2nd big pitfall for the film is that it goes COMPLETELY off the rails. Right in the first 15 minutes, we confirm who the killer is, and then it turns into something that you would see in the later Friday the 13<em>th</em> films. Including Scarecrow effectively kidnapping and attempting to brainwash Maya into replacing Doll Face. A move that comes across as downright hilarious,s as Maya seems to be sucked into his world way faster than she should have. And let's not forget the final twist of the movie that sets up a potential spin-off with Maya as the lead (just in a different role), and a move that left me mouthing 4-letter words at the screen.

Is it good? Is it bad? Is it so bad that it’s good? I genuinely have no idea. All I know is that this film went so far off the reservation that even I couldn’t take it anymore. But at the same time, we get some really gory and nasty kills that I felt were the negative side of the last film. More guts, more blood, more viciousness made this sequel feel ALMOST good, if it were not for the narrative hang-ups that hamstrung its progress.

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Rated R for strong bloody violence and language




4K Video: Video:
As I said in the previous film, all three movies were shot back to back, so the video score across all three films is basically the same. The same dark and moody atmosphere is on full display here, with blue and sepia taking over the main color grading spectrum. Browns, ambers, and deep silky blacks dominate the landscape, though that opening vignette from a few years prior shows some amazing daylight greens for the landscape, and a pop of red for a shirt. Blood is still CGI fake, so it looks a bit darker and more grim. Dolby Vision really enhances the color depth and the pop to those dimmed and bright colors, but overall the image quality and clarity are essentially the same as the previous film. The out-of-focus shots are less prominent than the previous film, though they are still there, and the artifacting is nearly nonexistent. Simply put, a great-looking image from a digital source in 4K. What more could you ask for?


Audio:
The same can be said of the audio mix too. The Atmos track is a bit more aggressive this go around, though, as the kills are amped up and the film's slasher vibe is taken up a notch. The roars and crashes of Scarecrow's truck as he hammers the RV will shake your listening position with deep bass and a wide soundstage, while the more claustrophobic moments in the tunnels near the end are a tad more relaxed and laid back. Not saying that those moments are bad; it's just a bit more restrained for a Dolby Atmos track than normal due to decent chunks of quiet murmuring and tightly constrained tunnels that utilize ambient echoes and the like to light up the soundstage. Honestly, I find this track to be the most bombastic and energetic of the three films, which is most likely due to the fact that the kills are heavily ramped up.

Extras:
• Theatrical Trailer

Final Score: ​

It’s hard to say that this is the worst of the three films, as the second flick was decidedly filler material and a setup for what is to come, but this one just goes off the rails with some pretty ridiculous plot points. I wanted to like it more, as I loved the additional kills, but the logic behind some of those kills was just downright hilarious, and not in a positive way. Frankly, I’m not sure what Renny Harlin was thinking, as this whole trilogy was just so unneeded. ESPECIALLY when it was a singular story stretched out over 3 films. This was just a bit too much. I’d rank it BARELY a half star below the previous film, and that is only because I liked some of the gorier moments. Otherwise,e I would just skip it. Rental at best.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Madelaine Petsch, Gabriel Basso, Ema Horvath, Richard Brake
Directed by: Renny Harlin
Written by: Alan R. Cohen, Alan Freedland, Bryan Bertino
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), Spanish, French DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
Studio: Lionsgate
Rated: R
Runtime: 91 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: November 3rd, 2026

Recommendation: Low Rental