Renny Harlin Planning A 4.5 Hour Cut of ‘The Strangers' Trilogy

It’s been six years since the ‘Strangers’ franchise released a movie, 2018’s “The Strangers: Prey At Night.” For some reason, journeyman director Renny Harlin has managed to convince a studio to let him direct three new ‘Strangers’ movies (yes, three), all hitting theaters in 2024.

Harlin is telling Variety that the plan, which seems to have been given full approval by the studio, is to turn his 3-film horror odyssey into a 4.5 hour director’s cut, set to be released in 2025:

It’s in our heads. This is definitely what we want to do. We want to cut together the full arc. We know exactly how to do it, then we’ll create a movie and see who are those diehard fans who will come to the movie theater for four and a half hours. I don’t know if we need to have an intermission so people can get some food and go to the bathroom, but I definitely want to have that event and see if people take four and a half hours of dread and fear and terror and despair.

Harlin’s “The Strangers: Chapter 1” hits theaters on May 17. A trailer was released earlier today. Here’s a synopsis, via Lionsgate Films:

After their car breaks down in an eerie small town, a young couple are forced to spend the night in a remote cabin. Panic ensues as they are terrorized by three masked strangers who strike with no mercy and seemingly no motive in THE STRANGERS ― CHAPTER 1, the chilling first entry of this upcoming horror feature film series.

The original 2008 film was directed by Bryan Bertino — it was a graphic hybrid of the slasher and home invasion genres. This one seems to be following the same formula.

Principal photography on all three of these new ‘Strangers’ films started in September 2022 in Slovakia and wrapped in November 2022. This means that Harlin shot all three films in just three months. He told Entertainment Weekly that it was "the challenge of a lifetime, but I also really embraced it. On a Monday morning, I could be shooting the second chapter, and Monday afternoon I could be shooting the first chapter, and Tuesday morning I could be shooting the third chapter.

Harlin did have some early success in his career (“Die Hard 2” and “Cliffhanger”) but it’s been a real struggle for him these last 30 years. I can’t really think of any other active studio filmmaker who has had more critical and commercial failures than him. Don’t say Uwe Boll, he’s a special case as he self-finances most of his movies.

Harlin’s cinematic nadirs include the likes of “Cutthroat Island,” “Driven,” “Exorcist: The Beginning,” “Mindhunters,” and “The Legend of Hercules.” It’s not all bad. He did direct 1996’s excellent “The Long Kiss Goodnight,” his only great film, and one hell of a twisty noir