Summary

• The Strangers: Chapter 1 follows a young couple tormented by masked murderers in a terrifying remote cabin setting.
• Producer Courtney Solomon discusses the deeper exploration into the minds of the killers and survivors in the new trilogy.
• Director Renny Harlin's style builds tension and suspense similar to Alfred Hitchcock, creating a captivating theater experience.

Ryan and Maya seem like the perfect happy couple in The Strangers: Chapter 1, moving across the country to begin the next phase in their lives. While making the drive, their car breaks down, and the couple is forced to stay in a secluded cabin in Venus, Oregon. However, the night turns into a nightmare when they are tormented by three masked individuals who target them for reasons neither Maya nor Ryan fully understand.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 is based on the terrifying 2008 hit of the same name and is the start of a new trilogy. The Strangers trilogy was shot simultaneously, with the sequels taking place only days after the events of The Strangers: Chapter 1. Madeline Petsch leads both on and off-screen as the star of the movie and a producer, along with Solomon Courtney, while Renny Harlin helmed the movie as director.

Screen Rant interviewed The Strangers: Chapter 1 producer Courtney Solomon. He explained what inspired them to explore the world of The Strangers further and why three movies fits their plan best. Solomon also discussed collaborating with Harlin and the experience of filming all three movies at once.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 Producer Breaks Down The 3 Movie Plan

Solomon broke down what inspired this deeper exploration into the world of The Strangers. This not only applies to the mystery surrounding the killers but also to the effects of this horrific trauma on those who survive. He also discussed how The Strangers: Chapter 1 delved into the horrors of reality that this movie represents.

Courtney Solomon: The World of The Strangers is a tone to me. It's a milieu, is how I referred to it, all the way through. We have to stick to that because the first one was so great at establishing that fear of tension, suspense, and true terror as I call it, and real horror as I call it. So that became our dictum all the way through this. Never to ever leave that place. In fact, to try to get more intense as we went. That was the goal. That was the aspirational goal.

On the strangers themselves, that was the inspiration. Two things, antagonist, protagonist. I want to know what makes those people tick, but in a real way, not in a phony way. They don't talk. So how do I get deeper into why the hell does somebody put on a mask, for whatever reason they do, go and terrorize some people, [and] have fun with them? Because in the original movie, they could have killed them 12 times, but they don't on purpose.

It's not like some people are like, Oh, well why didn't they just kill them? They didn't want to. It's part of the fun for them, obviously, which is sick in of itself. And then, when the time is right, they're done with that and they're going to move on to probably somebody else. This is what they get off on. I'm fascinated to know what's in that mind.

I think all of us are fascinated to know what's in the mind of a serial killer if we're into this stuff. At the same time, let's imagine you were in an environment where you couldn't just go hide out somewhere and you survive the initial attack, but you're deeply wounded, you're deeply f-cked up, and you were a normal person 24 hours ago, living a completely normal life with everything else.

What does that person go through? In a realistic way over a couple of days, if you really went through this, how would you really change? Not in the glossy horror movie way of doing it, but in a true character sense of what you go through and what you might become as a result of it. Antagonist, protagonist, that's what this is. We call it character driven horror.

The first one, the setup of the original Strangers was so damn good that's just where we wanted to start. That DNA servicing our greater bigger story. We ended up writing a 289 page script. This is just one giant movie, but it has to be divided into three chapters because it's too damn long to play any other play. Although one day we'd love to, Renny and I have talked about, [doing] a special release where the real diehard fans are willing to sit there for four hours and tough it out from beginning to end, and we'll give them some special surprises.

If Zach Snyder could do it, why not you guys?

Courtney Solomon: Why the hell not? Right. And every Marvel movie you watch.

What can you tease about the world of where the strangers come from? And did you guys shoot all three of these movies back to back to back?

Courtney Solomon: At the same time, it was one giant movie to us. So literally in the morning, she might be the Maya you saw in the movie, in the car driving with him, talking about being an architect. Right? Everything ahead of her. And then in the afternoon, she'd come out from lunch and she'd have the full movie three like makeup and wardrobe and be a completely different person from four days later.

We'd be shooting that in the afternoon because the two things would take place in pretty much the same location. So that was the whole way, which was just wild to get your head around, because in a normal script, it's hard enough to keep your head around the arc. But in an arc like this, it's a whole other to-do. Not to mention, for her, she's like a superstar that she was able to just keep it together, never lose, and turn into, okay, now I'm movie three Maya. Now I'm movie two, Maya. We would call it act one, act two, act three.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 Praises Renny Harlin & Explains Why This Needs To Be Seen In Theaters

Colomon also shared Harlin's directing and collaboration styles. He explained how Harlin builds tension and suspense throughout The Strangers: Chapter 1, taking inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock.

Courtney Solomon: I've always found him to be one of the best shooters in the business. He's got an amazing eye and amazing eye for composition, the way he moves the camera. That is Renny's biggest strength of everything. Interestingly, my biggest strength is story and character. So we really made a good combination for each other once we found how we work well together. It's been like a dream the two of us working together.

We wanted this to be, which I hope you saw in the first movie, to be very much suspense, and tension, and Hitchcockian sort of in so much as how the camera just slowly moves. You have an angle just sitting there, and you just see the back of her in the distance, for example, or we're looking down through these things and just seeing.

So it's always like somebody's watching you because they're all around, obviously. So he was brilliant at putting those things together and working with our dp, Jose Montero. They gave it a look that was fantastic. So yeah, it's been just an exhilarating, fun experience. Sitting there with director of Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger. So it's fun you're in a playground.

I got to go see it in a movie theater because that's the way to experience

Courtney Solomon: When you see the mix on that movie, it'll change the whole experience for you. I am telling you, for sure, people say that. I actually had three people that have been interviewing today. They just went right to that. They didn't even ask any other questions about the movie. They were just like, that was crazy. Because in the theater, we really pride ourselves with what we did there. I think horror is something you do in the movie theater because that's part of the experience. Like you go see an event film in a movie theater instead of that. So you got to go.

About The Strangers: Chapter 1

After their car breaks down in an eerie small town, a young couple is 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.

Check out our other The Strangers: Chapter 1 interviews here:

• Froy Gutierrez & Madelaine Petsch
• Renny Harlin

The Strangers: Chapter 1 hits theaters on May 17

Source: Screen Rant Plus