We have talked and written about the fact that horror movies are hot in 2018, but few horror flicks to that have debuted this year have honored the classic slasher genre quite like The Strangers: Prey at Night. The film served as a total love letter to classic slasher cinema like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Black Christmas, and that grounded element of the story is what made the film so downright terrifying to star Christina Hendricks. In fact, in a recent interview with CinemaBlend, Hendricks addressed the down-to-earth and random nature of the horror and explained:
To me it was, it was how completely random it was that someone could just show up and kill you for absolutely no reason that it had nothing to do with the devil or God or. So, they're monsters or aliens. It's literally just, it could happen tomorrow because people are crazy and because you could just have bad luck. So, to me that it's the most terrifying idea in the world.
That's kind of the entire point of The Strangers world, isn't it? Both movies begin with one of the titular slashers arriving on a doorstep to ask, "is Tamara home," and in both cases, the question leads to a full-blown assault that leaves seemingly innocent victims dead merely because they were home. Despite all of the creepy ghosts and goblins that the horror genre has become known for, this sense of realism stands out as the thing that makes The Strangers: Prey at Night so creepy to Christina Hendricks.
This is a stark contrast to other subgenres of horror, particularly with regards to the styles of horror movies that we have seen debut this year. Though The Strangers: Prey at Night is a gritty horror thriller set in an authentic world, 2018 has mostly been defined by movies about demons (Insidious: The Last Key), curses (Truth or Dare), aliens (A Quiet Place), and demonic cults (Hereditary). Even the other notable tentpole slasher film set to debut later this year (David Gordon Green's Halloween), toys with elements of the supernatural in how immortal Michael Myers seems. Amid all of these otherworldly horror romps, The Strangers: Prey at Night stands out as one of the most plausible.
The Strangers: Prey at Night is now available on Digital HD, DVD, and Blu-Ray! Make sure to pick up your copy of the grounded and gritty throwback slasher thriller today and make to stay tuned for more updates related to all of 2018's biggest and best horror movies! Beyond that, you can also head over to our 2018 movie premiere guide to keep yourself up-to-date on all of the films (horror or otherwise) set to hit the big screen this year!
