The home-invading killers are back in first look at multi-movie horror saga “The Strangers Trilogy”

Cliffhanger and Deep Blue Sea director Renny Harlin is no stranger to The Strangers, the 2008 home invasion horror film in which a couple played by Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman face off against masked killers.

"I remember the experience of seeing it," says Harlin, whose own horror credits include 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master and 2004's Exorcist: The Beginning. "I didn't really know anything about it when I saw it and I just loved it. I thought it was fantastic and it's stuck in my mind as one of my favorite horror films." The Strangers fan is now a Strangers filmmaker — three times over. Harlin has directed a trilogy of movies inspired by filmmaker Bryan Bertino's original film. "When this opportunity came to me, the idea of not doing a remake or a reboot but doing a trilogy based on the original film, I thought it was an incredible opportunity," he says.

John Armour/Lionsgate 'The Strangers Trilogy'

The Strangers: Chapter 1 stars Madelaine Petsch (Riverdale) as a young woman named Maya starting a new life with her fiancé Ryan, played by Froy Gutierrez (Teen Wolf, Cruel Summer). During a road trip stop at a remote vacation rental in the woods, they become the prey of a mysterious gang of masked strangers who attack without warning or reason. Harlin explains that the first film, written by Alan R. Cohen & Alan Freedland, "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."

The director teases that the trilogy, which is completed by The Strangers: Chapter 2 and The Strangers: Chapter 3, will "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?"

John Armour/Lionsgate Froy Gutierrez and Madelaine Petsch in 'The Strangers Trilogy'

Harlin admits that casting his two leads was a testing task.

"Obviously Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman did a fantastic job in the original film and those were some big shoes to fill," says the director. "We looked long and hard for our scream queen. When I spoke with Madelaine I just knew that she was an exceptional person, exceptional actor, and that's what it took to play this part. In the same way, after looking long and hard, we found Froy Gutierrez, who is another wonderful young actor. We wanted a couple who feel natural and relaxed together. Their relationship, maybe it's not identical to the relationship in the original film, but it's something that feels very natural and very real, and that to me was the key to this movie and this trilogy. It's the realism."

John Armour/Lionsgate 'The Strangers Trilogy'

The way the director tells it, a similar amount of effort was put into recreating the masks worn by the killers in the original movie as into picking the cast.

"We felt it was central to the movie that the masks are the same," says Harlin. "The masks in The Strangers are not like the Batsuit or something that evolves over years. To us, the Strangers are the Strangers, and I, as an audience member, wanted to see them just the way they were in the original film. Is there a place where you can find these masks? No. It was a process of studying what they were like, how were they made, how they fit on the actors' faces, how [to] create that same impression. It was one of the real challenges of the movie."

Harlin shot all three films simultaneously last year in Slovakia, working with producers Courtney Solomon and Mark Canton. The director says the production 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. it was incredibly demanding for the actors, for the continuity in terms of the make-up and wardrobe, and for my director of photography, because we wanted to create a visual language that develops so that the movies get bigger, more epic, as we go [on]. It just kept all of our juices pumping all the time."

The Strangers Trilogy is set for release in theaters next year. Harlin and producer Solomon will be participating in a panel about the three films at New York Comic Con on Oct. 12.

Exclusively see first look images from The Strangers Trilogy above.

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