The Thriller Series On Hulu Officially Recut Into A Movie
The Stranger—not to be confused with The Strangers: Chapter 1, which was also released this year—is a story about how the people you meet can have hidden agendas you would never have imagined. Having originally aired as a series of shorts, being recut into a movie gave The Stranger a second chance at making waves. Despite this release, the film still ended up lacking a strong enough story to stand out.
Saved From Quibi
The Stranger tells the story of a rideshare driver named Claire as she picks up a man late at night during her shift. She’s new to the area and eager to make some money. What she doesn’t realize is that her passenger, Carl, has been targeting her and will now take her on one of the most terrifying 12-hour fights for survival ever.
If you feel you’ve somehow watched this movie despite it coming out this year, you might just be right. Interestingly, The Strangers was originally a series of 13 short episodes on Quibi in 2020 before the streaming service was absorbed by Roku.
Quibi had one nice feature going for it, which is that after two years, the original creators of media on the platform were allowed to retain ownership of their work, which allowed The Stranger to be recut into a movie.
Taps Into A Rational Fear
The story in The Stranger is one many people will instantly connect to. There is something rather terrifying about picking up strangers in the middle of the night, even as part of your job. Within the first few minutes, it’s easy to get swept up in the horror.
Unfortunately, while The Strangers starts strong, the movie ends up biting off more than it can chew, leading to a story filled with confusing aspects and a rather unbelievable ending.
The Stars Have Gone On To Big Things
The Stranger wasn’t a favorite amongst reviewers. On Rotten Tomatoes, critics gave the recut an average score of 50 percent. Meanwhile, audience members liked it even less, with an average score of 38 percent.
The movie’s poor reviews don’t come down to bad acting. Actually, the main actors were all great, with Maika Monroe (Longlegs) playing Clare, Dane DeHaan (Oppenheimer) as Carl, and Avan Jogia (Door Mouse) as J.J. all played their parts well. Though these actors did a great job, they couldn’t carry the story when competing with bad writing and several continuity errors.
Come For The Crazy Guy, Stay For The Chihuahua
Reviews of The Stranger point out several inconsistencies in the story that just don’t make sense. Additionally, the plot was all over the place, with mentions of Claire having accused men of hurting her before, a family being murdered only for the cops to decide the 911 call was a prank, and even a chihuahua who could summon coyotes.
Streaming On Hulu
REVIEW SCORE
While there have definitely been worse horror movies, The Stranger is disappointing in its failure. With such an interesting premise and actors skilled enough to pull off the film, it could have been much more unique and interesting than it was if given a little extra love.
If you want to see this wild ride of a thriller for yourself the movie version of The Stranger is available to watch on Hulu. Just be ready to suspend your disbelief a little if you want to enjoy it fully.
