“But there ain’t no way I’m ever gonna love you, now don’t be sad”
– Meatloaf “Two out of Three Ain’t Bad”
THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT is pretty good. I’ve seen it compared to the original HALLOWEEN 2, but I’m not sure that gives PREY AT NIGHT enough credit—and I also think that gives the first STRANGERS (which I like) too much credit. PREY takes the “Strangers” characters and makes an 80’s style slasher with them, and, for the most part, it works. Coming out of the movie, it felt to me more like collection of really cool moments, than a movie, but the really cool moments, are in fact really cool, and the really coolest of them all is the “pool scene”. It’s one of the best–if not the best–horror sequences of the year, and makes the movie worth checking out, even if you aren’t crazy about the rest of it. Anyway, here’s a list of 5 things I loved about the “pool scene” in THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT.
5. Ax on Concrete
Part of what made the original STRANGERS movie work so well was the killers lack of any sort of motive. There is never a reason given for why the trio of killers (Pin-Up, Dollface, and Man in the Mask) terrorize Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler’s characters in the original, and there isn’t one given in PREY AT NIGHT either. Like Michael Myers, the killers are the manifestation of a cold, cruel, and uncaring universe in human form.
That concept is what the sound of that metal ax being dragged across concrete reminds me of. It’s not like nails on a chalk board– as that’s what I imagine Hell to be like—this sound is different. It’s cold, empty, and hollow. A sound that represents so much of what makes the randomness of these killings terrifying.
4. Blood in the Water
Jaws. That’s the other go to character in horror when you want to compare someone or something to another mindless, indiscriminate killing machine, and once inside the pool the “Man in the Mask’s” attack plays out like a shark attack. As the blood flows out of Luke, and billows into the water, it’s reminiscent of the sight of chum floating, looking to attract a shark. Plus, blood in the water just looks cool.
The “Man in the Mask” pool attack is also where the film becomes a different movie. After stabbing Luke in the pool, the “Man in the Mask” leaves him to die, and as the camera lingers over his body, his sister, Kinsey, rushes in from off-screen to pull him to safety. I’m not sure how I feel about it to be honest. It’s a nice moment and all, but it also feels like a moment that doesn’t quite go all the way, or a moment that was changed after a test screening. PREY AT NIGHT really could have explored some place dark by letting Luke bleed out in the water, but it doesn’t go that route, and plays it safer, which is fine, but it feels like the first step away from the bleakness that permeates much of the film.
3. Zoom
https://media.giphy.com/media/1fn0IoL1htZ96MA4mY/giphy.gif
Sometimes things just look cool and don’t need to be analyzed that much.
2. Electric Palm Trees
Speaking of things that look cool: those palm trees. THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT goes for an 80’s, technicolor aesthetic throughout, and I dug it. I’ve grown a bit sensitive to this sort of aesthetic recently, but I don’t think PREY AT NIGHT overplays its hand, and the way that it’s used helps to give the film some resonance thematically, as well as some depth to its characters. The electric trees are cool looking, but in a tacky, and kitschy sort of way. As deep as saying “Hey, remember the 80’s”, and the characters of “The Strangers” owning them actually adds to the cold emptiness that envelopes the family caught in their sights.
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1. Total Eclipse of the Heart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcOxhH8N3Bo
This is a great song. I think sometimes people forget that, and that might be because I think some people like it ironically, or they like the Dan Band version from OLD SCHOOL, which I guess is the same is liking it ironically. But “Total Eclipse of the Heart” is an all-timer. I really like the way music is used in this movie too. When “Total Eclipse of the Heart” kicks in, we actually hear the record warp, letting us know that this a song that “The Strangers” play when they are hanging out.
The whole soundtrack is pretty good, but it’s the use of the two Jim Steinman penned songs, “Total Eclipse” and “Making Love out of Nothing at all”, that stick out the most. Steinmann is known for composing songs such as “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”, “Two out of Three Ain’t Bad”, “It’s all Coming Back to Me Now”, and others. Those songs are all theatrical, and overflowing with emotion, not something I would associate with what we see of the killers in THE STRANGERS movies. Like the electric lights, the music in PREY is used to give a little bit of depth to the killers, and makes you wonder what they’re like when they aren’t killing people. I also like the dichotomy between the music, and the blank, empty nature of the characters, as it works in a way that comments on people that use this kind of stuff as a substitute for a personality. I like to think of “The Strangers” as the type of people who corner you at a party to talk to you, but can only discuss a very specific set of topics, in “The Strangers” case it’s songs by Jim Steinman, and electric palm trees.
When THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT works, it really works. And it never works more than it does during this scene. It’s a scene I love, in a movie I kind of like. There’s more to the movie after this particular scene, including a scene with one of “The Strangers” driving a flaming truck (which does rule), but the “Pool Scene” feels like the culmination of everything PREY AT NIGHT is trying to accomplish.