One Of The Best Horror Sequels Ever Is Streaming For Free On Tubi

This article contains spoilers for "The Strangers: Prey at Night."

Renny Harlin's "The Strangers: Chapter 2" is now in theaters, but the horror sequel has been widely panned by critics. /Film's Rafael Motamayor called the middle entry in the proposed trilogy a "misstep" in his review, and yet he's being extraordinarily kind. Not only does Harlin misunderstand what makes the Strangers scary to begin with, he doesn't possess the confidence to really go wild with his deviations. It's all so listless and lazy, but thankfully, there's already an excellent "Strangers" sequel that you can watch for free (with ads) right now on Tubi.

Released to theaters a decade after Bryan Bertino's 2008 home invasion chiller, "The Strangers: Prey at Night" was initially seen as a superfluous horror sequel. Some critics praised "Prey at Night" for its visual flourishes, but it was largely dismissed when compared to the more grounded original. Allow me to be the person who finally has the platform to say that not only is the Johannes Roberts-directed sequel better than the original, it's flat out one of the best slashers of the 2010s. If you think I sound crazy, then imagine how I had to justify this position to myself back in 2018.

Rather than picking up the same story thread from the original, "The Strangers: Prey at Night" instead follows a family who stops at a secluded trailer park for the night on the way to bring Kinsey (Bailee Madison), the troublemaking teenage daughter, to boarding school. It initially follows the conventions of the first movie with the same ominous knock on the door, which makes sense considering Bertino returns to co-write the screenplay with Ben Katai. But "Prey at Night" wisely forges its own bloody path that sets it apart from most slasher sequels in some pretty noteworthy ways.

The enigmatic Tamara is seemingly never home, but the three masked strangers known as Dollface (Emma Bellomy), Pin-up Girl (Lea Enslin), and the Man in the Mask (Damian Maffei) — whom I will refer to as Sackhead to avoid confusion — are right where they want to be. I find it way more harrowing to witness an entire family inadvertently ringing the killer's dinner bell than a secluded couple. They're an emotionally fractured bunch who are unfortunately brought together by way of surviving the night. Roberts wisely veers from slow burn home invasion horror to moody slasher without losing the original's mean streak.

It also helps that the actors playing the Strangers cleverly demonstrate glimmers of personalities underneath those masks that make them feel truly singular. Sackhead is lost without some '80s pop tunes to accompany his protracted kills, Pin-Up Girl loves being a sneaky sneak, and Dollface embraces the intimacy of her slayings. The way she slowly creeps up on Christina Hendricks' Cindy with a knife, while Cindy is still holding her daughter's hand, arguably makes the shocking early demise just as upsetting as the ending of the first movie, if not more so. It's when the closed-off Kinsey tears down her walls and starts calling her "mommy" as the knife goes in that this becomes a truly terrifying movie moment.

Another feather in "Prey at Night's" cap is how stylish it is, with foggy nighttime sets that you can actually see, split diopter shots, and long voyeuristic pull-ins. The trailer park is a fun murder playground for a slasher movie that allows for plenty of great opportunities to run, hide, and fight — with its best set piece serving as the film's lynchpin.

"The Strangers: Prey at Night" kicks into high gear when big brother Luke ("Thunderbolts*" star Lewis Pullman) makes a stand at the trailer park pool area. One flip of a switch and neon lights wash the place in flashing colors. Just when you think Pin-Up Girl is about to get the drop, Luke gets the upper hand with a golf club and his attacker's own knife. This is where "Prey at Night" finally stands up to the killers, and the movie soars as a result. The ensuing axe battle between Luke and Sackhead is intense and heartpounding, as Bonnie Tyler and Jim Steinman's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" underscores their struggle in the pool.

"Prey at Night" is the rare horror franchise sequel that's not afraid to actually kill its cash cows in favor of what makes sense for the story. We're conditioned to accept the Strangers as apathetic killing machines that always get the upper hand, which makes it even more engaging when they start receiving a cathartic taste of their own medicine. The last 10 minutes may push your believability on the damage that Sackhead can take, but the inclusion of back-to-back visual references to John Carpenter's "Christine" and Tobe Hooper's "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" that manage to not feel tacky is certainly a point in this slasher's favor.

"The Strangers: Prey at Night" is currently streaming on Tubi.