Interview with Director Renny Harlin: The Strangers: Chapter 2
Director Renny Harlin(Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger, Exorcist: The Beginning)
Janel- How are you Renny? I am so sorry I’m muted.
Renny- It’s okay because you are either invisible and you can hear things or you are visible, but you cannot say anything.
[Laughter]
Janel- The Strangers: Chapter 2 was fun. You did an amazing job with the action, the suspense, and I do not want to give spoilers but I was a little pissed off with the ending. It ended, and I said, WHY does it have to end now? Are you going to do another one?
Renny- Oh yes, we’ve already made the third one. Thank you so much for your compliments. I appreciate it. We wanted to leave it at a cliffhanger because we shot all three movies at the same time. It really is one big four-and-a-half-hour movie that we chopped into three pieces. We wanted to tell a story that takes place over four days, and start out with the premise of the original Strangers, except if the same thing happened with a brutal home invasion, and the couple was attacked but what if she survived. Her fiancé is dead, and she waked up in a hospital the next day, and that’s where we start the second movie. We explore her journey and what happens to an individual who goes something this traumatic. Does she give up, and die? Does she fight back? What will she do? Will she stay in survival mode? We also wanted to explore The Strangers themselves. We wanted to give people a peak under the hood. We wanted to give the audience some clues as to where all of this is coming from, and who Tamara is. We are almost done with the third movie so, you can look for it next year.
Janel- That’s exciting. I was to see some empathy or compassion as the story was being told. I did feel some empathy and compassion for the Man in the Mask/ Scarecrow Man. How do you prepare your actors for all of these intense scenes.
Renny- Yes. I think it’s interesting that you say that you can see empathy and compassion in the Man in the Mask. I appreciate that, and I do not want to defend serial killers. I want to say that all people are human beings, and I do not think all people are evil all the time. People have different shades of things, and some people are sociopaths, and do horrendous things. There may still be a side of them where you see a flicker of compassion. I think that makes it interesting. In terms of the actors going through all of this, we went through a lot of actors and we made it clear that this would be an emotionally, and physically draining. She knew it going in. I don’t think she expected the physical hardships.
Janel- I thank you so much. Thank you for taking the time. The film is awesome.
Renny- Thank you, Janel.
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THE STRANGERS – CHAPTER 2 is taking you to Venus,Oregon.
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