The Strangers: Chapter 1 | 2024 | R | – 4.7.7

Why is “The Strangers: Chapter 1” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “horror violence, language and brief drug use.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes an implied sex scene, a few kissing scenes, a murder with an ax, a person shot to death with a shotgun, two stabbings, several jump scares, people with weapons threatening other people, a near-car crash, a car being pinned against a tree by another car, and about 25 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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When a young couple (Madelaine Petsch & Froy Gutierrez) takes a road trip through Oregon to celebrate their anniversary, an unplanned stop in a cabin in the woods leads to tragedy, when everything goes terribly wrong. Also with Ben Cartwright, Stevee Davies, Richard Brake, Pedro Leandro, Ema Horvath and Janis Ahern. Directed by Renny Harlin. [Running Time: 1:31]

The Strangers: Chapter 1 SEX/NUDITY 4

 – A man and a woman kiss passionately, she straddles his lap, he carries her inside a cabin and she sits on a kitchen counter while they continue to kiss, until they are interrupted (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A man and a woman kiss while the man is driving a car (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A man and woman lie on a sofa (sex is implied) and he is wearing boxer shorts and a T-shirt (his bare legs are shown) and she is wearing his button up shirt (we see her bare legs to the hips).
► A woman showers while alone in a remote cabin and we see someone wearing a hood standing outside the shower watching her (she is unaware; we don’t see any nudity). A young woman wears a low-cut sweater that reveals cleavage.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 VIOLENCE/GORE 7

 – A man and a woman are tied into chairs in a cabin while three people wearing masks and a hood and holding weapons stand in front of them; the man in the chair is stabbed in the chest (we see blood and hear a crunch) and his chair is tipped over (blood dribbles from his mouth and he appears to die); the woman is stabbed in the lower abdomen and crotch and screams in pain before being tipped over in her chair and lying motionless. Eerie music plays as we see a dark forest during opening credits; a man runs through the forest, trips and falls, hurting his leg, and is approached by another man holding an ax and two others holding blades, and we hear an ax strike and a crunch (the act is hidden behind a tree) and we understand the man has been killed.
► Someone holding an axe breaks through the door of a remote cabin where a man and a woman run and hide; the axe-wielding person then breaks through the door of the room where they are hiding and we see another person in another room holding a large knife. A man and a woman move quietly through a cabin and outside to try to leave on a motorcycle, but it explodes as they approach (they are thrown, but unharmed). A man and a woman hide in a shed and the woman is grabbed by someone as they break a window behind her; the man fires a shotgun toward the person, they run away, the man hears a sound outside and moves to the front porch where he shoots a man and we see a body on the ground with a bloody head wound. A man and woman get into a car to speed away from a cabin, a rock is thrown through the passenger window shattering it, another vehicle slams into the side of the first vehicle several times pinning it against a tree and trapping the man inside; the woman runs away and someone slams an axe into the windshield of the car where the man shoots at the person but misses. A woman hides behind a tree and when she turns around she sees someone standing in front of her and she is struck hard knocking her unconscious; we see her being dragged by the hand by the attacker. A man runs through the woods and hides breathing heavily (he has lost his inhaler); the man presses his gun to the back of the head of someone holding a knife, the person drops the knife, turns around and the man holds the gun to the person’s head as they laugh maniacally and another man hits him hard from the side knocking him out.
► A man and a woman crawl through a crawl space under a cabin quietly and armed people walk inside the cabin above them; the man struggles to get a mouse off his back without making any sound and the woman puts her hand on a nail and it pushes through her flesh (we see blood and the nail through her hand) while she’s trying not to cry out, and the man pulls the nail out and wraps her hand with a piece of cloth. A man and a woman crawl out a window and run to a shed, the man trips and hurts his leg, they get to the shed and find a shotgun.
► A woman runs through dark woods followed by someone with a knife; the woman climbs into a pit, covers herself with leaves, and later sees a decaying body lying next to her (we see decayed flesh and maggots wriggling in the eye sockets). A woman alone in a remote cabin searches for a fuse box when the power goes out and screams when she shines her phone’s flashlight on someone standing next to her wearing a mask; she runs and hides and we hear footsteps outside the door where she is hiding. A woman alone in a remote cabin is alarmed by pounding on the door, she looks through the peephole and the person outside covers the peephole; we see someone moving behind her, inside the cabin and we hear someone singing a lullaby inside the cabin. A woman plays a piano and we see the reflection in a mirror of someone wearing a hood over their head in a rocking chair behind her. A man charges out of a cabin after someone pounds on the door and he chases someone away from the driveway. A man smears ketchup on his face after a woman complains of what a messy eater he is; they see what they think is ketchup dripping on the table and when they realize that it is blood, they look up to see a dead bird hanging above them. A woman yells in frustration when she tries to place a 911 call and she loses her cell signal. A woman is seen in a hospital bed and winces in pain when she rolls over.
► A man and a woman kiss while the man is driving a car and we hear a car honking its horn, the first driver slams on the brakes as another car swerves on the road, and the first driver uses an inhaler when he has trouble breathing after the incident. A man and a woman kiss passionately in a cabin and are interrupted by a loud pounding on the door; when they answer the door, there is someone standing on the porch in heavy shadow (we cannot see anything but the outline of their form); the pounding happens a few more times with the same person standing on the porch and then in the driveway. A woman accidentally turns on a garbage disposal and is startled by the loud noise.
► A man’s car won’t start and he accuses two other men of disabling it; a woman intervenes. A man rides a motorcycle to town to find his inhaler in his car at a mechanic’s shop; the mechanic approaches the man with a tire iron when he thinks he might be a thief. A grandfather clock’s pendulum sounds like a blade being drawn. A remote cabin in the woods is said to be the hunting lodge of a man and we see some animals on plaques inside. A man and a woman walk into a diner and people inside look at them questioningly. People behave dismissively when a man orders vegetarian dishes for his girlfriend. A missing poster hangs on the wall of a diner and people in the diner behave oddly about the man pictured. Two boys approach a man and a woman and hand them a leaflet asking them if they are sinners.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 LANGUAGE 7

 – About 25 F-words and its derivatives, 2 obscene hand gestures, 10 scatological terms, 1 anatomical term, 2 mild obscenities, name-calling (middle of nowhere, stupid, creepy, vegetarian, tough crowd, paranoid, naïve, greasy), exclamations (I’m sick of this [scatological term deleted]), 7 religious exclamations (e.g. oh my God, the Lord will set you free). | profanity glossary |

The Strangers: Chapter 1 SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man uses an inhaler in a few scenes, and a woman smokes a marijuana cigarette. People drink beer in a diner, a man drinks a beer from a bottle, a woman holds a bottle of beer and drinks some, a woman holds small bottles of Tequila and asks a man if he wants some, and people drink beer at a roadside stand.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Ambition, relationships, strangers, vegetarianism, sacrifice, murder, remote places.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 MESSAGE

 – Some horror stories really don’t need a sequel.