Why is “The Strangers: Chapter 2” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “bloody violence, and language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes some non-sexual partial nudity, many scenes of brutal violence by people with axes, knives and crossbows killing people and causing bloodshed, an attack on a young woman by a boar with large tusks, a discussion of missing persons and random murder, and at least 13 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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A follow-up to the first chapter: A woman and her fiancé are brutally attacked and stabbed by masked people, and when the woman survives the attack, she is hunted down by the attackers to silence her from revealing what is going on. Also with Madelaine Petsch, Gabriel Basso, Ema Horvath, Olivia Kreutzova, Matus Lajcak, Brooke Lena Johnson, JR Esposito, Richard Brake and Pedro Leandro. Directed by Renny Harlin. [Running Time: 1:36]

The Strangers: Chapter 2 SEX/NUDITY 3

 – A young girl kisses a young boy on a playground. A man admires a restaurant server as she walks away.
► A young woman wakes up in a bed wearing underwear and we see cleavage, bare abdomen, back, legs and partial buttocks. A woman wears a low-cut sweater that reveals cleavage. A young woman’s hospital gown pulls up to reveal her bare legs to the hips while she cowers under a fallen tree.

The Strangers: Chapter 2 VIOLENCE/GORE 8

 – Three people stand around a wounded man lying in the woods; a man with a hood over his head raises an axe and strikes him several times (we see large bloody gashes on his abdomen) and the two others straddle him and stab him with knives. A young girl knocks on a playhouse door and beats another girl that answers the door with a rock and we hear a thud (we later see the girl’s body in a large pool of blood); the first girl is splattered with blood and we see the rock coated with blood and a smiley face is drawn in the puddle of blood under the victim.
► A young woman walks through a hospital followed by a man wearing a hood over his head and carrying an axe; she runs into a dumbwaiter and rides it to another floor as a person wearing a mask tries to get her out; she runs away from the axe-wielding man, hides in a mechanical room and sprays him with liquid nitrogen, and hides in a morgue in a locker with the body of her fiancé; the killer hits a staff person in the chest with the axe and drags him out of the room leaving a smear of blood on the floor.
► A young woman arms herself with a pitchfork and she and an attacker fight briefly: the young woman stabs the attacker in the leg with the pitchfork, runs away and locks herself in a bathroom until a man with an axe breaks through the door, grabs the young woman by the hair (she pulls away, pulling her hair out), she climbs out a window and runs onto a road in front of a car that squeals to a stop. A young woman drives away in an ambulance, she is attacked by someone hiding in the back, stabs the attacker in the eye with a pair of scissors and drives away; the stabbed person attacks her again, wrapping a belt around her throat and the young woman causes the ambulance to crash and flip on its side ejecting the attacker onto the road (we see the dead body later). A young woman uses scissors to stab a person standing behind her, they struggle briefly and the young woman leaves the room to find two other people tied into chairs and with their throats slashed (we see a lot of blood).
► A woman shoots a crossbow and hits a man in the eye (we see the bloody wound and the arrow sticking out of his eye); the shooter shoots at a young woman as she speeds away in a truck that overheats and she pounds on the door of a house pleading for help. A man is shown dead with a plastic bag wrapped over his head and face.
► A young woman builds a fire in the woods and hears something trampling toward her; she hides in an abandoned car when something chases her and it shatters one of the car windows; it gets in the trunk of the car and pushes the backseat forward to reach the young woman, she gets out of the car and a large boar charges toward her, bites her leg and thrashes her around (we see the bloody wound as she screams); she lies motionless, the boar walks away, then charges toward her, she hits it with a burning stick and holds a large knife and the animal is stabbed when it jumps on top of her; it falls to the ground, moans and thrashes and she stabs it repeatedly to kill it. A young woman runs out of a hospital and along a dark road in the rain and to a building where another woman holds her at gunpoint as she pleads for help; the second woman is shot through the back with a crossbow (we see the point and blood) and falls dead. A young girl picks up a small mouse and holds it in her hands; we hear a crack and the mouse stops squeaking when the child kills it (below the frame).
► A young woman pushes furniture in front of a door and someone with a large knife tries to push it open. A young woman gets into a car that stops on a road before hitting her; she screams and panics when they lock the doors and she cannot get out and two men get into the car seated next to her and she becomes nervous; she grabs a large knife placed on the console and jumps out the door rolling down an incline and runs through a dark forest chased by the people in the car. A man is startled at a seemingly empty gas station when an attendant slides out from under a car. A man speeds away in a car (he is apparently drunk). A man seems threatening when he talks to a young woman and stands very close to her in a few scenes.
► A young woman in a hospital hears voices in the hallway and hears a staff person calling for help during a scuffle; she removes her monitors causing alarms to blare as she walks to the hallway and there is no one around, the lights turn off, the doors are all locked and there is no cell service. A woman uses a large knife to cut an apple. A young woman imagines her fiancé lying next to her in a hospital bed and then sees a person wearing a mask over his head and she wakes up in a panic. Several flashbacks show children playing in a schoolyard and a young girl watches as a young boy plays with a girl and she seems jealous.
► A young woman opens her hospital gown to remove a blood-soaked bandage and we see a wound on her abdomen with blood oozing out; she pours a disinfectant on the wound and yells and uses a needle and sutures to close the wound again (we hear squishing and see more blood pouring out) and she bites on a stick to help deal with the pain; she gags but does not vomit. A young woman with several bloody wounds drags her leg behind her as she walks through woods and finds a cabin with police tape that she crosses; we see bloodstains on the floor where bodies had been. A young woman is shown with many stitched and bandaged wounds. A young woman in a hospital bed with monitors and IVs wakes with a start and is told that her fiancé died from losing too much blood. A man opens a barn door and we hear something snorting and rustling around inside (we do not see it).
► We read that in 2023, 1670 people were murdered by strangers. A woman describes an attack and says that it seemed like a ritual and that the perpetrators seemed to enjoy it.

The Strangers: Chapter 2 LANGUAGE 6

 – About 13 F-words, 6 scatological terms, 2 anatomical terms, 2 mild obscenities, name-calling (sweetie pie, sinners, arrogant [anatomical term deleted], suicidal, vicious killers), 3 religious exclamations (e.g. Jesus, Jesus Christ). | profanity glossary |

The Strangers: Chapter 2 SUBSTANCE USE

 – A young man holds a bottle of beer, a man drinks from a bottle of liquor in a few scenes, and a woman yells at a man telling him that he is drunk and cannot drive. A nurse smokes a cigarette outside a hospital.

The Strangers: Chapter 2 DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Murder, ritualistic murder, ghost stories, missing persons, evil, jealousy.

The Strangers: Chapter 2 MESSAGE

 – You never know what a killer looks like.