Last week, 47 Meters Down director Johannes Roberts talked about his latest gig, directing long-awaited sequel The Strangers 2, and the influences he is bringing to the film. Two films he mentioned were John Carpenter’s Christine and Steven Spielberg’s made-for-TV suspense classic Duel, suggesting a road movie element to the film. The somewhat surprising inspirations begin to make more sense this week, as the director reveals that the Ford pickup truck seen at the end of the first film will play a big part in his sequel.
“We play with the truck a lot in this one, and that’s kind of fun,” Roberts said. “It has a slight Christine feel to it. That’s kind of cool. You know, The Strangers’ truck in the first one. That plays quite an iconic role in this.”
Roberts went on to talk of his love for Bryan Bertino’s 2008 original, and how he plans to keep his film consistent with its tone.
“I love the first one. I think it’s a super cool movie,” he said. “It’s really smartly put together and I think [Bertino] did a really good job of creating a really oddly paced movie. In a good way. You know, people have played with the whole mask thing since then… they haven’t really done that sort of pacing, and set it in a drama, or the feel the first one had. So it’s a great opportunity to try something a little different, for me. There’s a real grounded drama. You really buy into this family and the journey they’re going through before everything goes horribly wrong.”
Bertino scripted the new film – which stars Martin Henderson, Christina Hendricks, Bailee Madison and Lewis Pullman – together with Ben Ketai (The Forest).
The film follows a family whose road trip takes a turn when they arrive at a secluded mobile home park and after the power goes out they decide to hunker down for the night in a borrowed trailer. Under the cover of darkness, three familiar masked psychopaths pay them a visit to test their every limit.
The Strangers 2 is filming now.
Words: Kevan Farrow (@KevanX)
