Saw XI may not be on the calendar following its cancellation, but horror fans can find a smidgen of comfort as another film from the genre has taken its release date.
As per Deadline, The Strangers: Chapter 2 will take its release date of September 26, with the follow-up seeing Renny Harlin return in the director’s chair whilst Madelaine Petsch reprises her role as Maya.
The Strangers: Chapter 2 was filmed between the other two instalments of the trilogy, which is itself a reboot of the original 2008 film. Whilst there are no plot details on the second film, Petsch did previously confirm that the trilogy takes place over the course of five days.
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“I like to look at these three bodies of work,” she said. “[It’s] really a character study on if you push a person past their breaking point, who are they left with at the end of the day?
“That's the journey of Maya through the three films. The Strangers continue to absolutely ruin this girl's life.”
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Whilst The Strangers franchise is going on strong, the same cannot be said for Saw, with the 11th film in the series recently being cancelled despite the critical and commercial success of Saw X.
The axing is reportedly down to a dispute at boardroom level, with Patrick Melton explaining that he and co-writer Marcus Dunstan “haven’t heard anything” since the pair turned in the first draft of their script last year.
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“It’s stalled at a managerial level,” he said. “It has nothing to do with the creative [team] or anything else. There’s higher-level things at play. There’s inter-squabbling between producers and Lionsgate. They just can’t quite get on the same page.”
“It [Saw XI]taps into the same themes of Saw VI, where you’re a citizen, you feel angry and frustrated with something, you feel like you can’t do anything, and John Kramer’s going to do it,” he said of the prospective film.
The Strangers: Chapter 2 is scheduled to be released on September 26.
Reporter, Digital Spy George is a freelance writer who specialises in Movies and TV. After graduating with a degree in Film Studies and Journalism from De Montfort University, in which he analysed the early works of Richard Linklater for his dissertation, he wrote for several websites for GRV Media. His film tastes vary from blockbusters like Mission: Impossible and John Wick to international directors such as Paolo Sorrentino and Hirokazu Kore-eda, and has attended both the London and Berlin film festivals.
