‘The Strangers: Chapter 1’ ending, explained: How does it set up a sequel?

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for The Strangers: Chapter 1.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 has finally slashed into theaters to kick off a new trilogy based on the Lionsgate cult classic. Since two sequels are to be released within a year, the ending of Chapter 1 also teases the franchise’s future.

The first chapter of the new The Strangers trilogy stars Madelaine Petsch (Riverdale) and Froy Gutierrez (Teen Wolf) as Mandy and Ryan, a couple of lovebirds who get stranded in the middle of nowhere after their car breaks down. Since they have to wait for a new car part to arrive the following day, Mandy and Ryan rent a cabin in the woods to spend the night. Unfortunately for them, what could be a romantic escapade turns into a nightmare when a stranger knocks on their door looking for Tamara.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 follows the template of 2008’s The Strangers by showing the battle of wits and will between a loving couple and three masked killers. Sadly, Maya and Ryan suffer the same fate as James (Scott Speedman) and Kristen (Liv Tyler) in the original movie.

What happens at the end of The Strangers: Chapter 1?

As they escape the strangers, Ryan accidentally shoots the owner of the cabin, killing him on site. The tragedy comes with a silver lining, as Maya grabs the man’s phone and uses it to call the police. Before the cops get to the isolated cabin, the three silent killers snatch the couple, drag them to the living room, and tie them to wooden chairs.

Sensing the impending doom, Ryan proposes to Maya, asking her hand and professing his love. A few moments later, he’s stabbed to death. After watching her fiancee die before her eyes, Maya is also stabbed, pushed to the ground, and left to bleed. The strangers prepare to finish Maya off when the sound of sirens and the red and blue glow of police lights approach the cabin. 

The killers quickly escape, leaving Maya barely alive. She survives her ordeal and is taken to a hospital. It seems like the movie’s end, but in the middle of the credits, we get a terrifying teaser of the things to come.

The mid-credits scene of The Strangers: Chapter 1 zooms into Maya lying on a hospital bed. She wakes in the middle of the night and sits up. As she moves away from the bed, we can see the Scarecrow killer (Matúš Lajčák) has been lying by her side, his eyes wide open as he watches her sleep. But is the Scarecrow killer truly there? Or is Maya losing her grip on reality?  

How does The Strangers: Chapter 1 set up the sequels with its mid-credits scene?

While The Strangers: Chapter 1 is a classic slasher, the following two sequels will explore the aftermath of such a gruesome attack. The goal is to understand how a home invasion can affect the psyche of survivors. Because of that, the sequels will focus on Maya’s inner universe. As Petsch, who also produces the trilogy, told WeGotThisCovered in a roundtable interview:

The first chapter of our saga is a retelling of the original film that is so beloved, including by me, in order to be a launchpad into a much larger story that we wanted to tell based on the 2008 version, where it’s like, you know, Liv Tyler’s eyes open. Then what? And so I guess to us, we were like, ‘Let’s decide then what’s in our universe, and let’s answer that question in a fun way that has nothing to do with that universe of the original The Strangers.’ So, tonally, the shift continues to happen. It becomes a lot more of a character study on a person continuously pushed past their breaking point and being left with whatever version of themself they are left with at the end. And also, while their mental health is deteriorating at the same time. So, the tone does continue to shift through the three films.

Madelaine Petsch, star and executive producer of ‘The Strangers’ trilogy

The mid-credits scene is confusing because the chances of the Scarecrow killer being in the hospital are slim. The strangers were not following Maya specifically, she just had the bad luck to be in the house they chose to attack. So, they shouldn’t know enough about their victim to find her so fast. Plus, nothing tells us that the strangers know Maya is even alive. Finally, it would be quite hard for someone wearing a spooky mask to just infiltrate a hospital without being noticed, even more so when Maya should be under strict surveillance due to the gravity of her wounds.

The most likely explanation for that surprising mid-credits scene is that Maya is hallucinating about the Scarecrow killer. That would fit Petsch’s description of the sequels as a character study of a survivor whose mental health slowly deteriorates. If that proves true, Chapter 2 is bound to be more interesting than the first one. Fortunately, we won’t have to wait too long to find out, as The Strangers: Chapter 2 is expected to be released in the Fall of 2024.