YMMV / The Strangers: Prey at Night

• Alternative Character Interpretation: When Pin-Up Girl is killed by Luke, the Man in the Mask seems to get particularly vicious with his axe swings. Did he care about her in some way, and now he’s pissed off at Luke? The ”I killed one of yours” beforehand seems to imply this.
• Awesome Music:
  • "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler provides a surprisingly fitting counterpoint for Luke's brawl with the Man in the Mask in the swimming pool.
  • "Making Love Out of Nothing at All" by Air Supply is used to chilling effect in one of the final scenes, when the Man in the Mask chases Kinsey in the still-burning truck.
• Catharsis Factor: Seeing all three killers meet their demise is this for those who didn’t like that they got away with their crimes in the first movie.
• Critical Dissonance: The film has received mixed to negative reviews from critics (with a 35% Tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes), but audiences have overall been more positive (albeit still rather mixed, with 65% on the same site).
• Jerkass Woobie: Kinsey really deserves a hug after everything she endured, especially the long-term trauma she is clearly stuck dealing with at the end as her mind makes her believe that the killers are still alive and coming for her.
• Nightmare Retardant: Somehow, the Man in the Mask is much less scary than he was in the first movie after being turned into a stereotypical slasher. In the first, his one-dimensionality added to to his character because he was simply a man who, along with his cohorts, did evil things because they could, which surprisingly made him believable. Here, he acts like a Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers clone, right down to being a relentless, Nigh-Invulnerable Determinator.