Madelaine Petsch has admitted that she shed "a lot of behind-the-scenes tears" filming The Strangers trilogy.
The Riverdale actress, who plays the lead character Maya Lucas in the standalone horror trilogy, filmed all three chapters at the same time during a 52-day shoot in Bratislava, Slovakia in late 2022, and then returned for a month of additional photography in early 2025.
During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Petsch admitted she found it difficult being away from her loved ones while playing a character terrorised by three psychopathic masked strangers.
"There were a lot of behind-the-scenes tears on these films because they were hard," she candidly admitted. "The hours were crazy. I was isolated from my family. I was shooting in a different country that was 12 hours ahead of them. It's already really isolating to shoot a horror film and have to go to those places. So there were a lot of tears. I also cry easily, though."
The Strangers: Chapter 1 was released in May 2024, followed by Chapter 2 in September 2025 and Chapter 3 last week. Additional photography took place after the release of the first film, with the team making minor tweaks to the second outing and significantly overhauling the finale.
Petsch explained, "If I'm being honest, we left about 80 per cent of the original movie three shoot on the floor. We then came in and enhanced movie three for about 15 days at the top of (2025)."
The 31-year-old, who is also an executive producer on the series, also revealed that she pushed for the final chapter to be released sooner than Lionsgate executives had originally planned.
"I'll be honest, I did go into Lionsgate and spend about three hours there with (Lionsgate Vice Chairman) Michael Burns and (Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Chairman) Adam Fogelson," she said. "I was like, 'Let me tell you why (we shouldn't wait a year).' And they were all on board... So we just got really lucky that Feb. 6 was open and available."
The Strangers: Chapter 3 is now showing in cinemas.
