Rumblings of a sequel to this year’s surprise hit “The Strangers” surfaced not long ago, and now Rogue Pictures has made it official, handling over writing chores (and one presumes, producer credit) back to Bryan Bertino, who scripted and made his directorial debut with the first one. Chances are Bertino won’t be directing the sequel, although since the movie was his darling to begin with, it’s probably not beyond the realm of reason to expect the sequel to be less crappy than your average horror movie sequel, right?

Also boding well for the sequel, Variety says that Liv Tyler, who survived the first film, and the masked bastards that terrorized her, would also return for the sequel. Of course, that’s the hope.

Another reason why Bertino probably won’t be back to direct the sequel is his work load. Besides scripting the supernatural flick “Black”, he’s got “Alone” waiting in the wings to direct. “Alone”, I’m guessing, is an American remake of the Thai film of the same name. The synopsis kinda sounds familiar:

A woman who, after she suffers a tragedy, becomes a shut-in in a fancy apartment. Trouble is, the place is haunted and she soon finds herself seeing things.

Okay, that’s not quite like the Thai movie, but sorta the same. Probably.

In any case, if Liv Tyler returns to “The Strangers”, I don’t see the sequel going direct-to-DVD. Hell, they can kill off her character and turn this thing into another “Saw” franchise, and just keep changing the people behind the mask as needed.