'The Strangers' Was Inspired by a Chilling, Twisted True Story

June 2024 ยท 7 minute read

The Big Picture

In 2022 it was announced that the 2008 horror film The Strangers would be getting a three-movie reboot intended to give more insight into the titular Strangers' motivations. Directed by Renny Harlin, the first of the trilogy has made its anticipated release, much to the delight of horror fans. But with a new installment in the franchise, it also feels like the perfect time to revisit the first movie. Written and directed by Bryan Bertino The Strangers stars Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman as Kristen and James, a couple who come to stay at James' childhood summer home after a friend's wedding. Things are already off to a rocky start as Kristen turned down James' marriage proposal, leaving behind some major strain on their relationship. But things only get worse as their night is interrupted by a knock on the door. The woman is cloaked by shadows, her face hidden in the night, and she chillingly asks if "Tamara is home", to which James and Kristen inform her she has the wrong house. But later the woman returns, asking the same creepy question, and this time when Kristen sends her off we discover that she's not alone in the house, there's a man with a bag over his head silently watching her every move. James and Kristen soon learn that they're being targeted by a group of masked killers who are playing a deviously deadly game of cat and mouse. And when Kristen asks why they chose them, one of the Strangers simply replies "Because you were home." It's a simple, yet terrifyingly effective, motive and it makes the entire movie feel all the more unsettling. James and Kristen didn't do anything to anyone, there is no reason for them to be targeted, they just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Home invasion movies are already one of the more unsettling horror sub-genres. Home is where you're meant to feel the safest. So to be randomly chosen and attacked by mask-wearing murderers is about as unsettling as it gets. And as it turns out, James and Kristen's situation in the movie isn't entirely fictional and was actually experienced by Bryan Bertino himself. Albeit, to a lesser degree.

The Strangers
R Release Date May 29, 2008 Director Bryan Bertino Cast Liv Tyler , Scott Speedman , Glenn Howerton , Gemma Ward , Kip Weeks , Laura Margolis Runtime 107 Main Genre Horror Writers Bryan Bertino Studio Universal Studios Tagline Lock the doors. Assume you're safe. Website http://www.thestrangers.net/ Expand

'The Strangers' Is Based on a True Story From Bryan Bertino's Childhood

Some of the best ideas come from real-life experiences, this is something Bryan Bertino knows well. In the production notes of The Strangers, Bertino spoke of how he came up with the movie's premise, and revealed that something similar happened to him as a child. "As a kid, I lived in a house on a street in the middle of nowhere. One night, while our parents were out, somebody knocked on the front door and my little sister answered it." Bertino began.

" At the door were some people asking for somebody that didn't live there . We later found out that these people were knocking on doors in the area and, if no one was home, breaking into the houses. In The Strangers , the fact that someone is at home does not deter the people who've knocked on the front door; it's the reverse."

Obviously, Bertino and his sister were unharmed but it was still a scary moment nonetheless, and it translated well to the big screen where he could fully delve into the fear behind that moment and give it a more gnarly and sinister twist. Rather than just breaking into the home, Bertino made The Strangers sadistic murderers. They're absolutely relentless and pretty damn scary because of it. And though the general plot and inciting incident of the film stemmed from a memory from Bryan Bertino's childhood, the motivation behind the killers, and the subsequent effect their actions have on the victims, stemmed from a real-world murder spree.

Bryan Bertino Drew Inspiration From the Manson Murders When Making 'The Strangers'

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While the biggest draw of The Strangers is the titular Strangers, for Bryan Bertino his focus was on creating a horror story from the victim's perspective. He didn't want to create a cut-and-dry slasher, he wanted to create something deeply unsettling and put the audience in the shoes of the characters being targeted. His motivation behind this angle is due in part to his experience learning about the Manson murders at a young age. "When I was a kid, I read Helter Skelter," Bertino explained in an interview with Shock Till You Drop in 2008.

"I went off to this small town to stay with my grandmother, and my dad - I have no idea why - said, 'Hey, do you want to read a book while you're gone?' And he gives me Helter Skelter which is definitely big boy reading. Even now, what grabs me, is that it's not the section about who Charles Manson was or what was going on with the family. I was thinking about the Tate murders and realizing that these detailed descriptions had painted a story of what it was like in the house with the victims. But none of the victims knew about the Manson family or why it was happening to them. So, I got really fascinated with telling the victims' tale . And not filling it in with an FBI profile and not filling it in with finding out that somebody's grandmother beat them and now they want to kill everybody. You read obituaries every day where someone is killed for a random reason. Yes, we may eventually find out why, but sometimes they don't."

As disturbing as it is, one of the best parts of The Strangers is the psychological effect the events have on James and Kirsten. They have no idea why this is happening to them, which makes the entire situation feel all the more scary, and even when they ask why, they're not given a satisfying answer. Instead, they're just left to wonder why them, and think about how they could have possibly avoided such a fate. But that was always Bertino's goal. He wanted the audience to sympathize with Kirsten and James, he wanted the audience to feel for them and root for them, and what better way to evoke those emotions than to really get under the skin?

"Early on when I started writing, I figured out that a way to connect with people was to scare them. Through doing that, you can talk about other emotions, other feelings and connect with them more easily. Crimes are committed all the time that nobody has a chance to explain to the victim why it happened. It just happens. And we're left to deal with the aftermath." Bertino explained in the movie's production notes. "Something gets missed in a lot of scary movies these days. I set out to write a raw, spare script that would have only a few characters in it. One with a couple in a relationship, rather than just two people suddenly brought together. I didn't want to lose sight of the characters and go right to the scares. By concentrating on both, I hoped to access a lot of different emotions on-screen and with audiences."

So not only was Bryan Bertino drawing from his own memory of a similar event, but he also pulled a lot of real-world inspiration from such a heavily publicized murder case. Put together, those aspects helped to create one of the most effective horror films to come out of the 2000s. The new trilogy of The Strangers films seems to be going for a similar vibe, having spent a significant amount of time introducing us to our main characters and their dynamic, but only time will tell if the rest of the trilogy pans out in effectiveness. As twisted as it sounds, the raw nature of the original film is what makes it so good. The fear is palpable, and it's unwavering for the entirety of the runtime. And knowing it was based on a true story only furthers that.

The Strangers is available to stream on Max in the U.S.

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