10 Best Horror Movie Villains With Absolutely No Motive

10. The Strangers - The Strangers (2008)

The very concept of malevolent intruders turning up in our own homes (the place we’re supposed to feel the safest) and turning them into a living hell is what makes home invasion movies so chilling. This is a very real fear, and this subgenre exploits this terror to believable and disturbing heights.

With the likes of You’re Next, Them, and Hush, there’s no shortage of horrifying home invaders that’ll inspire moviegoers to triple check they’ve locked the door at night. But it’s the titular masked intruders in writer-director Bryan Bertino’s The Strangers who best embody the innate fear of this genre.

Inspired by a collection of real-life invents (including the murder of Sharon Tate) and break-ins that happened at Berino’s childhood neighbourhood, the filmmaker’s debut follows couple James (Scott Speedman) and Kristen (Liv Tyler) arriving at their secluded vacation home after returning from a wedding.

Their evening soon descends into chaos when a group of masked intruders begin to torment them before eventually murdering the pair. The only explanation they give for their actions is “Because [they] were home.”

Sometimes people commit violence for no apparent reason, and it’s this lack of justification that makes The Strangers so unnervingly unsettling.