10 Horror Movies That Are All Too Real
5. The Strangers
Tapping deep into the universal fear of stranger danger, Bryan Bertino’s directorial debut The Strangers showed audiences around the world that even our own home could be the setting for violence.
Unlike other home-invasion films like Funny Games, Hush, and Them, the horror from The Strangers comes from just its just how ordinary and mundane it presents itself. There’s no moody atmosphere, no ultra-violence, no flashy filmmaking techniques; all it shows us is a couple (Liv Taylor and Scott Speedman) alone in a big house as they fall prey to a group of masked strangers who torment them just because they “were home”, as the invaders put it.
A wholly nihilistic representation of senseless violence, although the film wasn’t greeted by a particularly warm critical reception, it nevertheless presents horror fans with a genuinely horrific event that could happen to anyone.
To further ground the realism of the film’s events, Bertino drew upon the murder of Sharon Tate by the Manson family along with childhood memories of burglars who’d knock on random houses and break into them if nobody answered.
Remember to make sure you lock your door tonight.