10 Horror Movies That Embarrassed Other Movies Released At The Same Time

Bryan Bertino's The Strangers was one of the film's responsible for re-popularising the home invasion feature in the late noughties, hitting screens in 2008 and featuring a trio of masked invaders who descend upon a couple's remote home and wreak bloody havoc. The masks are the thing that really make the film stand out, depersonalising the killers and setting the stage for a string of successful films in the subsequent years, like The Purge series.

A year later, while The Strangers was fresh in our minds and releasing onto DVD, along came The Collector. Directed by Marcus Dunstan, this home invasion flick sees a masked man -- the Collector himself -- descend on a wealthy family's home with murder in his heart the same night as an unfortunate thief attempts to rob the place.

While The Collector did offer something extra in the failed heist element, it was nonetheless built on the back of The Strangers' imagery and success, down to some of the key scenes, such as the victims accidentally killing the wrong person. But the proof is in the blood pudding, and The Strangers not only made a killing at the box office (10x its production budget), it has stood the test of time in the horror annals. And The Collector, well... anyone who knew of the film at time of release has surely now forgotten.