The Strangers True Story: Real-Life Crimes That Inspired The Horror Movie
The terrifying 2008 home invasion horror film The Strangers was inspired by real-life violent crimes, including shocking and brutal murders. While the horror genre is often, and not unfairly, associated with tales of monsters, ghosts, and other supernatural creatures, some of the most effective horror films of all time rely on none of those things. As playful as these nightmarish visions are, most exist in the realm of fantasy which allows audiences to view them in relative comfort.
2008 horror movie The Strangers cleverly subverts this premise, becoming scary in the process precisely because it could happen to anyone watching the film. Indeed, while critical consensus remains split on The Strangers' plot, the efficacy of the film's horror elements are unquestioned as a sadistic portrait of a home invasion. While The Strangers' insular premise introduces very few characters outside of Kristen (Liv Tyler), James (Scott Speedman), and the three strangers, its microcosmic nature allows an almost unparalleled ratcheting of tension as a young couple fights tooth and nail for their lives.
Despite the almost ethereal nature of its masked antagonists, The Strangers is based on several true stories. Several harrowing real-life crimes form the backbone of The Strangers' core narrative, including several notorious murders. Here's the real-life crimes and true stories that inspired The Strangers.
According to novice writer and director Bryan Bertino, The Strangers is primarily based on three alternate real-world events. The first is the infamous series of murders committed by the Manson Family in 1969, later nicknamed "Helter Skelter," which were organized by Charles Manson in an ill-conceived bid to start a race war the cult leader had predicted. In particular, the home invasion and killing of actress Sharon Tate stands out as a clear marker for The Strangers' artistic direction, with its gruesome knife violence drawing close parallels to the stabbing at the Tate home.
The second inspiration for The Strangers is the infamous 1981 Keddie Cabin Murders, in which four people were killed in a small California resort town, including Sue Sharp, her son John, daughter Tina, and John's friend Dana. Disturbingly, the motive for those murders is still unknown, as the Keddie police department never caught the real-life killer(s), and the case remains unsolved. Obvious similarities abound here, with the three masked assailants in The Strangers wandering off into the morning chill after massacring Kristen and James simply "because they were home."
The third and final slice of real inspiration for The Strangers derives from Bertino's life experience. As a child, Bertino recalls a night his parents weren't home, and someone knocked on their door asking for someone who didn't live there. In a reverse of The Strangers, Bertino states he later learned that the people knocking were robbing houses in the neighborhood where no one was home instead of attacking people inside their houses. Still, the experience left an indelible mark on Bertino that later morphed into the terrifying portrait of random rental violence that The Strangers movie endeavors to depict.
Source: Screenrant
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