In 2008, during a crowded summer movie season that saw the release of Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and The Dark Knight, the low-budget horror film The Strangers hit theaters and became a sleeper hit. The movie more than doubled its $9 million budget in its opening weekend with $21 million, and went on to gross $86 million worldwide, becoming a sleeper hit. The story of a young couple (Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman) being terrorized by three masked individuals was so simple, but tapped into a primal fear that it has since become a cult-favorite horror film.
Attempts to cash in on The Strangers have fared poorly, with the recently released The Strangers – Chapter 2 worldwide total being what the original made in its first three days. Even with Halloween over, The Strangers is a great horror movie to watch any time of the year. At only 86 minutes, it is a quick (but scary) watch that can now be viewed on Netflix. Here is a retrospective look at a film that was initially dismissed and is now remembered fondly as a modern horror classic, which sequels have never quite lived up to.
Why “Because You Were Home” is So Scary
Simplicity is the name of the game with The Strangers. The film taps into the basic fear of a knock on the door late at night, a thought that likely would fill anyone with dread. The Strangers is, at its core, a home invasion movie in a secluded rural area in what is supposed to be a “safe” home. Director Bryan Bertino cited The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as an inspiration for the film. Like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, it features a killer in a remote area with no feasible help around, but mixing in a conventional comforting environment like Halloween did with the suburbs, resulting in a luxury cabin. Similar to Halloween, The Strangers shows that no place, no matter how comforting it may seem on the surface, is truly safe. Another element it borrows from Halloween is how terrifying a random killing can be.
The Strangers is heavily inspired by the book Helter Skelter, which documented the Manson Family murders, giving the movie a chilling real-world component that adds to its terror. Neither Liv Tyler’s Kristen nor Scott Speedman’s James knows their attackers. The Strangers, who in the credits are called The Man in the Mask, Baby Doll, and Pinup Girl, have no grand plan for why they are trying to kill them. They are just doing it because “they were home.”
That lack of motivation is more frightening because it is a spontaneous act of evil that has no explanation and, by chance, could have been avoided. Had Kristen or James not been home when the Strangers came knocking, they would still be alive. If the Strangers had picked any other house, Kristen and James would have been spared, but another group could have been killed. By some cruel twist of cosmic fate, Kristen and James are tortured and killed, with the audience left to feel that it could just as easily have been them.
The numbers, both in the scale of the Strangers themselves and the lack of cast, also add to the terror. Three visible foes mean not only are Kristen and James outnumbered, but they also need to be always mindful. Instead of a single-pronged attacker like Jason Voorhees, for example, if one Stranger is in view, it leaves the audience asking where the other two are at any given moment. That also leaves the cast rather small, as outside the three killers, it is only Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, and later Glenn Howerton, who at this point was famous for his role as Dennis on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Due to the low number of actors, this means The Strangers can’t rely on a high body count. Instead, it ramps up the tension and suspense, putting the audience on the edge of their seat. There is, of course, the iconic shot of Liv Tyler alone in the kitchen with the killer in the credits known as Man in a Mask looming behind her in the shadows. Easily one of the scariest and iconic moments in a horror film from the 2000s, it was used for the movie’s poster. There is also the terrifying moment with a record-on-loop of Gillian Welch’s “My First Lover.” This folk song’s soft, rustic sound not only juxtaposes with the horror, but the song, caught on a loop, builds an uneasy, nerve-racking tension. The Strangers makes the most of its limited budget to create one of the scariest horror movies of the modern era. It begs the question of why the sequels have suffered so much.
The Sequels Highlight Why ‘The Strangers’ is So Great
The Strangers was a magnificent standalone horror film, but the basic premise of three masked figures terrorizing random selections of people seemed tailor-made for a franchise. If it were the 1980s, The Strangers likely would have been in the Friday the 13th mold. Yet while horror films like Saw and Paranormal Activity were getting sequels, The Strangers was not. Part of it might have been rights issues, as The Strangers was produced and distributed by Rogue Pictures, and was the final film released when the label was a subsidiary of Universal Pictures before being sold to Relativity Media.
Rogue Pictures released a sequel in 2018, ten years after the original. The Strangers: Prey at Night goes in the direction one would expect, as it follows the Strangers stalking a new group, this time a family visiting a trailer park. The most notable thing about The Strangers: Prey at Night is the cast, which includes Mad Men‘s Christina Hendricks, Grey’s Anatomy‘s Martin Henderson, Pretty Little Liars‘ Bailee Madison, and an early on-screen appearance by future Thunderbolts* star Lewis Pullman. The Strangers: Prey at Night feels like a retread of the first film, but without the skilled direction or minimalist terror, and instead plays like a homage to 80s slashers, for better or for worse. It certainly looks better than the films that followed.
The Strangers franchise rebooted itself with a trilogy of films, all shot back-to-back, directed by Renny Harlin, and starring Madelaine Petsch. The movies are a remake of the first film, stretched out into three films that aim to expand the lore and explain the killer’s origins, which ignore one of the fundamental aspects of what made the original terrifying: the lack of answers. The Strangers – Chapter 1 seemed to ride some nostalgia for the original, as it outgrossed The Strangers: Prey at Night with $45 million worldwide. However, the film’s terrible 21% Rotten Tomatoes score certainly hurt word of mouth on The Strangers – Chapter 2, which not only is the worst performing entry in the franchise at the box office but has an abysmal 15% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Given the poor reception and quality of The Strangers’ sequels, the original’s reputation is at risk with one more film to go. Yet The Strangers remains a horror film classic to this day. Maybe it’s because most audiences haven’t seen or don’t know about the other films in the franchise, but it’s maintained its legacy as a high mark in horror for its era, one that still holds up seventeen years later.
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