The Big Picture

• The Strangers (2008) opens with a terrifying premise inspired by true events, setting the tone for a night of relentless horror.
• The masked intruders in The Strangers enjoy stalking and scaring their victims before turning lethal, making the tension unbearable.
• Director Bryan Bertino combines real-life inspirations to create a modern horror tale with violent, motiveless villains in The Strangers.

It’s late one night and there’s a knock on the door. Outside, hidden in the dark even though the porch light was working a few moments earlier, is a young woman who wants to know, “Is Tamara home?” There's no one with that name in the house, and locking the door up after this weird encounter will just give a false sense of security. The night of terror has already started in The Strangers (2008), a home invasion slasher inspired by tragic real-life incidents. The sequel that came out 10 years later, Stranger: Prey at Night (2018), changed the tone to be more campy, setting kill set pieces to pop music and neon lights, but it doesn’t have the same kind of dread. The first one is gritty and relentless, with a straightforward plot, heightened sound design, and terrifying modern horror villains. Before the new Strangers trilogy begins with Renny Harlin's The Strangers: Chapter 1 arriving in theaters this weekend, the original 2008 film introduced the trio of masked intruders who didn’t need to know their victims to attack them. Here's a recap of everything that went down in its bloody, shocking, and devastating ending.

‘The Strangers’ Opening Warns There Won’t Be a Happy Ending

Director Bryan Bertino was clearly influenced by the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre for the film's opening. It’s a throwback to John Laroquette’s deep voice in the 1974 classic when an equally unnerving male narrator reads out a disclaimer that what viewers are about to watch is inspired by true events. We are also told that, according to the FBI, there are 1.4 million violent crimes in the U.S. per year. Opening with such realism and foreshadowing of the horrors that are to come heightens the movie's tension before you even meet any of the characters. It then cuts to two young boys out spreading the good word of Jesus as they investigate the aftermath of a home invasion, passing a pickup truck that has been left damaged and going through a front door that has been busted open; inside, blood is everywhere and whatever they find makes them frantically call 911. After this glimpse of a doomed outcome, The Strangers jumps back to the night before.

Kristen (Liv Tyler) and James (Scott Speedman) return to his family's summer home in the woods after a wedding. Tensions are high as, at the wedding, Kirsten rejected James' proposal of marriage. Their dialogue is understandably limited, with the scenes relying on Tyler and Speedman’s acting to convey everything that isn’t being said. Due to their strained relationship, it makes sense they don’t talk too much, and when they do, they just about whisper as if out of exhaustion. That leaves the sound design to raise the volume of every mundane sound. James opens a champagne bottle to numb his hurt feelings, and when the cork pops, it’s practically a jump scare, startling Kristen, and the audience. The heightened sound design will remain like this, from the champagne bottle to a sudden knock at the door.

Kristen and James Are Trapped in a Place Where They Should Be Safe

The couple answers the door to find a mysterious woman — Dollface (Gemma Ward) without her mask but her face hidden by the darkness — looking for Tamara. After being told that Tamera doesn't live here, the woman leaves. The weird encounter doesn’t bother James too much, who takes a late-night drive to find a convenience store. But this leaves Kristen alone, and as she wanders around the house, the movie gives us one of its creepiest scenes. In a wide shot, she has no idea that the Man in the Mask (Kip Weeks) is behind her, watching her from the hallway, until he moves into the darkness when she turns around.

Then things escalate as the Strangers taunt Kristen, leaving “Hello” written again and again in the bedroom, and causing booming, intimidating noises from outside. When James returns, they are both confined inside the house as they spot the Man in the Mask, Dollface, and Pin-up Girl (Laura Margolis) lurking on the property. James realizes the urgency, telling his girlfriend, “Since we've been here, I haven't heard a dog bark — or a car pass. Nothing. Just us and them.” During all of these scenes, The Strangers reveals how much the main villains enjoy stalking and scaring their victims for a few hours before they get lethal.

Director Bryan Bertino Makes the Violence of 'The Strangers' Feel Brutal

The realistic violence that does come increases the movie’s disturbing power. The couple gets close to escaping, but their efforts fail, either because they aren’t fast enough or the Strangers amp up their attack. Mike (It's Always Sunny's Glen Howerton), a friend of James, arrives without any clue he’s entering a life-or-death struggle. The time he takes to get inside is full of tension, seeing evidence that something isn’t right and still approaching. One of the Strangers, in what would become a trademark move, plays music. They put on a record of an oldie country song that echoes throughout the otherwise noiseless house, another way Bertino robs the audience of feeling safe. The music isn’t comforting, it's been turned into a weapon by the killers.

James and Kristen have been left so shaken, they are hiding with a shotgun when Mike walks by. Mistaking his friend for one of the Strangers, James delivers a fatal headshot. Filled with shock and anger, James heads outside to a barn on the property where there could be a radio, but when he doesn’t return, Kristen fears the worst. What makes this first film unique is how it includes old-school slasher and deviates from the formula. There are masked killers, and when Dollface first knocks on the door, it interrupts Kristen and James as they’re about to have sex. Even if someone has seen just one slasher flick, they will know sex equals death.

As the night winds down, James has been captured and soon Kristen is too; by early the next morning, the night of terror becomes daylight horror, when the couple are tied up in front of the three masked villains. Unlike the motives of slasher villains of the past -- Freddy, Chucky, and anyone in the Ghostface mask to name some -- there is no personal motive behind this home invasion. Kristen begs to know why this has happened. Dollface, the one who seems to be the big talker of the three, answers back, “Because you were home.” To the Strangers, it doesn’t matter who you are, it just matters whether you decide to stay home. Homes in the horror genre have long been turned into traps, whether by a haunting or a human monster and in The Strangers, the setting is a one-story ranch house that restricts the number of hiding spots for Kristen and James. There are no stairs leading up to the second floor or down to the basement. Every window is on the ground level.

What Happens at the End of ‘The Strangers’?

Even though these villains are enigmatic, there is some personality given to each one. The Man in the Mask has a different appearance than the women, making him stand out as the leader. He wears a burlap mask, with eyeholes and a mouth drawn onto it, while wearing a brown suit and tie like he has a desk job he has to get to after the carnage. Dollface and Pin-up Girl share the same kind of plastic mask that resembles something purchased at a costume store, with exaggerated feminine features. They’re dressed more casually too. There is no indication any of them are related, but their dynamic can be seen as a father and two daughters.

Masks in the horror genre go back to the silent film era, and they have endured a long history, from the Phantom who hid his face behind a mask to conform to society, to the “pure evil” human husk that Michael Myers represents. In the ending where Kristen and James are tied up, the three Strangers finally take off their masks. While the movie doesn’t let viewers see what they look like, there isn’t a big reveal that they are mythic monsters — they’re just people who like hurting others. The Strangers begin stabbing the couple, reaching the point where the movie began.

The boys walk along a road where the Strangers drive by and come to a stop. All of them are unmasked when Dollface steps out to get the religious pamphlet the boys have. “Are you a sinner?” one of the boys asks. “Sometimes,” Dollface responds, and back in the truck, Pin-up Girl promises her it’ll be easier next time. As the Strangers drive off, the boys make their way to the crime scene that has been left, where they find James dead and Kristen screaming awake. It’s bleak stuff, mainly because of where Bertino got his ideas from.

‘The Strangers’ Was Inspired by Real-Life Crimes

The “true events” that are said to have inspired this horror plot are two incidents, one personal to the director and the other infamous in history and pop culture. Bertino explained in the film’s production notes that the first account was from his childhood when he and his little sister were home alone. Someone they didn’t know had knocked on the door, looking for someone who didn’t live there, and it was sometime later that Bertino learned a group of people were going around looking for empty houses to break into.

The second inspiration for Bertino was an infamous true crime. In an interview with Shock Till You Drop, the director-screenwriter talked about reading Helter Skelter at a young age and becoming unable to forget the senseless and horrific violence the Manson Family inflicted in the 1969 Tate–LaBianca murders. Bertino recalled that “these detailed descriptions had painted a story of what it was like in the house with the victims. But none of the victims knew about the Manson family or why it was happening to them. So, I got really fascinated with telling the victims’ tale.”

Bryan Bertino didn’t want to bring any sympathy to the masked intruders in The Strangers, and by combining his childhood memory with the notorious killing spree that gave a bleak start to the 1970s, he created a dangerous trio of modern horror villains who commit random acts of violence. There is no motive other than that they do it because they have the chance to. Senseless acts of terror and destruction like this are what make the 2008 film remain scary to this day. When the upcoming trilogy is released, new characters should avoid opening the door when Dollface comes around knocking. Maybe it won’t stop the later attack, but they can at least give it a try.

The Strangers is streaming on Max.

Watch on Max