The month of horror | The Strangers (2008) – The film breaks the security of the house

Horror starring Liv Tyler scares realism

In the midst of a chaotic world, there are few places that automatically convey a sense of security. More precisely among these places, none conveys this idea more than a house; whether the individual lives alone or not.

This way, when a home’s natural sense of security is disrupted by an intrusion, it immediately generates an extremely easy fear that virtually anyone can relate to. Unsurprisingly, this sort of situation is fertile ground for horror movies. It is generally believed that the first copy of this style of horror dates from 1909.

It was around this time that director DW Griffith (infamous for his production The Birth of a Nation) released The Lonely Villa, whose plot featured a group of thieves who, discovering that a wealthy businessman was born is not at home, invaded the premises and made the family of the same hostage.

Griffit’s work was the first of this style.

The book had its fair share of importance in presenting the first examples of interspersed cuts, where audiences glimpsed the wife’s fear of protecting the children as well as her husband’s desperate return home.

Unlike other styles of horror, those involving a home invasion usually have the attention around them influenced by the real world. In the United States, it can be established that 1969 was a decisive year for this fear of the people, as the country witnessed with astonishment the murder of actress Sharon Tate which took place at home.

Enjoy watching:

The slasher subgenre itself traditionally uses this storyline as a tool to create tension, involving victim and murderer. This is on purpose the opening scene of Scream, in which Ghostface’s first victim (played by Drew Barrymore) is first harassed over the phone and then chased into the residence.

Using this approach more identified with the mentioned sub-genre, director and screenwriter Bryan Bertino developed the premise around a couple trapped inside their home. In the plot, the couple played by Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman decide to spend the night in an isolated cabin in the hope of solving their marital problems.

The protagonist couple are trapped in their own house.

Sadly, the peaceful night is suddenly interrupted when three masked characters begin to terrify them, forcing the couple to struggle to survive the night. The inspiration for the plot, according to Bertino, would have come from a childhood experience, when a stranger rang the house bell to ask for someone that the director’s family did not know and the next day, we discovered that the neighboring house was invaded.

The experiment actually carried over to production with the function of being the introduction of the antagonists, as well as the first clue to the horror itself. The controlled production budget of $ 9 million contributed to the rarity of scenario variation, focusing exclusively on the main house.

In this way, the film achieves the desired effect of creating a connection between the viewer and the house, in the sense that somehow the viewer would identify in it familiar elements in their respective homes and therefore the feeling of invasion could be better assimilated.

The director himself admits that the design of this particular scenario was thought to represent an absolutely ordinary house (actually, an American) so that this situation does not stray too far from the real thing. Despite the interesting build, the film met with largely negative reviews. That hasn’t stopped the production from having a sequel released in 2018, with a completely different focus, involving a new group of characters who must face the trio of assassins.

Make sure you watch: