The Masterpiece That Almost Wasn't

The Strangers is a 2008 American psychological horror film written and directed by Bryan Bertino and starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman. The film follows a couple whose stay at a vacation home is disrupted by three masked intruders who infiltrate the home in the middle of the night. The screenplay was inspired by two real-life events: the multiple-homicide Manson family Tate murders and a series of break-ins that occurred in Bertino's neighborhood as a child. Some journalists noted similarities between the film and the Keddie cabin murders that occurred in Keddie, California, in 1981, though Bertino did not cite this as a reference. Development of The Strangers began in 2004, when Bertino submitted his screenplay for the film for a Nicholl Fellowship grant. The screenplay caught the attention of producer Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment. Bertino sold the screenplay to Universal Pictures in November 2004. Directors Justin Lin and Mark Romanek were originally attached to direct the project, but after both backed out, Bertino was hired as director. Made on a budget of $9 million, the film was shot on location in rural South Carolina in the fall of 2006. Originally slated for a theatrical release in November 2007, it was postponed before eventually being released on May 30, 2008 by Rogue Pictures, a subsidiary of Universal. The film went on to become a sleeper hit, grossing $82 million at the box office worldwide. It received mixed reviews from critics, with some critiquing it for its sadism and sparse character development, while others praised its atmosphere, suspense, and psychological elements. The film was nominated for Best Horror Film at the 35th Saturn Awards, and Tyler won the award for Best Actress at the 3rd Scream Awards. In the years since its release, The Strangers has become a cult film and received critical reassessment with praise for its tension and stylistic minimalism. Additionally, film scholars have interpreted it as a meditation on random crime in rural American communities, and common fears of unpredicted stranger-on-stranger violence. The film would eventually result in an eponymous franchise, first with the sequel The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018), co-written by Bertino, and later a standalone trilogy (2024-2026) set within the same continuity, starting with The Strangers: Chapter 1, on which Bertino was also a co-writer.