The Strangers ( 2008 film ) - wikipedia The Strangers ( 2008 film ) This article is about the 2008 horror film. For other uses, see Strangers ( disambiguation ). The Strangers Theatrical release poster Directed by Bryan Bertino Produced by Doug Davison Roy Lee Nathan Kahane Sonny Mallhi Written by Bryan Bertino Starring Liv Tyler Scott Speedman Music by Tomandandy Cinematography Peter Sova Edited by Kevin Greutert Production company Vertigo Entertainment Mandate Pictures Intrepid Pictures Distributed by Rogue Pictures Release date May 30, 2008 ( 2008 - 05 - 30 ) Running time 85 minutes ( theatrical ) 91 minutes ( unrated ) Country United States Language English Budget $9 million Box office $82.4 million The Strangers is a 2008 American slasher film written and directed by Bryan Bertino. Kristen ( Liv Tyler ) and James ( Scott Speedman ) are expecting a relaxing weekend at a family vacation home, but their stay turns out to be anything but peaceful as three masked torturers leave Kristen and James struggling for survival. Writer - director Bertino was inspired by real - life events : the Manson family Tate murders, a multiple homicide ; the Keddie Cabin Murders, that occurred in California in 1981 ; and a series of break - ins that occurred in his own neighborhood as a child. 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 a theatrical release on May 30, 2008. It grossed $82 million at the box office worldwide and received mixed reviews from critics, with some praising its atmosphere and tension, and others criticizing its script and characters. Contemporary film scholars have interpreted it as a criticism of the perceived safety of pastoral life, as well as an exploration of stranger - on - stranger violence. A sequel, titled The Strangers : Prey at Night, was released ten years later on March 9, 2018. Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Themes 4 Production 4.1 Screenplay and inspiration 4.2 Casting 4.3 Filming 4.4 Post-production 5 Music 5.1 Track listing 6 Release 6.1 Marketing and promotion 6.2 Home media 7 Reception 8 Sequel 9 See also 10 References 11 Works cited 12 External links Plot James Hoyt and his girlfriend Kristen McKay arrive at James ' remote childhood summer home, tired and irritable after a long evening at a friend 's wedding reception. At the wedding, James proposed to Kristen and she refused. James calls his friend Mike and asks him to pick him up in the morning. Shortly after 4 a.m., there is a loud knock at the door. A young blonde woman, whose face is hiding in the shadows, asks for Tamara. When told that she is at the wrong house, she leaves with the casual caveat that she will, `` see you later ''. Due to the tension between them, James leaves to go for a drive and purchase a pack of cigarettes for Kristen ; before he departs, he starts a fire in the hearth. Shortly after he leaves, Kristen realizes the chimney flue is closed, and attempts to open it ; while she does this, smoke emanating from the fire triggers a smoke alarm. Kristen attempts to disarm the smoke alarm when she is startled by another knock at the door ; she drops the alarm on the floor and retreats to the bedroom, unnerved. She calls James ' cellphone from the landline, but their call is cut short. She returns to the kitchen, where, unbeknownst to her, a man in a sack mask watches her from an adjacent hallway. In the living room, Kristen notices the smoke alarm she left on the floor is now sitting on a chair, and realizes someone else has been in the house. Upon going to retrieve her cell phone from the wall charger, she finds it is missing, and begins to panic. When she hears a noise from the backyard, she arms herself with a knife, and opens the curtains to find the man in the mask, staring at her. She stumbles into the hallway, and watches as the front door unlatches. When she goes to push the door closed, she sees the blonde woman outside, now in a dollface mask. After locking the door, Kristen hides in the bedroom and hears the strangers outside banging violently against the walls of the house. The noise eventually stops and James returns to the home. After she explains what has happened, he goes outside to the car to get his phone, whereupon he finds the car ransacked and sees Dollface watching him from afar. The couple attempt to leave in James ' car but another woman in a Pin - up mask rear - ends them with a pickup truck, forcing them to flee. Back inside the house, Kristen and James find a shotgun and wait for the intruders in a bedroom. One of the strangers enters and puts a country record on the turntable, filling the house with music. Mike arrives and realizes something is wrong after seeing the smashed car in the driveway. He enters the house, and James, mistaking him for one of the strangers, shoots him dead. Devastated, James remembers an old radio transmitter in the backyard shed. He leaves and encounters Pin - up searching the backyard with a flashlight. When James tries to shoot her, the Man in the Mask knocks him unconscious, discharging the gun in the process. Kristen hears the shot, and runs to the shed. She finds the radio, but Pin - up smashes it with a axe. Kristen rushes back to the house, where she encounters Dollface, who taunts her. She tries to leave but is incapacitated by the Man in the Mask. James and Kristen awaken at dawn, and find themselves tied to chairs all dressed up in the living room with the masked strangers standing before them. Kristen asks them why they are doing this, to which Dollface replies, `` Because you were home. '' The strangers then unmask themselves to the couple offscreen, and take turns stabbing the couple in the stomach and chest before leaving the home. As they drive away in the pickup truck, they ride past two young boys on bicycles distributing religious tracts door - to - door. Dollface gets out of the truck and asks if she can have one of their tract cards. One of the boys ask her if she 's a sinner. Dollface she replies, `` Sometimes. '' The boy gives her one and the strangers drive away, as Pin - up Girl states, `` It 'll be easier next time. '' As the boys walk their bikes, they see a heart shaped glass hole on another truck in front of the house. The two boys come upon the house and discover the chaotic scene with a messy house, including blood on the walls and the floor, a gun sitting on the kitchen counter, an empty wedding ring box, a bloody knife, red rose petals on the floor, chairs and tables tipped over, the record player still playing but no songs or music, and the bloodied bodies of Kristen, James, and Mike inside. One of the boys approaches Kristen 's body and attempt to touch it. As he reaches out to her, he is startled by Kristen when she wakes up, grabs, his hand, and screams at him. At this scene, it reveals that Kristen is still alive but still horrified of what happened. Cast Liv Tyler as Kristen McKay Scott Speedman as James Hoyt Gemma Ward as Dollface Kip Weeks as Man in Mask Glenn Howerton as Mike Laura Margolis as Pin - Up Girl Alex Fisher and Peter Clayton - Luce as Mormon boys Themes Film scholar Kevin Wetmore noted the film 's portrayal of violence as a reflection of its contemporary culture, writing : `` Death is a random act in post-9 / 11 horror -- the result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, as the cliché goes. Unlike in eighties slasher horror, for example, where engaging in negative behavior such as drinking, doing drugs, having premarital sex are often forerunners to being killed by the killer ( s ) ; ( here ), death is random and unrelated to one 's behavior. '' In The Horror Show Guide : The Ultimate Frightfest of Movies, Mike Mayo noted the film 's `` grim realism, '' writing that the main characters `` could have wandered out of a gloomy Ingmar Bergman film, '' ultimately branding the film as an example of `` naturalistic domestic horror '' akin to Michael Haneke 's Funny Games. The film has also been noted by scholar Philip Simpson as highlighting `` the divide between the underprivileged and privileged classes, '' as well as for its inversion of commonly - held beliefs about violence in urban areas and pastoral ethics : `` The Strangers, as many horror films do... undermines the conventional notion of rural society as a simpler, crime - free place. One might call the narrative sensibility informing The Strangers ' pastoral paranoia ', in that danger lurks among the rough folk of the country rather than the suburbs and cities. Of course, it may be that provincial violence is a result of contamination, or in other words that the kind of stranger - upon - stranger violence typically associated with urban life metastasizes to the rural, a phenomenon noted by Louis Wirth. '' In his book Hearths of Darkness : The Family in the American Horror Film ( 2014 ), scholar Tony Williams notes the film 's setting within a 1970s - era home as representative of an `` American tradition of violence that is random and without any coherent explanation. '' Additionally, Williams reads the three masked assailants as metaphors for the `` repressed and unresolved tensions affecting the couple inside the house. '' Production Screenplay and inspiration I was thinking about the Tate murders and realizing 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. And not filling it in with an FBI profile and not filling it in with finding out that somebody 's grandmother beat them and now they want to kill everybody. You read obituaries every day where someone is killed for a random reason. Yes, we may eventually find out why, but sometimes they do n't. Bryan Bertino, on his inspiration for the film. Writer - director Bryan Bertino wrote the screenplay which was originally titled The Faces ; it was the third screenplay he had ever written. Bertino had a particular interest in the horror genre, noting how one can connect to an audience by scaring them, and would state in subsequent interviews that he grew up watching horror films. In particular, he stated he was significantly inspired by thriller films of the 1970s while writing the screenplay, and envisioned a film that `` put the audience in the world of the victims. '' According to production notes and subsequent interviews, the film was inspired by true events from Bertino 's childhood : Bertino explains : As a kid, I lived in a house on a street in the middle of nowhere. One night, while our parents were out, somebody knocked on the front door and my little sister answered it. At the door were some people asking for somebody who did n't live there. We later found out that these people were knocking on doors on the area and, if no one was home, breaking into the houses. In interviews, Bertino stated he was `` very impressed '' with some of the theories circulating on the Internet about the `` true events '' the movie is allegedly based on, but said that his main inspiration was the true crime book Helter Skelter about the Manson Family murders ; some journalists speculated that the film was also inspired by the unsolved Keddie Cabin Murders of 1981 that occurred in a small vacation community in California 's Sierra Nevada. The film 's premise has been compared by some film critics to the French horror film Them, released two years earlier, which also features a couple terrorized by strangers in their remote home. Bertino entered the screenplay for The Strangers into a screenwriting contest, after which he sold its directorial rights to Universal Pictures. Casting When casting the two leading actors in the film, Bertino sought Liv Tyler for the role of Kristen. Tyler, who had not worked for several years after the birth of her son, accepted the part after being impressed by the script, which she read while on a flight from Japan to Los Angeles : `` I especially liked Bryan 's way of saying a lot, but not saying everything. Often in movies, it 's all spelled out for you, and the dialogue is very explanatory. But Bryan does n't write like that ; he writes how normal people communicate -- with questions lingering. I knew it would be interesting to act that. '' Canadian actor Scott Speedman was cast as James. Speedman was also impressed by the script, stating that `` the audience actually gets time to breathe with the characters before things get scary as hell. That got me interested from the first pages ''. In casting the three masked intruders, Bertino chose Australian fashion model Gemma Ward for the part of Dollface, feeling she had the exact `` look '' he had imagined ; Ward was officially cast in the film in September 2006. In preparing for the role, Ward read Vincent Bugioisi 's Helter Skelter for inspiration. Kip Weeks was then chosen as the Man in the Mask, and television actress Laura Margolis, who found the script to be a real `` page turner '', was cast in the part of Pin - Up Girl. In retrospect, Bertino said he chose the three actors based on their abilities to convey their characters in spite of the fact that their faces remain unseen onscreen. Filming Mark Romanek ( pictured ) was originally attached to direct the project but after he backed out, Bertino took over. Bertino had not initially planned on directing The Strangers, and had been disconnected from the project after selling directorial rights to Universal Pictures. Both Justin Lin and Mark Romanek were attached to direct, but eventually backed out. Approximately two years after Bertino had sold the screenplay, Universal passed the project onto its subsidiary, Rogue Pictures, who approached Bertino to direct the project, despite his lack of experience. On a $9 million budget, filming for The Strangers began on October 10, 2006, and finished in early 2007. It was shot on location roughly 10 miles outside of Florence, South Carolina, and the 2,000 - square - foot ( 190 m ) house interior was constructed by a set crew. Though the film takes place in 2005, the house itself was deliberately constructed with an architecture reminiscent of 1970s ranch houses and dressed in furnishings applicable to the era. Bertino based the house on the types of homes common where he had grown up in rural Texas. The property was located on the outskirts of Timmonsville, South Carolina. Despite weather complications, the film was largely shot in chronological order. During production, it was reported that Liv Tyler came down with tonsillitis due to the extensive screaming the role required her to do. Tyler would later recall it being the most difficult film she had ever worked on, `` both physically and emotionally. '' According to Laura Margolis, who played the Pin - Up Girl, Tyler also specifically requested that she not see her mask prior to filming : `` I got strict instructions not to let Liv see me in my mask before we shot, '' Margolis recalled. `` The first scene that I shot was stalking ( her ) outside of the barn. I had been told that she really wanted to be scared. She did n't want to have to fake it, and so it was my responsibility to really scare her. So we shot that scene, I ran at her, she started actually screaming, and then she kicked me away. '' The masks featured in the film were chosen by Bertino, who wanted them to appear as though the killers `` could have picked them up at any store. '' Post-production Film editor Kevin Greutert was hired to edit the film ; at the time, he recently finished editing Saw III. Several changes were made to the film during post-production, primarily regarding the conclusion : In the screenplay and the original footage shot, the three masked strangers reveal their faces on camera. After the sequence in which Kristen and James are stabbed, the strangers wander around the house, cleaning up parts of the crime scene before dressing into Kristen and James 's clothes. Following test screenings, it was decided by the producers that the strangers ' faces should remain unseen to the audience, which required the sequences following the stabbing to be excised. Music A musical score, consisting of 19 pieces composed by score producer tomandandy, was released on May 27, 2008, and was distributed by Lakeshore Records. The album was received with generally positive reviews by critics. `` It 's a creepy score for what appears to be a movie that will make you jump as well as make sure that the doors are locked at night, '' writes reviewer Jeff Swindoll. `` This is an impressive score and adds a tremendous chill - factor to the film, '' says Zach Freeman of Blogger News, grading it with an A. Track listing All tracks written by tomandandy. show Track listing No. Title Length 1. `` Opening '' 2 : 31 2. `` The House '' 1 : 46 3. `` Empty '' 1 : 26 4. `` Wedding '' 2 : 53 5. `` Apology '' 0 : 49 6. `` James and Kristen '' 2 : 39 7. `` 3 AM Knock '' 4 : 47 8. `` Alone '' 4 : 02 9. `` James Returns '' 3 : 51 10. `` Run to Car '' 1 : 54 11. `` Waiting '' 1 : 11 12. `` Angry '' 1 : 44 13. `` Mike '' 4 : 17 14. `` Cold '' 0 : 53 15. `` The Barn '' 3 : 05 16. `` Run '' 2 : 36 17. `` Scrape '' 1 : 57 18. `` Mercy '' 2 : 02 19. `` Alone '' 1 : 22 Release The producers originally planned for a summer release in July 2007, which was eventually postponed to November 2007 ; however, this date was postponed as well. The producers instead opted for a summer release, and The Strangers had its theatrical debut in United States and Canada on May 30, 2008. In its opening weekend, the film grossed $21 million in 2,467 theaters, ranking # 3 at the box office and averaging $8,514 per theater. The overall box office return was successful, earning $82.4 million worldwide. Marketing and promotion Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler promoting the film at the 2007 San Diego Comic Con In late July 2007, Bertino, Tyler and Speedman attended San Diego 's annual Comic - Con event to promote the film ; all three were present for a questions - and - answers panel session, as well as a screening of the film 's official teaser trailer ; this trailer was released on the internet several weeks later. It was not until March 2008 that a full - length trailer for the film was released, which can be found on Apple 's QuickTime trailer gallery. The trailer originally began running in theaters attached to Rogue Pictures ' sci - fi film Doomsday in March 2008, and television advertisements began airing on networks in early - mid April 2008 to promote the film 's May release. Two one - sheet posters for the film were released in August 2007, one showing the three masked Strangers, and the other displaying a wounded Liv Tyler. In April 2008, roughly two months before the film 's official theatrical debut, the final, official one - sheet for the film was released, featuring Liv Tyler standing in a darkened kitchen with a masked man looming behind her in the shadows. Home Media The Strangers was released on DVD and Blu - ray in the United States on October 21, 2008. Both the Blu - ray and DVD feature rated and unrated versions of the film, with the unrated edition running approximately two minutes longer. Bonus materials include two deleted scenes and a making - of featurette. The DVD was released in the UK on December 26, 2008. The film was available on Universal VOD ( Video on Demand ) from November 19, 2008, through March 31, 2009. In commemoration of the film 's 10th anniversary, a two - disc collector 's edition Blu - ray by Scream Factory was released on March 6, 2018, featuring a 2K video transfer, as well as a combination of new and archival cast and crew interviews. Reception On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 45 %, based on 153 reviews, and an average rating of 4.9 / 10. The website 's critical consensus reads, `` The Strangers provides a few scares, but offers little else to distinguish itself from other slasher films. '' Metacritic reported an average score of 47 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating `` mixed or average reviews ''. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of `` B -- '' on an A+ to F scale. Unfavorable reviews included Roger Ebert 's of the Chicago Sun - Times, who gave the film one - and - a-half stars out of four, saying : `` The movie deserves more stars for its bottom - line craft, but all the craft in the world ca n't redeem its story. '' Bob Mondello of NPR said the film was `` A sadistic, unmotivated home - invasion flick. '' Steven Rea of The Philadelphia Inquirer noted that `` No one is getting at anything in The Strangers, except the cheapest, ugliest kind of sadistic titillation. '' Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News compared the film to 2007 's Vacancy - a comparison which does `` Strangers '' no favors. Vacancy director Nimród Antal gave us a pair of heroes who fought like hell to survive, becoming closer and stronger in the effort. Bertino 's undeveloped protagonists are colossally stupid and frustratingly passive. '' Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post panned the film, calling it `` a fraud from start to finish. '' Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle, said the film `` uses cinema to ends that are objectionable and vile, '' but admitted that `` it does it well, with more than usual skill. '' Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe said of the director, `` Bertino has the pretensions of an artist and the indelicacy of a hack. He tries to get under our skin with a pile driver. '' Stephen Whitty of The Star - Ledger opined of the film, `` Unfolding with an almost startling lack of self - awareness, young filmmaker Bryan Bertino 's debut is such a careful, straight - faced knockoff of ' 70s exploitation films that it plays like a parody. '' Among the positive reviews, Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times said The Strangers is `` suspenseful, '' `` highly effective, '' and `` smartly maintain ( s ) its commitment to tingling creepiness over bludgeoning horror. '' Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter called the film a `` creepily atmospheric psychological thriller with a death grip on the psychological aspect. '' James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, saying that, `` This is one of those rare horror movies that concentrates on suspense and terror rather than on gore and a high body count. '' Scott Tobias of The A.V. Club said that `` as an exercise in controlled mayhem, horror movies do n't get much scarier. '' Additional positive feedback for the film came from Joblo.com reviewer Berge Garabedian, who praised director Bertino for `` building the tension nicely, with lots of silences, creepy voices, jump scares, use of songs and a sharp eye behind the camera, as well as plenty of Steadicam give it all more of a voyeuristic feel. '' Empire Magazine remarked on the film 's retro - style, saying, `` Like much recent horror, from the homages of the Grindhouse gang through flat multiplex remakes of drive - in classics, The Strangers looks to the ' 70s. '', and ultimately branded the film as `` an effective, scary emotional work - out. '' Slant Magazine 's Nick Schager listed The Strangers as the 9th best film of 2008. In 2009, the film was ranked # 13 on `` Bravo 's 13 Scarier Movie Moments '' television piece, and in a 2018 retrospective, Clark Collis of Entertainment Weekly deemed the film a `` modern - day slasher classic. '' Sequel Main article : The Strangers : Prey at Night In August 2008, Rogue Pictures confirmed that a sequel was in the works, with Brian Bertino co-writing the screenplay with Ben Ketai. The project was originally slated to enter principal photography in 2009, during which time it was tentatively titled The Strangers : Part II. Directors Laurent Briet and Marcel Langenegger were considered to direct, but landed eventually to Johannes Roberts. After a troubled development period, filming on the sequel began May 30, 2017. Later titled The Strangers : Prey at Night, the film was released on March 9, 2018. See also List of films featuring home invasions References Jump up ^ `` THE STRANGERS ( 15 ) ''. British Board of Film Classification. March 14, 2008. Retrieved December 25, 2014. Jump up ^ The Strangers ( Blu - ray ) format = requires url = ( help ) ( Disc 2 ). Scream Factory. 2018 ( 2008 ). ASIN B077Z82BCG. ^ Jump up to : `` The Strangers ( 2008 ) ''. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 2, 2008. Jump up ^ Wetmore 2012, p. 83. Jump up ^ Mayo 2013, p. 334. Jump up ^ Simpson 2013, pp. 192 -- 193. Jump up ^ Williams 2014, p. 294. Jump up ^ Simpson 2013, p. 187. ^ Jump up to : `` The Strangers Production Notes provided by Universal Pictures '' ( PDF ). Hollywood Jesus. 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Jump up ^ `` '' The Strangers '' Sequel to Shoot in September ``. Worst Previews. Archived from the original on November 13, 2016. ^ Jump up to : Romano, Nick ( February 4, 2017 ). `` The Strangers 2 moving ahead with director Johannes Roberts ''. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 19, 2018. Jump up ^ Knapp, JD ( May 11, 2017 ). `` Christina Hendricks, Bailee Madison, Lewis Pullman Join ' Strangers 2 ' ''. Variety. Retrieved January 19, 2018. Jump up ^ Collis, Clark ( January 5, 2018 ). `` The masked maniacs are back in The Strangers : Prey at Night trailer ''. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 19, 2018. Works cited Mayo, Mike ( 2013 ). The Horror Show Guide : The Ultimate Frightfest of Movies ( 2nd ed. ). Visible Ink. ISBN 978 - 1 - 57859 - 420 - 7. OCLC 833339608. Simpson, Philip L. ( 2013 ). `` '' There 's Blood on the Walls `` : Serial Killing as Post-9 / 11 Terror in The Strangers ''. In Alzena MacDonald. Murders and Acquisitions : Representations of the Serial Killer in Popular Culture. New York : Bloomsbury. ISBN 978 - 1 - 4411 - 9292 - 9. OCLC 918760963. Vander Kaay, Chris ; Fernandez - Vander Kaay, Kathleen ( 2016 ). Horror Films by Subgenre : A Viewer 's Guide. McFarland. ISBN 978 - 0 - 7864 - 9837 - 6. OCLC 908375271. West, Alexandra ( 2016 ). Films of the New French Extremity : Visceral Horror and National Identity. McFarland. ISBN 978 - 1 - 4766 - 6348 - 7. OCLC 934885163. Wetmore, Kevin J. ( 2012 ). Post-9 / 11 Horror in American Cinema. Continuum. ISBN 978 - 1 - 4411 - 9797 - 9. OCLC 787843534. Williams, Kevin ( 2014 ). Hearths of Darkness : The Family in the American Horror Film ( Updated ed. ). University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978 - 1 - 62846 - 107 - 7. OCLC 903533974. External links The Strangers at the American Film Institute Catalog The Strangers on IMDb The Strangers at Box Office Mojo The Strangers at Rotten Tomatoes The Strangers at Metacritic Films directed by Bryan Bertino The Strangers ( 2008 ) Mockingbird ( 2014 ) The Monster ( 2016 ) Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Strangers_(2008_film)&oldid=856637278 '' Categories : 2008 films English - language films 2008 horror films 2000s horror thriller films 2000s independent films 2000s psychological horror films 2000s psychological thriller films 2000s serial killer films 2000s slasher films American films American horror thriller films American psychological horror films American psychological thriller films American serial killer films American slasher films Directorial debut films Films about psychopaths Films about stalking Films produced by Roy Lee Films set in 2005 Films set in country houses Films shot in South Carolina Focus Features films Home invasions in film Intrepid Pictures films Mandate Pictures films Rogue ( company ) films Hidden categories : Pages using citations with format and no URL Good articles Use mdy dates from December 2014 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Deutsch Español فارسی Français 한국어 Bahasa Indonesia Italiano Magyar Nederlands 日本 語 Polski Português Русский Slovenščina Suomi Svenska Türkçe Українська 9 more Edit links This page was last edited on 26 August 2018, at 16 : 50 ( UTC ). 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Question: where does the movie the strangers take place
Answer: rural South Carolina