The Strangers (film)

**The Strangers** is a 2008 American horror film written and directed by Bryan Bertino and starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman.

## Plot

### **Plot Outline**

The film follows a young couple who are terrorized by three masked assailants over the course of an evening at a remote summer home.

### **In-Depth Summary**

James and his girlfriend Kristen arrive at James' childhood summer home, tired and irritable after a long evening at a friend's wedding reception. It is revealed through flashback that while they were there, James proposed to Kristen and she refused. James calls his friend Mike and asks him to come pick him up in the morning. Shortly after 4 a.m., there is a knock at the door, surprising since the house is so remote and far from any civilization. A young blonde woman, whose face is obscured by low lighting, asks for Tamara. When told that she is at the wrong house, she leaves with the casual caveat that she will "see them 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. When she returns to the living room, she sees the smoke alarm now sitting on a chair, and realizes someone else has been in the house. When she hears a noise from the backyard, she arms herself with a knife, and opens the curtains to find a man wearing a sack mask, staring at her. Panicked, she stumbles into the hallway, and watches as the front door opens. When she goes to push the door closed, she sees the blonde woman outside, now wearing a doll mask. After locking the door, Kristen hides in the bedroom and hears people outside banging violently against the walls of the house.

The noise eventually stops and James returns to the house. After she explains what has happened, he finds his car ransacked and the blonde woman watching him from afar. His phone has also had its battery stolen and he realizes the house has been breached. The couple attempt to leave in James' car but a third masked stranger in a pin-up girl 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 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 intruders, shoots him dead. Devastated, James remembers an old radio transmitter in the backyard shed. He leaves and encounters the blonde woman. When James tries to shoot her, the masked man knocks him unconscious. Kristen hears the shot and runs to the shed. She finds the radio, but the pin-up girl smashes it. Kristen rushes back to the house, where she is incapacitated by the masked man. Both James and Kristen are now unconscious.

When James and Kristen awaken, it is morning, and they are tied to chairs in the living room with the masked strangers standing before them. Kristen asks them why they are doing this, to which the blonde woman 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. They drive past two young boys on bicycles who are distributing religious tracts. Dollface asks for a tract. The boy asks if she's a sinner and she replies, "sometimes." The strangers drive away, as the pin-up girl states, "it'll be easier next time." The two boys come upon the house and discover the chaotic scene, including the bodies of Kristen, James, and Mike inside. One boy approaches Kristen's body, and as he reaches out to her, she wakes up and screams.

## Cast

* Liv Tyler as Kristen McKay
* Scott Speedman as James Hoyt
* Kip Weeks as Man in the Mask
* Gemma Ward as Dollface
* Laura Margolis as Pin-Up Girl
* Glenn Howerton as Mike
* Alex Fisher and Peter Clayton-Luce as Mormon boys

## Inspiration and Production

Writer-director Bertino was inspired by two real-life events: the Manson family Tate murders, a multiple homicide that occurred in California in 1969; 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.

### **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: "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 doesn'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.

## Sequel

* In August 2008, Rogue Pictures confirmed that a sequel is 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.