It’s almost a universal thing when you’re watching a scary movie and in the first five minutes youread the words “based on a true story”, the film suddenly becomes a bit more serious and intense. In 2008, the first movie inThe Strangersseries was released, and it became a great cult classic while also being a slasher film. Bryan Bertino made his directorial debut withThe Strangers, pulling inspiration from real true crime cases and even his own life; making the movies more realistic and terrifying. The first installmentset the bar extremely high for the sequelthat was to come next, and some say the second movie wasn’t nearly as great as the first. Still, both movies have admirable qualities to them because of the real life facts taken from different situations to pull together a slasher such as this. Just recently, it wasrevealed that a third movieis going to be added to the series, making it a trilogy. Here are the true events that have inspired these movies, so far.
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The Murder of Sharon Tate
One of the biggest true-crime stories that inspiredThe Strangersis the Manson Family and the home invasion of iconic actress, Sharon Tate. Home invasions and murders are always terrible, but what the Manson family did to Sharon Tatehas been talked about for decades, with many movies and shows based off the event that took place.The Strangersdoes a great job ofportraying a realistic home invasion, and all the emotions that take place while one is being tied up and tortured. The plot of the first movie is what you might expect; a couple, James and Kristen, head out to a getaway at a vacation home, not expecting anything horrific to happen to them.
The couple is going through a hard time, with tension between them as Kristen rejected James' marriage proposal just hours before they arrived at the summer home. Things progress very fast, as a woman suddenly knocks on the front door and asks for someone who isn’t there, cryptic and creepy since her face is distorted. From there, three masked assailants infiltrate the home and tie James and Kristen up; torturing them until they eventually die. It’s easy to make the connection between the murders that the Manson family committed and the events that took place inThe Strangers. It’s a classic slasher movie filled with jump scares and smooth pacing.
The Keddie Cabin Murders
The Keddie Cabin Murders took place in 1981, and took the lives of four individuals; Sue Sharp, John Sharp, Tina Sharp, and their family friend, Dana. The four were at a resort town before getting brutally murdered by what is assumed to be a few individuals. To this day, police haven’t figured out a motive for the killers, and they were never captured. This connection can be made through both movies, especially since the trio of killers doesn’t have a reason for going after both families. In the first movie, the reason for killing the couple was, “Because you were home”; and in the second movie, one killer responds with, “Why not?” when asked why she was targeting the family.
InTheStrangers: Prey at Night, a family of four head to an empty trailer park while on a road trip, stopping in the middle, so they could rest. Following closely to the first, the trio of killers has found solace at the same trailer park. As soon as the family arrives, the games begin and the strangers close in, targeting each member of the family, one by one. This film is different from the first in a few ways, but one big difference is the stellar soundtrack the sequel has. In a great scene, the leader of the murderersgoes after the son of the family (Lewis Pullman), and the two take a tumble into the pool as “Angel of the Morning” blares in the background.
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The Director’s Real-Life Experience
Bertino, the director, claims that an event from his childhood sparked the idea for his films. When he was a child, he and his kid sister were left alone at home when suddenly there was a knock on the door. Bertino’s sister answered it, and a woman appeared on the other side, asking for someone who didn’t live there. Apparently, his sister sent the woman away, but a little while later, she came back, asking the same question. As a kid, something that random and weird could easily stick with you, making it a core memory.
Bertino would later find out that the woman who appeared at their door was part of a group that was robbing houses in their neighborhood. Which is definitely a twist, since the strangers in the movie were murderers and not robbers. It affected Bertino so much that he held onto it for years before writing the screenplay for the first movie and eventually the sequel.
