Summary

• The Strangers true story is rooted in real-life crimes, including the Manson Family murders and the unsolved Keddie Cabin murders.
• The film's realistic scenario of a home invasion adds to its terrifying nature, as it could happen to anyone, making it more unsettling than supernatural horror.
• The success of The Strangers has led to a planned trilogy, with the first installment focusing on a couple being targeted by masked killers at an Airbnb, possibly drawing inspiration from real-life incidents.

The 2008 home invasion horror film The Strangers' true story adds to the terror of the movie. While the horror genre is often, and not unfairly, associated with tales of monsters, ghosts, and other supernatural creatures, some of the most effective horror films of all time rely on none of those things. As playful as these nightmarish visions are, most exist in the realm of fantasy, allowing audiences to view them in relative comfort. 2008 horror movie The Strangers cleverly subverts this premise, becoming scary precisely because it could happen to anyone watching the film. Here is The Strangers true story explained.

Indeed, while critical consensus remains split on The Strangers' plot, the efficacy of the film's horror elements is unquestioned as a sadistic portrait of a home invasion. While The Strangers' insular premise introduces very few characters outside of Kristen (Liv Tyler), James (Scott Speedman), and the three strangers, and this microcosmic nature allows an almost unparalleled ratcheting of tension as a young couple fights tooth and nail for their lives. Despite the almost ethereal nature of its masked antagonists, The Strangers true story is based on a few. Several harrowing real-life crimes form the backbone of The Strangers' core narrative, including several notorious murders. Here are the real-life crimes and true stories that inspired The Strangers.

The Strangers True Story: Real-Life Crimes That Inspired The Movie

According to novice writer and director Bryan Bertino, The Strangers true story is primarily based on three alternate true stories. The first is the infamous series of murders committed by the Manson Family in 1969, later nicknamed "Helter Skelter," which were organized by Charles Manson in an ill-conceived bid to start a race war the cult leader had predicted. In particular, the home invasion and killing of actress Sharon Tate stands out as a clear marker for The Strangers' artistic direction, with its gruesome knife violence drawing close parallels to the stabbing at the Tate home.

The second inspiration for The Strangers true story is the infamous 1981 Keddie Cabin Murders. Four people were killed in a small California resort town, including Sue Sharp, her son John, daughter Tina, and John's friend Dana. Disturbingly, the motive for those murders is still unknown, as the Keddie police department never caught the real-life killer(s), and the case remains unsolved. Obvious similarities abound here, with the three masked assailants in The Strangers wandering off into the morning chill after massacring Kristen and James simply "because they were home."

The third and final slice of real inspiration for The Strangers true story derives from Bertino's life experience. As a child, Bertino recalls a night his parents weren't home, and someone knocked on their door asking for someone who didn't live there. In a reverse of The Strangers, Bertino states he later learned that the people knocking were robbing houses in the neighborhood where no one was home instead of attacking people inside their houses. Still, the experience left an indelible mark on Bertino that later morphed into the terrifying portrait of random rental violence that The Strangers movie endeavors to depict.

Were James Hoyt And Kristin McKay Really Murdered?

Given that The Strangers true story was a mesh of several real murders, it's a fair assumption that James Hoyt and Kristin McKay were real murder victims. But, in actuality, Hoyt and McKay are fictional characters who were made up for the movie. The two were constructs, and no couple with those names were murdered in real life, but the movie's central figures act as conduits for the real-life murders that inspired the movie. As the Manson family inspired the film, it's easy to imagine the tribe donning creepy masks before enacting senseless violence on their victims "because they were home."

The 1981 Keddie Cabin murders behind the movie formed part of another senseless crime, like in The Strangers' ending, and the perpetrators were neither caught nor brought to justice. And Bertino's own life experience, on which The Strangers is partly based, is sadly not uncommon. People have been known to knock on doors as a ruse before committing a robbery or attacking an unsuspecting victim. So while James Hoyt and Kristin McKay aren't real people, they do act as proxies for those who have been randomly targeted for senseless violence.

The Strangers Realistic Scenario Is What Makes It So Disturbing

Non-paranormal horror movies prey on grounded fears and that becomes even more unsettling when they are based on true stories. The Strangers true story is no exception, and the knowledge that real events inspired it makes the movie especially chilling. This is half the reason that properties like the Conjurverse are so popular, whether one believes in ghosts or not. However, what makes The Strangers so scary is that it's a senseless act of violence that could happen to anyone. Even if the events were entirely fictional, The Strangers premise is so believable that it wouldn't really matter — it feels realistic whether a The Strangers real-life inspiration actually exists or not.

Unlike slasher movies based around larger-than-life characters like Jason Voorhees, The Strangers sees a random home invasion that turns violent from the start, as the antgonists begin to psychologically and physically assault their captors. The events of The Strangers could realistically happen in real life, and the added "because you were home" only makes this terrifyingly worse, as the randomness of it means literally anyone could be a victim of such a crime. True crime programs have skyrocketed in popularity because it's a way that people can face their greater anxieties on the big screen, but they have the same effect. The Strangers exposes audiences to the grim reality that anyone could be a victim, and that the safety four walls and a roof provide is only ever an illusion.

The Strangers Sequel Is Just As Unsettling And Realistic

While its release wasn't quite the sensation as The Strangers, the 2018 sequel The Strangers: Prey At Night is an underrated gem that continues to build on the disturbing real-life horror films. The Strangers 2 drew on several real-life inspirations like the original, including the murder of Sharon Tate at the hands of Charles Manson's followers. It's a thoroughly underrated — and chilling — horror movie just like The Strangers, and once again showed that real-life themes can be even more disturbing than cosmic supernatural horror stories.

There Are More Strangers Stories On The Horizon

The Strangers true story helped add to the success of the first movie and allowed it to grow into a franchise with more The Strangers movies ahead. In fact, there is so much confidence in returning to the series that there is a new The Strangers trilogy planned. The first installment of the new trilogy will be The Strangers: Chapter 1 which is confirmed to take place in the same continuity as the original and will not be a remake or reboot. The movie will follow a couple on a road trip who find themselves targeted by masked killers when they stop to stay at an Airbnb.

The subsequent movies in the trilogy will follow the same victims of the first movie and operate as somewhat of a character study, exploring the effect of such violence on a person. It was also confirmed that the movies will reveal who the killers are and where they come from, a decision that is sure to be controversial among fans. It is also unclear if the movie will be inspired by true events. There have been cases of murders at Airbnb rentals which could have served as some inspiration for the new movie. However, with the planned trilogy exploring the truth behind the killers, it seems likely any true story will only serve as the loose basis for the movie, just as it is with the original The Strangers.