The Strangers 2008

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.