Growing up on films like When a Stranger Calls, Black Christmas, The Last House on the Left (which I saw waaaay too young) and even to a degree, Dial M for Murder, I've always found home invasion stories to be highly effective.
After all, what's more terrifying than the idea of someone breaking into your home or sanctuary, the one place you should feel the safest? Nothing hits harder than that idea, which is why these types of horror movies have always resonated with me over the years. It’s time to lock the doors, check the windows, and take a look back at my five favorite modern home invasion movies since 2000.
THE AGGRESSION SCALE- Even though it only came out last year, that doesn't mean that Steven C. Miller's truly badass Home Alone meets Rambo mash-up, The Aggression Scale, isn't worthy of a spot. It absolutely deserves it and then some. Ever since it won me over at SXSW 2012, The Aggression Scale has become one of those indie movies I just can't shut up about whenever talking with friends about movies.
In The Aggression Scale, we find out that someone has stolen half a million dollars from a mob boss (Ray Wise) and he sets his thugs set out to find the missing loot. They get far more than they bargained for when they try to take out the Rutledge Family, whose pre-teen son Owen happens to have his own set of dangerous and combative tendencies that no one was prepared for.
Not only does Miller cleverly switch things up in the second act, but he also gets the highly likable Derek Mears out from "behind the mask.” We’re also given a new anti-hero in Owen, allowing us to root for him as he masterfully takes down the killers chasing him and his family.
Seriously, if you've ever wanted to see what would happen had Home Alone been given an R-rating, The Aggression Scale is absolutely the movie for you. Hands down, it’s Miller's best work and it made me an instant fan for anything with Hartwig or his co-star Fabianne Therese (who's also in Don Coscarelli's John Dies at the End).
THE COLLECTOR/THE COLLECTION- You know what? I don't feel like enough people talk about either The Collector or The Collection so let's go ahead and change that right now.
In July 2009, horror fans were introduced to a new masked psychopath with The Collector, which followed a shady handyman named Arkin (Josh Stewart) who's planned the perfect heist against his latest home improvement client. What Arkin doesn't know is that the weekend he thinks he has the house to himself, it turns out that a masked killer had also set his sights on the same house and his intentions are far more sinister and gruesome.
Soon it's up to Arkin to not only survive The Collector's traps but figure out a way to stop the sadistic killer once and for all. Of course (minor spoiler alert), Arkin fails and that sets the stage for The Collection.
While I certainly enjoyed The Collector when it came out, I think I almost have a greater appreciation for it now after the release of The Collection late last year, earning both flicks a much deserved spot on this countdown. The reason I think both films really work well (and especially work well together) is because while The Collector was a gritty, imaginative take on many familiar home invasion tropes, The Collection ended up being something of an anti-invasion film. Co-writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan (who also directs both installments) turn the tables on their killer by making him the prey for the second go-around.
As someone who sits through hundreds of horror movies a year, it's really hard to surprise me as a viewer and I must admit that The Collection absolutely kept me guessing from beginning to end, especially the "lost movie" featured on the home release of the sequel. Seriously, Dunstan and Melton are, for my money, two of the best storytellers working in the genre today and their modern home invasion franchise is definitely overdue for our respect as fans. If you happened to have overlooked either movie, I'd urge you to give them both another pass with a fresh perspective. You may be surprised by just how clever these films really are.
FUNNY GAMES (2007)- I'd be the first to admit that Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke probably didn't need to remake his 1997 visceral and terrifying thriller Funny Games for all of us fans here in the States, but the 2007 version is still absolutely one helluva gut-punch experience and worthy to stand by its own thematically devastating merits.
In this version, we follow Naomi Watts and Tim Roth along with their young son to their idyllic vacation home. They are taken hostage by two yuppie psychopaths (Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet) who want nothing more than to torture the happy family for their own (and our) disgusting amusement. And while this version of Funny Games may not have done anything new in comparison to Haneke's original, it's the performances in this version- especially Pitt who is shockingly (and brilliantly) sadistic- that truly makes this Funny Games worthy of a slot on this countdown.
When Pitt breaks the fourth wall and asks us why we'd watch such horrific actions as a form of entertainment, it's hard to wonder whether or not Haneke felt like this remake was his own response to films of that era like Saw, Cabin Fever, Hostel, or even House of 1,000 Corpses. And the thing is- there are no easy answers, making this version of Funny Games truly relevant and a far more thought-provoking experience than the other torture films of its time.
All that being said, the 2007 Funny Games isn't by any means a more effective movie than the 1997 original film. It's just that it's an equally polarizing and compelling exploration of cinematic violence and our bloodlust as horror fans as its predecessor was and deserves just as much attention too.
THE STRANGERS- Ever since the first trailer for The Strangers arrived and we saw an unsuspecting Liv Tyler being watched from inside her own kitchen by an unknown stalker wearing a burlap sack for a mask, I knew we were going to be in for a serious mindf*** of an experience. And man, first-time filmmaker Brian Bertino did not disappoint either. I don't think I had been that captivated by a theatrical horror movie since seeing Neil Marshall's The Descent in 2005.
For The Strangers, Bertino keeps things simple: we're introduced to a young couple (Tyler and Scott Speedman) who are having a rough night after an epic fight at a friend's wedding. After they return to their vacation home at night, a mysterious young girl shows up at their doorstep. Thinking she's just lost, they send her on her way. Of course, we know she's not and soon, our protagonists are fighting for their lives against a trio of masked assailants who have no motive and no desire to stop their deadly cat and mouse game.
And that kind of simplicity is what makes The Strangers so effective; the story isn't revelatory by any means and the premise of masked killers isn’t anything we haven’t seen before either. It's in Bertino's almost bare-bones approach to getting under the audiences' skin by just freaking us the hell out with one creepy set-up after another. Then, right when we think we're going to get some kind of resolution in our minds as to why these killers chose to terrorize poor Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman, Bertino smartly says no, giving us, "Because you were home" as an answer.
So simple and so frigging terrifying.
INSIDE- Arguably one of the best horror films of the last decade, Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury's Inside is truly an unbelievable shocker from start to finish. Not only is Inside an absolute blood-soaked cinematic nightmare that proves you don't need more than 80 minutes to completely pummel your audience mentally and emotionally, but it also managed to shake me to my core as a genre fan. I don't freak out easily during horror movies these days, but I will wholly cop to having to cover my eyes a few times while watching Inside, earning it the top spot on this countdown.
Inside is also a film whose simplicity is its greatest asset. At the beginning we're introduced to a depressed pregnant woman named Sarah (Alysson Paradis), who recently lost her husband in a horrific accident. As she prepares to spend Christmas Eve alone, wracked in her own grief, a strange woman appears at the door, screaming to be let in. Freaked out, Sarah calls the cops, but then the woman disappears- or so we think. Of course, we know things are never that easy in horror movies and, soon enough, the psychotic woman has made it inside Sarah's apartment. She only has one thing on her mind- Sarah's unborn child and she's prepared to take it that night by any means necessary.
Inside is a one-two punch of visceral filmmaking. Not only does it tap into the eternal fear we all have of people breaking inside our homes, a place we generally consider safe, but it also effectively explored the age-old idea of maniacs who place more value on our insides than they do our actual lives. Growing up, I remember the popular urban legend about the dude who unknowingly had his kidney removed by a prostitute after she slipped him a drug and woke up in a tub of ice the next morning. It’s something more of a cautionary tale than anything else, but with Inside, there is no cautionary tale- bad shit can happen to good people and more often than not, there's just no good explanation.
There are movies designed to leave you unnerved and then there's Inside- seriously. If you think you're truly a hardcore horror fan that's shocked by very little and still hasn't seen Inside, go for broke and give the unrated version and see if you really can take it. An unrelenting, gore-soaked exercise in intensity, there never has nor will there ever be another movie like Inside again. It's just as simple as that, folks.
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This week, Lionsgate is finally unleashing the animals and their latest home invasion stunner You’re Next in theaters everywhere and to mark the occasion, I thought it might be fun to take a look back at some of my favorite modern home invasion films from the last 15 years. What are your favorite home invasion movies? Let us know on Twitter, Facebook, and the comments section below
Heather A. Wixson was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, until she followed her dreams and moved to Los Angeles in 2009. A 14-year veteran in the world of horror entertainment journalism, Wixson fell in love with genre films at a very early age, and has spent more than a decade as a writer and supporter of preserving the history of horror and science fiction cinema. Throughout her career, Wixson has contributed to several notable websites, including Fangoria, Dread Central, Terror Tube, and FEARnet, and she currently serves as the Managing Editor for Daily Dead, which has been her home since 2013. She's also written for both Fangoria Magazine & ReMind Magazine, and her latest book project, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume One will be released on October 20, 2021.
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