Halloween has traditionally been a time for watching scary movies, dressing up in clever costumes, and visiting haunted houses. But another type of unwanted house guest has a long tradition as a horror movie favorite. Hollywood has given generations of audiences a reason to scream for home invasions.
Wait Until Dark
This 1967 thriller stars Alan Arkin and Audrey Hepburn, who was nominated for best actress for her role as a blind woman terrorized in her own home. Audiences everywhere were at the edge of their seat during a memorable sequence during which Hepburn must evade her assailant, unseen by her and yet visible to viewers. The soundtrack by Henry Mancini was critically acclaimed, and both Hepburn’s character and the movie’s tense climax have been highly ranked on critical lists by the American Film Institute.
When a Stranger Calls
The 1979 movie starring Carol Kane as a babysitter is based on an urban legend. Critically, the movie was a mixed bag, but the opening half hour in which Kane is stalked by a mysterious man on a telephone has made it onto Bravo’s Top 100 Scariest Moments. Modern audiences might wish for caller ID to help them out—though an unknown number could still send a shiver up their spines when they realize that the call is coming from inside the house.
Funny Games
Michael Haneke’s 1997 film about two young men holding a family hostage in their remote Austrian lake house is anything but funny. This hard-to-watch movie involves the audience to a degree, with one of the antagonists frequently breaking the fourth wall to bring the viewers into the acts of violence and horror that he is about to commit. In most pre-2000s horror movies, audiences might wish for a cell phone to solve these problems. Here, a cell phone is present, albeit one that might not be recognizable by kids of today. Unfortunately it falls prey to something all too familiar to many of us: it’s dropped in water and stops working.
Panic Room
David Fincher directed this 2002 movie starring Jodie Foster as a divorced mother, Kristen Stewart as her daughter, and Jared Leto as a robber. Foster and Stewart spend much of the movie in the titular panic room, with Stewart’s character suffering a health crisis on top of the mental stress of the robbery. Home security is definitely something that a panic room offers, though the ability to reach the outside world and call for help was sorely lacking in this case. Maybe invest in a Wi-Fi hookup next time? With a password, of course.
Them
This French movie was released in 2006 and stars Olivia Bonamy and Michaël Cohen as a couple hounded by hooded figures in and around their new Romanian country home. This film was praised for its simplistic attempts of injecting horror into the viewer without being too gory and leaving room for imagination. Although it claims to be based on a true story, no news articles backing this claim have been found.
The Strangers
Another movie allegedly inspired by true events—though the filmmakers admit that this is more in the spirit of several infamous crimes rather than one specific home invasion—2008’s The Strangers stars Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman as a young couple tortured by masked strangers in their vacation home. Some of the more chilling moments are the quietest ones, where the audience is aware of the threat lurking in the background, watching the main characters go about their business.
The Purge
This 2013 film imagines a future society where one night per year, any crime—including murder—is legal as a way of reducing crime for the remainder of the year. The film is intended as a social commentary, but watching Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, and their family cower in their supposedly safe home after assisting an innocent victim allows the viewer to feel for the protagonists.
Home invasions are terrifying both on-screen and off, but one good thing to come out of these films is that the audience can judge what the characters have done wrong. And, of course, plan for what they would do when home all alone in the dark.