Trailer
Plot summary
Kristen McKay and James Hoyt reach his isolated childhood summer house after a friend's wedding. At the reception, she turned down his marriage proposal, and he phones his friend Mike to arrange a pickup the next morning. A knock interrupts them; a young woman at the door asks for someone named Tamara, and James sends her away. He builds a fire for Kristen, then leaves to buy cigarettes.
Cast
- Alex Fisheras Mormon Boy #1
- Peter Clayton-Luceas Mormon Boy #2
- Shawn McClellanas Shawn the Bartender (uncredited)
- Jordan Orras Jordan - 911 Caller (voice) (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Strangers (2008)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Actress Laura Margolis was given strict instructions not to let Liv Tyler see her in her mask before shooting: “I had been told that she really wanted to be scared. She didn't want to have to fake it.” Tyler's scream when Margolis ran at her outside the barn was real.
- Writer-director Bryan Bertino based the film on true events from his own childhood: one night while his parents were out, people knocked on the front door asking for somebody who didn't live there, and they turned out to be knocking on doors in the area to find empty houses to break into.
SPOILER
The film originally ended differently: in the script and the footage as shot, the three masked killers took off their masks on camera and were shown cleaning the crime scene and putting on the victims' clothes after stabbing them, but test audiences led producers to cut those scenes so the strangers' faces stayed hidden.- Liv Tyler said she connected with the story because her stepfather, Todd Rundgren, had experienced a violent home invasion in which he and his pregnant girlfriend were assaulted; nothing was stolen, and one of the intruders pistol-whipped him.
- Directors Justin Lin and Mark Romanek were originally attached to direct the project, and Bertino was hired as director only after both of them backed out.
- The screaming took a real physical toll on Liv Tyler, who at one point came down with tonsillitis due to the extensive screaming the role demanded.
- When casting the two leading actors, Bertino sought Liv Tyler for the role of Kristen; Thandie Newton and Charlize Theron had also expressed interest in the role.
