In Eli Roth’s Knock Knock, Keanu Reeves gets a visit from two innocent-looking young women and winds up becoming part of a very twisted game. With the movie hitting VOD this week, it’s the perfect time to revisit some of the greatest “home invasion” movies from years past!
10. The Purge
Set in a future in which America is a totalitarian police state, The Purge takes place on the one night each year in which all crime is legal and no law enforcement or emergency services are available. While somewhat cliche’d and perhaps even a tad predictable, The Purge took the home invasion concept and used it to make an intelligent political statement. A better-received sequel followed in 2014, and a third film is in the works, making this one of horror’s new franchises.
9. Kidnapped
An underrated gem, Kidnapped follows a rather standard invasion formula but uses some interesting technological approaches to turn a familiar story into a terrifying film. As the movie progresses, a split-screen effect materializes which heightens the suspense by showing the panic of the killers and the victims. Don’t expect any good feelings after watching. With one of the bleakest endings in movie history, this one will leave you feeling stunned for some time after it’s all over.
8. You’re Next
With You’re Next, the duo of Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett managed to make a home invasion movie thrilling, but also humorous. A great mix of gore and black humor, this film turns the home invasion angle on its head, turning the would-be assailants into the victims of one deadly heroine. You’re Next also merges the home invasion thriller with a dysfunctional family comedy in one of the past few years’ more twisted horror films.
7. Straw Dogs
Although more of a thriller than a true horror movie, Straw Dogs delivers plenty of terror for even the most serious horror fans. What begins as some light bullying of a rural mathematician and his wife descends into scenes of rape and murder as Dustin Hoffman is pushed to the edge. Hoffman delivers an outstanding performance as a man who has to go to extreme lengths in extreme circumstances. Skip the recent remake and check out this thrilling classic.
6. The Strangers
Based on one of the creepiest trailers of all time and sustained word-of-mouth, The Strangers became a sleeper hit in 2008. Relying on atmospheric chills rather than in-your-face shocks or gore, this movie is packed full of tension provided by off-camera sounds, eerie vinyl records, and “did you miss it?” shots of the antagonists. Bertino also provided one of the more frightening answers from an antagonist as to why the main characters are being attacked. What’s creepier than “Because you were home”?
5. High Tension
For two thirds of High Tension, director Alexandre Aja puts on a clinic in slasher and home invasion thriller filmmaking. A disorienting and shockingly gory film, this one includes sequences in which a dresser is used to decapitate a man and a driver is disemboweled with a concrete saw. Unfortunately, the film falls apart when it leaves the house and relies on an overused plot twist which undermines the movie’s first two acts. A divisive entry in the horror genre, High Tension still makes it into most lists of the best horror movies of the 2000s.
4. Wait Until Dark
The stunning and supremely talented Audrey Hepburn lends class to this home invasion movie that can claim one thing the others on this list can’t: an Academy Award nomination. Also featuring the incomparable Alan Arkin, this movie about a blind woman fending off criminals who’ve invaded her apartment in search of a heroin-filled doll is chock-full of suspense. In the film’s most memorable sequence, the screen goes black as the apartment lights go out, leading to one of cinema’s all-time greatest jump scares.
3. Ils (Them)
The Strangers drew instant comparisons to this earlier film, and the similarities are plentiful. Once again, a couple are terrorized by unknown assailants throughout the duration of the movie. The attacks begin as harmless pranks and escalate into nightmarish violence. Unlike The Strangers, however, the antagonists do have a motive beyond the couple simply being available to terrify. If you like dark endings, this film won’t leave you disappointed.
2. Inside
While just as gory as High Tension, this French thriller provides a better story, great performances, and excellent direction. A woman mourning the death of her lover is terrorized by a mysterious woman in black who wants to cut out her unborn child and claim it as her own. By the end of this one, the victim’s house has been transformed from a quiet home to a bloodbath. Although Inside does make its antagonist a bit overpowered, the brutality of the movie masks some of its minor flaws.
1. Funny Games
Michael Haneke remade his own movie in 2008, but the original lacks stars like Tim Roth or Naomi Watts, which gives it much more bite. Funny Games is not just a horror movie; it is a challenge to the audience itself to understand just why we are drawn to images of violence and horror. Like in most of his films, Haneke takes us to a dark, disturbing place where we are forced to examine ourselves as the viewers of attacks on other people. The ending of Funny Games provides no relief. The killers will continue to terrorize as long as we are eager to watch.