What is the true story of the movie The Strangers?

Answer 1

Does anyone remember Fargo? If so keep reading.... The movie Fargo was based on "true events" which actually i read up on it and it said that it was not based on true events. The director, producer, and the writer decided to say that Fargo was based on true events so that more people would go see it.. So is The Strangers the same thing? Or is it based on a killing in northern California? Well it was both. The strangers is based on a few killings not any of them said anything about a killing in cali. It was based on the mason killings, cabin 28 killings, the Czech Republic where a couple was terrorized by three teens and then later killed. So the new movie the strangers is not based on one specific murder, its based on three. So I hoped this helped you out.

Do not totally agree with the above...I read this on "Wikipedia"...when the director was a child, a stranger came to his house asking for someone who did not live there or who was not there (can't remember exact). Then he found out that a vacant house in his neighborhood was broken into the same night/day, I guess that spooked him out a little, as would me, but then he goes on to say that Helter Skelter was his main inspiration

No how can you believe wikipedia more than half the stuff they say is FAKE!!!

Someone told me that it was all over the newspaper, and the story got "discovered", (whatever it's called) So, whoever it happened to took the information off the internet, and stuff, although, I'm not sure if it's true, so don't hold me down if I'm wrong.

What, exactly, does "based on true events" or "inspired by true events" mean? It snows in Fargo, ND (even though Fargo was actually filmed in Minnesota) and I don't doubt that someone once drank a beer in a bar in Fargo, ND, so if those two events were true, then it could be truthfully said that it was "inspired by true events" even if everything else in the movie was fabricated from whole cloth.

According to production notes for the film, The Strangers was "inspired by true events" that happened to the director, Bryan Bertino, in his childhood. A stranger came to his home asking for someone who wasn't there, and Bertino later found out that several homes in the neighborhood were broken into that night. In interviews, Bertino has stated that his main inspiration was from the book Helter Skelter and the Keddie Cabin Murders in 1981 in Keddie, CA, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Therefore, yes, The Strangers was inspired by true events.

This movie could be absolutely fake how the hell can a flippin ghost come in your house can they move away nloike in a second

Answer 2

No, none of the events shown in The Strangers ever happened in real life. It is a fictional movie.

The only event in the movie that is even close to being based on the truth is the part about knocking on the door and asking for someone who doesn't live there. One night, when the writer/director was a child, someone knocked on the front door of his family's home, and asked for someone who didn't live there.

The next day, the family found out that there had been a break-in at another home in the neighborhood. It may be that the person who knocked on the door was staking out the house, trying to decide whether it would be a good home to rob.

Everything else, while inspired by real cases of home invasions (including, but not limited to, the Manson Family murders and the Cabin 28 murders), is totally fictional.

In other words, while terrible, violent home invasion crimes do happen, the one shown in The Strangers never happened.

Similarly, there have been many, many men who fell in love with married women. That doesn't make Casablanca "based on a true story."

There have been plenty of innocent men convicted of crimes, and there have also been plenty of criminals who've escaped from prison. That doesn't make The Shawshank Redemption "based on a true story."

There are plenty of hotels that are supposedly haunted. That doesn't make The Shining "based on a true story."

And there are plenty of murders that have occurred on trains. That doesn't make Murder on the Orient Express "based on a true story."

Answer 3

"As a kid, I lived in a house on a street in the middle of nowhere. One night, while our parents were out, somebody knocked on the front door and my little sister answered it. At the door were some people asking for somebody who didn't live there. We later found out that these people were knocking on doors on the area and, if no one was home, breaking into the houses". In interviews, Bertino stated he was "very impressed" with some of the theories circulating on the Internet about the "true events" the movie is allegedly based on, but said his main inspiration was from the true crime book Helter Skelter; some have said that the film was also inspired by the Keddie Cabin Murders of 1981 that occurred in a small vacation community in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains.[2][7][8]

Answer 4

No, it's not. Movie producers and marketers in Hollywood know that people are more likely to see a horror movie if they think it's based on a true story. So, they deliberately attempt to blur the line between fiction and the truth, by claiming that movies are "inspired by a true story" and pretending it's the same thing as being "based on a true story." Basically, they lie and say it's a true story when it's not.

The movie The Strangers is not based on a true story. Rather, it was collectively inspired by several different home invasion-type crimes, including (but not limited to) the Manson Family murders and the Cabin 28 murders. That means, the writer/director, Bryan Bertino, read and heard about several different real life home invasion crimes, and thought, "Wow, I'd love to make a movie about carefully planned home invasions! I think I'll write a screenplay about a married couple getting terrorized and eventually murdered in their cabin in the woods by a small gang of psychopathic teenagers!" So he did.

He didn't try to accurately depict any one true story, so, it's not based on a true story. "Based on a true story" means the moviemakers are trying to stick to the truth and show you what really happened. If a writer/director just gets an idea from real life, but the story they produce only has a few remote similarities to the truth, then it's not "based on a true story."

In other words, a movie/book is not automatically "based on a true story" just because a few aspects of the story are similar to something that really happened.

"Inspired by a true story" is a deceptively misleading phrase. As I've said many, many times in response to the myriad, "Is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre real?" questions, ALL stories are "inspired by a true story." ALL writers get their ideas from real life. Occasionally, a great idea will just come to you, seemingly out of the blue (or in a dream), and you have no clue where it came from. But most of the time, that's not how writing works. Writers don't just magically come up with ideas from nothing. Rather, they get their ideas from things they see, hear, read about, and experience in the real world.

For example, say you read a story in the newspaper about a notorious female drug dealer in New York City. This gives you the idea for a character named Stella Banx, a tough and powerful woman who, at the age of 55, is slowly dying of syphilis. With the Mayor's approval, she runs the most lucrative brothel in all of 19th century New Orleans, with the help of her two murderous yet loyal daughters, Kit and Marie.

Now, wouldn't it be silly to say that the story of Stella Banx is "based on a true story?" The real life story and the fictional story are nothing alike! Stella Banx isn't a drug dealer, she doesn't live in the 21st century, she doesn't live in New York City, she has two daughters, she's friends with the Mayor, she has syphilis...

Or, in your dramatic novel, Anton, the wisecracking, carefree childhood friend of the lead character, might be psychologically a combination of your Uncle Paul, your college buddy Jeff, and your dad's best friend, while physically he resembles some guy you saw on a bus one day. That doesn't make Anton a "real" person.

As far as real authors go: many of Jane Austen's characters were based, at least in part, on herself or people she knew. But that doesn't mean Pride and Prejudice is based on a true story.

Nearly all of Stephen King's main characters (the male ones, anyway) are pretty much self-portraits. They're all variations of himself. But that doesn't mean Stephen King's novels are based on true stories, either!

Additionally, Stephen King got the idea for Ellen Rimbauer and the Rose Red mansion from Sarah Winchester and the Winchester Mansion. But Ellen Rimbauer and Rose Red are still fiction: for one thing, no one has ever died or gone missing in the Winchester Mansion. And the life of Sarah Winchester was absolutely nothing like the life of the fictional Ellen Rimbauer.

The idea for the Freddy Krueger character came from a creepy vagrant who frightened writer/director Wes Craven when he was a child. The man wore a hat and sweater similar to Freddy's. But that doesn't mean the Nightmare on Elm Street movies are based on a true story!

And the plot of nearly every Law & Order episode comes from newspaper stories of real-life crimes. But they still can legitimately put the disclaimer that, "the events in this story are fictional and do not depict any real person or event," at the beginning of each episode, because they change so many of the facts that it becomes fiction.

In short, The Strangers wasn't based on a true story. It was "inspired by a true story" (or, inspired by many true stories, rather) which is a meaningless phrase that was invented by Hollywood for the sole purpose of tricking people into buying more movie tickets.

Answer 5

The Strangers is based a true event the director experienced as a child (knocking on the door to see who was home for robbery, not murder). James Hoyt and Kristen McKay are fictional characters that the director created to build off of this experience. They never existed.

Answer 6

There isn't one. Movie producers and marketers in Hollywood know that people are more likely to see a Horror movie if they think it's based on a true story. So, they deliberately attempt to blur the line between fiction and the truth, by claiming that movies are "inspired by a true story" and pretending it's the same thing as being "based on a true story." Basically, they lie and say it's a true story when it's not.

The movie The Strangers is not based on a true story. Rather, it was collectively inspired by several different home invasion-type crimes, including (but not limited to) the Manson Family murders and the Cabin 28 murders. That means, the writer/director, Bryan Bertino, read and heard about several different real life home invasion crimes, and thought, "Wow, I'd love to make a movie about carefully planned home invasions! I think I'll write a screenplay about a married couple getting terrorized and eventually murdered in their cabin in the woods by a small gang of psychopathic teenagers!" So he did.

He didn't try to accurately depict any one true story, so, it's not based on a true story. "Based on a true story" means the moviemakers are trying to stick to the truth and show you what really happened. If a writer/director just gets an idea from real life, but the story they produce only has a few remote similarities to the truth, then it's not "based on a true story."

In other words, a movie/book is not automatically "based on a true story" just because a few aspects of the story are similar to something that really happened.

"Inspired by a true story" is a deceptively misleading phrase. As I've said many, many times in response to the myriad, "Is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre real?" questions, ALL stories are "inspired by a true story." ALL writers get their ideas from real life. Occasionally, a great idea will just come to you, seemingly out of the blue (or in a dream), and you have no clue where it came from. But most of the time, that's not how writing works. Writers don't just magically come up with ideas from nothing. Rather, they get their ideas from things they see, hear, read about, and experience in the real world.

For example, say you read a story in the newspaper about a notorious female drug dealer in New York City. This gives you the idea for a character named Stella Banx, a tough and powerful woman who, at the age of 55, is slowly dying of syphilis. With the Mayor's approval, she runs the most lucrative brothel in all of 19th century New Orleans, with the help of her two murderous yet loyal daughters, Kit and Marie.

Now, wouldn't it be silly to say that the story of Stella Banx is "based on a true story?" The real life story and the fictional story are nothing alike! Stella Banx isn't a drug dealer, she doesn't live in the 21st century, she doesn't live in New York City, she has two daughters, she's friends with the Mayor, she has syphilis...

Or, in your dramatic novel, Anton, the wisecracking, carefree childhood friend of the lead character, might be psychologically a combination of your Uncle Paul, your college buddy Jeff, and your dad's best friend, while physically he resembles some guy you saw on a bus one day. That doesn't make Anton a "real" person.

As far as real authors go: many of Jane Austen's characters were based, at least in part, on herself or people she knew. But that doesn't mean Pride and Prejudice is based on a true story.

Nearly all of Stephen King's main characters (the male ones, anyway) are pretty much self-portraits. They're all variations of himself. But that doesn't mean Stephen King's novels are based on true stories, either!

Additionally, Stephen King got the idea for Ellen Rimbauer and the Rose Red mansion from Sarah Winchester and the Winchester Mansion. But Ellen Rimbauer and Rose Red are still fiction: for one thing, no one has ever died or gone missing in the Winchester Mansion. And the life of Sarah Winchester was absolutely nothing like the life of the fictional Ellen Rimbauer.

The idea for the Freddy Krueger character came from a creepy vagrant who frightened writer/director Wes Craven when he was a child. The man wore a hat and sweater similar to Freddy's. But that doesn't mean the Nightmare on Elm Street movies are based on a true story!

And the plot of nearly every Law & Order episode comes from newspaper stories of real-life crimes. But they still can legitimately put the disclaimer that, "the events in this story are fictional and do not depict any real person or event," at the beginning of each episode, because they change so many of the facts that it becomes fiction.

In short, The Strangers wasn't based on a true story. It was "inspired by a true story" (or, inspired by many true stories, rather) which is a meaningless phrase that was invented by Hollywood for the sole purpose of tricking people into buying more movie tickets.

Answer 7

The movie exists, so, yes, it is real. But it is not a true story.

The movie was very loosely based on several famous home invasion crimes, as well as an incident in the director's childhood.

However, the actual movie is TOTALLY, COMPLETELY different from the real life cases. And the writer/director made absolutely no attempt whatsoever to portray the real cases.

So, it's not based on a true story. A movie is not automatically based on a true story just because one or two things are kinda sorta similar to something that really happened.

It could be called "inspired by a true story," however, that is a meaningless phrase, since almost all stories are inspired by a true story. For the most part, all fiction writers get their ideas from things they see, hear, read about, and experience in the real world.

A writer getting an idea from real life is nothing new. Most fiction is inspired by real events. So, yes, you could say that The Strangers is "inspired by real events." But so what? Who cares? That makes it no different from the vast majority of movies and books out there.

You might as well say that A Nightmare on Elm Street is inspired by a true story, because Wes Craven got the idea for the Freddy character from a homeless man who scared him when he was a kid. The man wore a hat and sweater similar to Freddy's.

Now, wouldn't it be ridiculous to get all worked up, and start proclaiming that A Nightmare on Elm Street is partly real, because of that?

Getting all worked up over The Strangers being "inspired by a true story" is no less silly.

See the Related Question below for more information.

Answer 8

The stangers happend in 2005 Febaury 11 I think in Seattle