movie review of home invasion

20 Best Home Invasion Movies of All Time

Quick Review

Any list of the best home invasion movies is going to reveal just how far-reaching this genre can get. There are few basic plots that can hit closer to real fears shared by many of us, as no one is too terribly concerned about actual zombies , ghosts , dream demons, or mask-wearing mass murder enthusiasts. We understand that even with locks and security measures, someone with enough ambition can probably work around our best defenses. Unless you’re exceptionally wealthy, your protections are only going to go but so far.

Home invasion movies as its own genre have been around for a lot longer than you might think. It’s fascinating to consider that for as long as human beings have been telling stories, there have been depictions of forces invading a home as a profound assault on personal safety. There are even comedic films about home invasions, such as Home Alone or arguably What About Bob, but we’re going to be sticking with horror and serious tension for this look at the best home invasion movies.

Some of these films are bleak, darkly humorous, or just a fantastic exercise in action and suspense filmmaking. All of them are worth a look for fans of this genre.

The Best Home Invasion Movies

20. cape fear (1991).

Director: Martin Scorsese

Remaking a classic 1962 suspense thriller featuring Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum (both of whom appear in the 1991 update) was a surprising move for Martin Scorsese. The end result gave him one of the most critically and commercially successful films of his career up to that point.

The story concerns a violent sex offender (Robert De Niro, arguably at his scariest as Max Cady) who targets Sam Bowen (Nick Nolte, playing his complex character to perfection), the lawyer who put him away under questionable circumstances.

However, Max doesn’t just wait for Sam in the parking lot with a tire iron. Max begins a slow-burn vengeance that seeks to destroy Sam’s career and life wholesale. Max might be a dangerous, highly violent criminal, but he’s not an idiot.

Cape Fear offers a layered, sexually disconcerting revenge story that also sweeps up Sam’s wife (Jessica Lange) and daughter (Juliette Lewis). This is a home invasion story that takes a truly multifaceted approach to what constitutes a home in the first place.

19. You’re Next (2011)

Director: Adam Wingard

Who doesn’t enjoy a heartwarming story about a family coming together for a common cause? You’re Next depends heavily on black humor and family dynamics in its plot involving a rich, dysfunctional family being forced to cooperate with one another to survive a home invasion by ruthless maniacs.

The film doesn’t make anything simple, including how these family relationships involving two parents, their adult children, and their spouses, and that’s where You’re Next gets its best qualities. This is a home invasion film that impressively keeps the audience on the edge, with moments of incredible and affecting violence punctuated with clever dialog and believable motivations.

The worst thing you can do with You’re Next, which was an early hit for director Adam Wingard ( Godzilla vs. Kong ), is expect everything to unfold neatly. This is a messy, sometimes very strange approach to the home invasion story. It might even be a little too messy at times, especially as we get to the incredible conclusion, but that can be a good thing sometimes. You’re Next never runs out of momentum.

18. The Collector (2009)

Director: Marcus Dunstan

The Collector combines a couple of different genres to create something quite special. If you don’t care about special, then you’re still going to love just how entertaining a ride this film proves to be. Everything starts with a desperate man Arkin (Josh Stewart) making plans to rob a wealthy family with whom he enjoys a friendly working relationship. We know things aren’t going to be so simple, but The Collector builds on its ideas and concept of suspense so beautifully.

You’re going to be impressed at exactly how things come together. Especially by the time Arkin discovers a powerful force of evil has already made plans for the home he’s breaking into. The Collector sets up its remarkable premise quite well and doesn’t let us down with too much ambition.

This is a lean, quick-witted horror movie with lots of style and compelling performances. A good home invasion movie doesn’t let up for a second in any sense of the word, which is certainly the case with The Collector.

17. Inside (2007)

Directors: Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury

A pregnant woman (Alysson Paradis) mourns the recent death of her husband and waits for her long overdue baby to finally arrive. Apparently, that’s not quite enough for her dance card, as she soon finds herself the target of a mysterious, terrifying woman (Béatrice Dalle), who seemingly wants her unborn child at any cost.

Inside pits our expectations against a void that represents the pure and utterly horrifying unknown. This is a powerful example of the home invasion plot marrying with a serious mystery to create something that drives our attention ever forward. Even as we know that we may not like what happens when everything finally comes to a head.

Inside has been praised for its tension, but respect should also be paid to how startlingly rounded these people are. They aren’t simply figures in an unfathomable tragedy. There’s a lot of implied potential behind this script, which manages to keep the breakneck pace and character development running alongside one another.

16. Straw Dogs (1971)

Director: Sam Peckinpah

A home invasion in which the newcomers to a rural community in Cornwall, England are treated with almost immediate hostility sets the stage for Straw Dogs. There is indeed a direct home invasion component to this story of an American (a rising Dustin Hoffman) and his new wife (Susan George, who is just as good as Hoffman) trying to start a new life in quiet surroundings.

However, Straw Dogs doesn’t even really give them a sense of home to begin with. The invasion element in this brutal and still-shocking masterpiece from Sam Peckinpah comes only after a long, sustained period of torment against the newlyweds by the majority of the sadistic, ignorant townsfolk.

Straw Dogs is as morally and narratively complex as it is harrowing and sometimes downright nasty. Those who have an understandable aversion to rape scenes will want to note that Straw Dogs features one of the ugliest examples put to film. It works in the context of what we’re watching, but like everything else in this story, including a masterful and tragic supporting performance by David Warner, it’s going to savage the soul a little.

15. Alone in the Dark (1982)

Director: Jack Sholder

Three fun-loving lunatics from the local asylum escape, go on a looting spree, and eventually torment some folks in their home.

The premise for Alone in the Dark is not in of itself all that interesting. The movie feels a little out-of-place when compared to the glut of slasher films that were beginning to dominate the horror genre at this time. Casting three middle-aged men (Donald Pleasence, Jack Palance, and Martin Landau) as the tormentors is another way this movie feels different from a lot of the stuff being released in the early 80s. The way the home invasion angle is explored is also quite bizarre.

Despite drawbacks, Alone in the Dark is genuinely tension-filled and frightening for the three off-kilter, character-driven performances of its three principles. Jack Sholder, who later directed A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, also gives the movie distinction for striking a balance between heavy character actor stuff, a very dark sense of humor, and good pacing.

14. The Trip (2021)

Director: Tommy Wirkola

The Trip can feel a bit like someone brought together two very different movies, and then managed to make them work together quite beautifully.

A wife (Noomi Rapace, always excellent in horror) and husband (Aksel Hennie) decide to spend a relaxing weekend in a cabin in the woods, reconnecting as each in their own way waits for the opportunity to murder the other. This is more than enough to sustain a single film.

However, The Trip takes a sharp turn when intruders suddenly descend upon the cabin. At no point does the film lose the thread of its original plot. That story runs frantically and not-too-quietly alongside what has now become a very unpredictable home invasion story.

Despite several characters and two very specific plots that eventually must completely merge, The Trip is an exercise in economically making all of these components click. The actors, editing, and cinematography all excel at escalating a brand of chaos that could very easily be described as intimate.

13. In Cold Blood (1967)

Director: Richard Brooks

Drawing from Truman Capote’s nonfiction book, itself based on the brutal Clutter family murders , In Cold Blood is one of the bleakest neo-noir films ever made.

Shot in black and white, and presented as a shockingly straightforward depiction of what likely happened on November 15th 1959, the film doesn’t need its story to be true to be as creepy as it is. In Cold Blood is unsettling from the start, as we watch Petty Smith (Robert Blake) and Dick Hickock (The Walking Dead’s Scott Wilson) meet, and eventually plan the robbery of a family in rural Kansas.

The power of this movie as a believable presentation of a home invasion scenario is still there. In Cold Blood also draws further strength as one of the best home invasion movies ever for the performances of its two leads. With an on-screen chemistry that taps into the loneliness and discontent each man carries, Wilson and real-life-murderer Robert Blake create two men bound by their inability to function realistically. It drives the atmosphere of this classic as much as anything else.

12. Don’t Breathe (2016)

Director: Fede Álvarez

Don’t Breathe swaps the traditional roles of a home invasion movie. While this movie isn’t the first one to try this, it’s clear that everyone quite liked Don’t Breathe’s subversions of their expectations.

Three very silly young thieves decide to break into the home of a blind veteran who has supposedly come into quite a bit of money. The robbery goes about as well as it did for the guys in The People Under the Stairs , except they at least died right off.

Don’t Breathe sticks the landing on tension and intermittent flashes of extreme violence and even assault. It’s a savage thriller in this regard, with shades of something that may feel like a slasher movie. The movie uses its influences and original ideas in perfect harmony. Don’t Breathe benefits even further from its cast, particularly Jane Levy and Stephen Lang as The Blind Man. Lang’s performance proved so arresting and wounding, he was questionably turned into something of an antihero for the sequel.

11. Hider in the House (1989)

Director: Matthew Patrick

Hider in the House is a little on the convoluted side, as it involves a man (Gary Busey, who is surprisingly quite tragic) who decides after being let out of an institution to move into the attic of a new home. Step two is to just not ever tell anyone. You don’t have to be complicated to be one of the best home invasion movies.

If you can accept that this premise has at least some plausibility , you’re going to be surprised by how impactful this movie can be. While Hider in the House does sometimes fly a little too close to being unintentionally hilarious, the movie still hits some nice, unsettling notes. Busey — a very good actor whose reputation for being, well, Gary Busey — gives a committed, intense, and surprisingly sympathetic performance. While Michael McKean is wasted as the lackluster dad, Hider in the House also taps into a strong Mimi Rogers performance.

There’s a good ending that takes advantage of the film’s strongest points, although this is another example of Hider in the House going for something ambitious and deranged.

10. Panic Room (2002)

Director: David Fincher

The director of Se7en and The Game probably knows what he’s doing when it comes to suspense.

Panic Room builds and builds to a fever pitch in its story of a mother (Jodi Foster) and diabetic daughter (Kristen Stewart) fighting for their lives when three guys show up to claim $3 million worth of bearer bonds, but need to get into the panic room our protagonists have retreated to. Our three robbers (Jared Leto, Forest Whitaker, and Dwight Yoakam) have their own problems and chemistry going on.

With ample time to build on each group of characters, Panic Room isn’t just a stunning example of creating suspense that pays off repeatedly for the audience. What makes this movie such a wonder of genre and style is in how it maintains its suspense.

Without erasing anything that’s been developed in the name of being shocking, Panic Room is one of the definitive examples of how the greatest thrillers really don’t stop for much of anything.

9. The Purge (2013)

Director: James DeMonaco

The only film on this list to launch a lucrative franchise, The Purge was a surprise hit for the 2013 movie landscape.

The basic premise is that of a world so ravaged by crime, a questionable government authority allows for a window of time in which all crime will be allowed. There’s a lot of storytelling potential in that, as you might imagine, with this first and perhaps best entry going with the one that makes the most sense.

A wealthy family finds themselves forced to deal with home intruders on the most dangerous night of the year. With great editing, music, and plot twists that enhance rather than distract, The Purge is pulp entertainment done exceedingly well.

The Purge exists as it does because it didn’t have a lot of money to work with , but a story focusing on a smaller scale depiction of the nightmare is still the most satisfying one. The emphasized elements of a film series that found success in the age of Trump has had mixed results.

8. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Director: Roman Polanski

One of the ways in which Rosemary’s Baby maintains its status as one of the scariest movies of all time is in how it depicts a home invasion.

While not a home invasion movie in the same sense as something like The Purge, Rosemary’s Baby possesses all the same essential considerations. The main difference here is that many of the home invasion movies featured in this article involve a deliberate attack by outsiders.

Only one true outsider presents themselves in this film. The rest of the people involved in this adaptation of an Ira Levin novel are friends, neighbors, and even the husband of young Rosemary (Mia Farrow). The attack is quiet to the point that Rosemary knows something is wrong, but naturally can’t quite sort it all out.

By the time she gets even part of the way to an answer, it’s too late. The assault and takeover are complete. Rosemary is going to be a mother, and the child is going to be the Antichrist. The inevitably of it all is terrifying.

7. Deadly Games (1989)

Director: René Manzor

Have you ever watched the family holiday favorite Home Alone, and thought the movie would be so much better if it was profoundly weirder and considerably more violent? Deadly Games, a 1989 French horror film that precedes Home Alone by a decent stretch , is going to be a dream viewing experience.

A brilliant young boy named Thomas lives in a bizarre high-tech wonderland with his mother, partially blind grandfather, and dog. A killer dressed as Santa invades his secluded, carefully constructed home, and Thomas has no choice but to defend himself.

Sound familiar? The comparisons have been made before, but Deadly Games, also known by the much cooler name Dial Code Santa Claus) is ultimately its own truly unique breed. Patrick Floershiem is particularly effective as the killer, with Alain Lalanne offering a sympathetic and complex child actor performance. Deadly Games is as surprisingly scary as it is surreal in its plot twists, set design, and character motivations.

6. Funny Games (2007)

Director: Michael Haneke

With the simple act of allowing its evilest character (Michael Pitt) to occasionally break the fourth wall to let us become a tangible part of his cruelty, Funny Games becomes the most disturbing entry on any list of home invasion movies.

A shot-for-shot remake of the director’s just-as-grim 1997 psychological horror film, Funny Games is a descent into something darker than most of us are used to. Whereas other movies in which a group of intruders capture, torture, and eventually eradicate a family for no significant reason might be an exercise in gritty excess, Funny Games speaks a very plain and straight cinematic language. We don’t get to breathe during this nightmare in terms of pacing, but at no point does the movie suddenly roar into a tense cat-and-mouse in a more traditional tradition.

Funny Games just doesn’t let up. We watch the beginning, middle, and end of characters motivated by something we can scarcely comprehend.

5. Black Christmas (1974)

Director: Bob Clark

One of the films responsible for starting the slasher craze , which didn’t really get rolling until the 1980s, Black Christmas is a maddening experience.

Through performances and masterful and gradual building upon the idea that something truly horrible is going on, the film gives us a likable lead in Olivia Hussey, relatively complex female characters in her friends, and the red herring trope explored in a truly compelling way. The twisted obsessions of whomever is stalking and murdering these sorority girls becomes something that exists in the DNA of the film beyond the actual character.

As things become increasingly unsettled and dangerous, this atmosphere of something wholly unfamiliar to the girls and those around them becomes a promise that something devastating and disturbing is going to happen.

Several decades on, Black Christmas doesn’t disappoint the expectations of those who continue to discover one of the best slasher movies ever. Two admirable remakes have been produced in its wake, but neither of them comes close to intrigue and sheer terror.

4. Last House on the Left (1974)

Director: Wes Craven

The Last House on the Left remains one of Wes Craven’s most effective horror movies . You can easily make the case that it was the most disturbing in a long career in that particular field.

Two young girls making their way to the city are targeted by a group of psychopaths. The girls are subjected to rape and violence presented with such a dedicated eye, a lot of people to this day call the film disgusting. It’s certainly as wretched in its depictions as ever, which is why some viewers should keep in mind what they’re about to watch before starting. That’s a hell of a reputation for a movie that came out nearly 50 years ago.

Naturalistic, unappealing, and pitiable performances dominate a movie that often feels like a documentary. This was certainly Craven’s intention with this loose remake of Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring. Is there justice? Well, for those who haven’t seen it, you’re going to get to explore that concept when the murderers happen upon the home of the parents of one of the girls.

3. Wait Until Dark (1967)

Director: Terence Young

Few films on this list can induce and nurture anxiety as Wait Until Dark can. In a plot that’s at least partially similar to Don’t Breathe, three burglars come to the conclusion that the heroin they’re trying to get their hands on is inside a doll, and that the doll is in the home of a blind woman. What should be a very simple endeavor proves to be considerably more frustrating than the men ever imagined. By the same token, the woman in the apartment (Audrey Hepburn, getting a rare opportunity to play against type) finds herself alone, threatened by a completely unknown presence.

It helps Wait Until Dark that the element of the threat isn’t one-sided. While the criminals, led by one of Alan Arkin’s most impactful performances, are definitely the more dangerous, Hepburn’s protagonist fights back every step of the way.

This is one of the prime examples of the cat-and-mouse element to this genre. Some of the best home invasion movies show us the slow development of a relationship between captor and captive. Other examples create a chase in tight, almost unbreathable conditions. Wait Until Dark is an incredible example of the second mode.

2. When a Stranger Calls (1979)

Director: Fred Walton

When a Stranger Calls brilliantly brings to life the urban legend of The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs. The first twenty minutes of this movie, one of the best home invasion movies ever made, are among the best ever filmed. That would probably be enough for this story, which is more about what happens when the killer who tormented a babysitter years earlier is released from an asylum, to be included on any list.

But there’s so much more to When a Stranger Calls than its still-potent opening 20 minutes. Backed by great work from Carol Kane, Tony Beckley, and Charles Durning in the cast, the writing and progression of this story in the aftermath of something as horrific as the murder of children continue to impress by building on the ongoing investigation into an immediate and all-encompassing intruder.

Despite setting up its premise plainly, the movie is a guessing game that can even make you feel a little like you’re losing your grip, as well.

1. Parasite (2019)

Director: Bong Joo-ho

Winner of several 2020 Academy Awards, Parasite isn’t technically a horror movie. Yet it has repeatedly been discussed as one for presenting its story of a family that ingrains itself in the home of another, exponentially wealthier family in the most harrowing terms possible.

There is some incisive social commentary in this story, as well as some of the most infuriating (by design) instances of dark comedy in recent memory, but the movie still relies heavily on creating a nightmare situation. What the movie builds to by its second half is very much in the tradition of the relationship between home invasion movies and the horror genre.

While home invasion films are not always horror movies, films like Parasite make it impossible to ignore just how powerfully these movies can tap into our anxieties. Parasite strives to create the most complex variation of a home invasion in a movie yet, and they have succeeded. This film also gets a sizable amount of its horror from claustrophobic settings and circumstances. Not to mention the frightening opportunity to see just how far people can be pushed.

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Home invasion.

Directed by David Tennant

Help is on the way... if you live that long.

Terror arrives at the one place we all feel safest... When a wealthy woman, Chloe, and her stepson, Jacob, are targeted by a trio of expert thieves in their remote mansion, her only form of help comes from a call with Mike, a security systems specialist. But as the intruders become increasingly hostile and the connection wavers, will she trust him to be her eyes and navigate her to safety?

Natasha Henstridge Jason Patric Liam Dickinson Scott Adkins Kyra Zagorsky Michael J Rogers Christian Tessier Brenda Crichlow Leanne Lapp Johannah Newmarch Garry Chalk Wesley Salter Trevor Lerner Peter Cluff Lee Tichon Gabe Khouth Steven Garr David Lennon Dawn Chubai

Director Director

David Tennant

Producers Producers

Raul Sanchez Inglis Natasha Henstridge Kirk Shaw Jeff Sackman Matt Drake Devi Singh Alexandra Julson Valentina Carp

Writer Writer

Peter Sullivan

Casting Casting

Donald Paul Pemrick Dean E. Fronk Kara Eide Kris Woznesensky

Editors Editors

Asim Nuraney Steve Bowyer

Cinematography Cinematography

Toby Gorman

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Patricia Dyer Walden Andrew Niiranen

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Shawn Ashmore Damian Lee Keith Shaw Jeffrey Schenck Devi Singh Dave Hudakoc

Lighting Lighting

Jay Rathore

Camera Operators Camera Operators

Jan Wolff Jackson Harper Christopher C. Fisher Hanna Menon David Tenniswood

Production Design Production Design

Daren Luc Sasges

Art Direction Art Direction

Nike Hatzidimou

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Andrew Berry Heather Victoria Adams Amanda Wormald Johnston Gray

Special Effects Special Effects

Brant McIlroy

Visual Effects Visual Effects

Helen Tzoutis

Stunts Stunts

Tony Morelli Lauro David Chartrand-DelValle Lori Stewart Rick Pearce Janene Carleton Chad Sayn Shawn Orr Sharon Simms

Composer Composer

Robert Smart

Sound Sound

Brian Lyster Scott C. Kolden Michael MacDonald Randy Kiss Jason Cole Adam Pisani

Costume Design Costume Design

Zohra Shahalimi

Makeup Makeup

Kathy Howatt

Hairstyling Hairstyling

ARO Entertainment Odyssey Media TAJJ Media

Releases by Date

02 feb 2016, 15 feb 2016, 19 feb 2016, 25 feb 2016, 05 jul 2017, releases by country.

• Physical 14
• Physical 15
• Physical 12 DVD
• Physical 16
• Physical PG-13

88 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by [YLoveEverything] ★★ 4

The entire movie is a shameless ad for home security, but they don't show any brand, so they are just promoting home security in general? Also, in a lot of action movies, there is a big strong alpha male that needs to protect his very innocent and very useless wife and kid(s), but in this, there is no husband, the main protagonist is the woman, does that mean she is the hero? Nope, she is just a helpless victim and the hero is a random guy in the home security outline who tells her everything she has to do.

Review by Megan 🌻 ½

I SAT THERE FOR OVER AN HOUR AND I DONT EVEN FIND OUT WHATS IN THE FUCKING SAFE?????

Review by bree1981 ★★½ 2

As the title suggests, this is another home invasion movie and while it isn't a bad effort, it doesn't bring anything new to the party, it feels like a mash-up of other better movies and is choc full of cliches. Natasha Henstridge stars as Chloe, a single mother who lives in a large house belonging to her rich husband who she has separated from. At first, when the three masked intruders turn up at the house, we aren't sure why they are there but it soon becomes apparent that they are after something inside the house and they will stop at nothing to get. There is a decent twist, in that the house is protected by a hi-tech security camera…

Review by Film_Sammlung ★★½

Haus Besetzungs Filme gibt es ja wie Sand am mehr, nur die meisten sind halt kompletter Käse. Bei "Home Invasion" ist der Name immerhin Programm und das ganz ohne große Besonderheiten.

Natasha Henstridge hockt mit ihrem Stiefsohn und einer Nachbarin gemütlich samt einer Pulle Wein im Wohnzimmer. Plötzlich wird ihre Villa von maskieren Einbrechern belagert, die sie nicht nur töten wollen, sondern auf der Suche nach etwas Bestimmten sind. Lediglich Jason Patric der für die Sicherheitsfirma arbeitet, die das Haus im Blick hat, kann ihr per Funk zur Hilfe beistehen.

Harkt schon großflächig alle Klischees ab, die es in dem Bereich gibt von regnerischer Nacht bis zu keine Nachbarn ist wirklich alles dabei.

Frau Henstridge hat dafür bock und bringt…

Review by TomB2433 ★

How can a home invasion be so boring

Review by Josh ★½ 1

It never fails to amaze me how Netflix can turn the most random shit into a hit on its service. What the hell is this and why is it trending top ten right now?! And why am I sat here watching it?!

As far as home invasions go, it was just so dull and plain that it actually managed to be boring. However, I did like when the security agent played back various call clips on the stereo system in certain rooms to deter the invaders. It’s never a never a good sign when your first cool/original idea is in the final five minutes of your film though.

Literally never heard of Natasha Henstridge before but she was a bit…

Review by Cinema_Snobb ★★

I like Jason Patric, but this film is not one of his best moments. It all runs just as you might expect it to.

A security-systems specialist (Jason Patric) tries to help a woman (Natasha Henstridge) and her stepson when three thieves break into their remote mansion.

Had some potential, but squanders it.

Review by Rich Trash🗑️ ★★★½

I was expecting something along the lines of The Strangers, maybe not as gruesome but Home Invasion never reached that level. This is good though. Natasha Henstridge was great as the secluded mother with an annoying stepson. I also can never not enjoy Scott Adkins when he is on my screen.

Review by sillycatmom ★★★★

A great thriller film! I found this movie while searching through Youtube  movies. It was very scary and thrilling throughout the entire 1-1/2 hours! A rich but secluded lady Chloe and stepson Jacob are targets for 3 skilled home invasion experts. Chloe calls police for help( cars in driveway her friend shot dead) but invasion girl Victoria re routes call. Chloe calls home security system monitor experts and gets Mike. He tries to help. He calls 911 and realizes there is a lot more going on at this Home Invasion. What do they want? Best part,  Chloe picks up a hammer and hits Creep in leg with it! Watch this movie at night and get scared.

Review by IsolatedYeti ★

If you ever hear someone say “oh, this feels like a straight-to-TV movie” and you don’t know what they mean, just watch this movie and you’ll instantly get it.

Review by ElliotThomas17 ★

Home invasion is shit don’t watch it

Review by Levi Connor ★

my mum making me watch some corny ass film💀😭

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Because You Were Home: A History of Home Invasion in 10 Movies

Home invasion has been a part of horror movies practically from the beginning. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Nosferatu (1922), Dracula , and Frankenstein (1931) all included moments of attackers entering homes uninvited and terrorizing unsuspecting victims.

Home invasion as a sub-genre unto itself came a bit later, as the suburbs sprung up and a false sense of security rose in the United States along with fears of “the other” that have always been a key aspect of horror movies.

These ten movies may not all be the best of this sub-genre, but they all bring something different to the table and pushed it, in large and small ways, in new directions.

The Desperate Hours (1955)

It is practically impossible to pinpoint the exact moment that started any new genre or movement within film but a good candidate for the foundation of the home invasion movie is William Wyler’s The Desperate Hours . The opening scenes look like an episode of Leave It to Beaver with Daniel (Frederic March) and Ellie (Martha Clark) as the heads of the idyllic suburban Hilliard family. While Daniel and their eldest daughter are at work and the young son is at school, three fugitive criminals led by Glenn Griffin (Humphrey Bogart) hold Ellie at gunpoint and force their way into her home where they plan to stay until they are able to make their next move. When Daniel and the children return home, Griffin holds the whole family hostage, making demands of them for their getaway, but the Hilliards each work to outsmart and escape their captors without endangering their family members in the process.

Though it falls in the nebulous “thriller” category that sits at various places on the edges of horror, The Desperate Hours sets much of the template for the home invasion film to come including themes of class and the randomness of fate.

Wait Until Dark (1967)

Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) marked a major shift in horror away from monsters, giant bugs, and space invaders toward psychologically grounded thrillers. One of the best of these is Wait Until Dark , based on the successful Broadway play by Frederick Knott and directed by Terence Young, best known for helming three early James Bond features. Most of the film takes place in a small New York apartment which lends to its sense of confinement and mounting dread. On his way home to New York from Montreal a woman convinces Sam Hendrix (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.), a random man she met on the plane, to take a doll home for her. Now a group of criminals want that doll and, more importantly, the heroin stuffed inside it. While Sam is away, the only thing standing in their way of searching his apartment for the doll is Sam’s wife, Susy (Audrey Hepburn) who happens to be blind. The criminals gain her trust by taking on various personas, but as the story unfolds Susy becomes more and more suspicious and begins working, with the help of her precocious young neighbor Gloria, to foil their plans.

Featuring iconic performances by Hepburn and Alan Arkin as the psychotic Harry Roat, equally excellent turns by Richard Crenna and Jack Weston, a sequence that takes place almost entirely in the dark with only sound effects to indicate the unseen action, and one of the greatest jump scares in film history, Wait Until Dark remains one of the best thrillers of the 1960s.

The Last House on the Left (1972)

For some, including this film may be stretching the definition of home invasion, but I believe it is worthy of discussion in the sub-genre and decisively moves it from the thriller category squarely into horror. After Mari Collingwood (Sandra Peabody) and her friend Phyllis (Lucy Grantham) are tortured, raped, and murdered by a gang of thugs, led by Krug Stillo (David Hess), the gang seeks refuge in a nearby house and are welcomed in by the homeowners. These turn out to be Mari’s parent’s who take matters into their own hands when they discover who Krug and company actually are and what they have done. Though the Collingwoods invite the gang into their home, they recognize the danger and fight against it, as is the case in most home invasion films, but there is also the added dimension of revenge for the brutal death of their daughter.

Where The Virgin Spring (1960), on which the film was based, is largely a meditation on religious belief, morality, and redemption, Last House deals primarily in the limits of morality in polite society and how much that morality can be violated in defense of one’s own territory, in this case the home. It is also an open attempt to depict the ugliness of violence, which had been so sanitized in movies and other media up to that point. The film has its flaws, particularly its wild swings in tone, but there is no denying the visceral punch that Wes Craven’s debut feature still holds. To this day it leaves many still repeating “It’s only a movie…only a movie…only a movie.”

Death Game (1977)

On a rainy night while his wife and kids are away, two young women, Jackson (Sondra Locke) and Donna (Colleen Camp), show up on George Manning’s (Seymour Cassel) doorstep asking to use his phone. They claim to be headed for a party but got lost along the way. He invites them to stay and dry off until a friend of theirs arrives to pick them up, but the girls seduce George and he, reluctantly at first, joins them in a tryst in the Jacuzzi. In the morning, he regrets his actions, but they refuse to leave. It soon becomes clear than Jackson and Donna have drawn Geroge into a trap that could ruin, or even end, his life. Or is it all just a joke?

Death Game is innovative to the genre for several reasons. Perhaps chief among them is that the home invaders are women and, more importantly, they torment George just for the fun of it. They aren’t looking for refuge, money, revenge, or some kind of MacGuffin, they are just in it for kicks. Death Game was little seen for decades, but in 2015 Eli Roth remade the film as Knock Knock partially to draw attention to the original. It worked as the film has been fully restored and is more widely seen now than ever before.

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992)

Few films of the 80s fall squarely under the home invasion umbrella. That said, elements could be found in ghost movies like Poltergeist and The Entity (1982) and certainly many, if not most, slashers, but it was the 90s that saw a new wave of the home invasion sub-genre. Once again, many of these fell under the category of thriller rather than straight horror but that does not mean they are not tense and terrifying. These films trended toward stories of people inviting strangers into their lives that appear trustworthy or innocuous, often because of their occupation or station in life, but turn out to be major threats. Films like Pacific Heights (1990), Unlawful Entry (1992), Single White Female (1992), and The Crush (1993) all exemplify this type of “life invasion” thriller, but perhaps most relevant to this discussion, because it largely centers around a domestic home and family, is The Hand That Rocks the Cradle .

Claire Bartel (Annabella Sciorra) is in need of a nanny for her newborn when she meets a woman, identifying herself as Peyton Flanders (Rebecca De Mornay), who just happens to be looking for a position as a nanny. What Claire does not know, but the audience does, is that Peyton is really Mrs. Mott, the widow of the doctor who killed himself after a group of women, starting with Claire, reported that they had been sexually assaulted by him during medical examinations. As the result of stress from the situation and a fall, Mrs. Mott loses her own baby to miscarriage. “Peyton” works her way into the lives of the members of the Bartel family to poison it from the inside and carry out her revenge. Her goal is not just to kill Claire but take her place as the family matriarch. Directed by Curtis Hanson and with supporting performances by Ernie Hudson and Julianne Moore, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle still packs a punch as a nightmare situation for any family with young children.

Funny Games (1997)

To some Michael Haneke’s Funny Games is a masterpiece. To others it is the epitome of offensive trash. But love it or hate it, it is practically impossible to be ambivalent about it. “I provoke in order to provoke an insight” said Haneke in a 2017 interview, and for those willing to look for it, they will find it. In the film, a couple and their young son have just arrived at their vacation home when two young men enter under the auspices of borrowing some eggs for the neighbors. They soon begin to torment the family by playing a series of what they consider to be funny games. This setup may sound typical, but the film is most assuredly not.

Funny Games specializes in establishing expectations through stereotypes and clichés, then subverting them to make its points. Haneke purposely breaks rules and crosses lines to draw attention to the manipulative power of the medium of film itself. In the same interview mentioned above, Haneke insists that “ Funny Games is definitely not a genre film.” He considers it a kind of Trojan Horse that shows an audience “how easily they are manipulated.” The film uses a series of devices, including characters breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the audience, to implicate the viewer in the violence and torment they are being shown, practically daring viewers to be entertained by the film. In essence, we are being forced to play the game but only Haneke knows the rules, and he can change them whenever he wants. But then, it’s only a movie…right?

Inside (2007)

The French Extremity movement of the 2000s often played in the home invasion sandbox, but never as viciously as in Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo’s Inside ( À l’intérieur ). On Christmas Eve, four months after her husband was killed in a car accident, expectant mother Sarah (Alysson Paradis) is spending one last quiet evening at home before being induced the next morning. But her silent night is shattered when a woman (Béatrice Dalle) enters and, armed with a large pair of scissors, tries to steal Sarah’s baby from her womb.

With undercurrents dealing with class and privilege, Inside is a bleak, tightly-paced, and relentless 83 minutes. It also easily places among the bloodiest movies ever made—nothing says Merry Christmas like watching a person give themself a tracheotomy with a knitting needle.

The Strangers (2008)

If you asked people today to name a home invasion movie, chances are they’d say The Strangers . In it, James (Scott Speedman) and Kristen (Liv Tyler) return home from a rough night to try to patch things up. They are interrupted by a knock at their door and a young woman asking, “is Tamara home?” Assuming she is drunk, stoned, or just confused, they politely say no, close the door and move on with their evening. Part of the effectiveness of the film is that it begins as a rather bland relationship drama and slowly builds in intensity to fever pitch as the couple is terrorized by a trio of masked assailants. It all leads up to the most iconic motive of any home invasion movie—“Because you were home.”

Perhaps even more chilling is a line one of the assailants says as they drive off in their truck, “it’ll be easier next time.” With these lines and more, The Strangers deals in nihilism and the randomness of life and death in ways that few modern American movies do. It spawned a sequel, The Strangers: Prey at Night in 2018 and, assuming all goes to plan, a trio of films directed by Renny Harlin that will be released throughout this year beginning with The Strangers: Chapter 1 on May 17, 2024 .

The Purge (2013)

Most home invasion movies have political undercurrents, but The Purge places matters of race, class, violence, and governmental manipulation front and center. During the annual Purge, a 12-hour period in which all crime is legal, the well-to-do Sandin family has locked themselves into their fortified home for the night. When the precocious son Charlie (Max Burkholder) takes compassion on a wounded man (Edwin Hodge) and lets him in, a group of masked assailants demanding he be returned to them threaten to break into the home. All hell breaks loose when father and mother, James (Ethan Hawke) and Mary (Lena Headey), and the family choose to fight against the gang rather than give into their demands.

The Purge spawned four more films and a television series which have continued to mine the political elements of the first film and expand upon them. Overtly political media can often be a risky venture in these divided times, but in the case of The Purge it has paid off, making it one of the foundational films for the success of Blumhouse that continues to this day.

Don’t Breathe (2016)

Fede Álvarez’s follow-up to Evil Dead (2013) left the supernatural behind in favor of the reality-bound home invasion thriller Don’t Breathe , which proved to be no less relentless and disturbing than its predecessor. A trio of young burglars (Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, and Daniel Zovatto) break into the home of a blind Gulf War veteran (Stephen Lang) expecting to easily get away with one last big score. The Blind Man quickly turns out to be much more than they bargained for and, as his motivations are slowly revealed, they prove to be increasingly sinister.

Like many of the films discussed here, the setup is simple, but Don’t Breathe twists and turns its way to unexpected places, many of which are shocking and disturbing.

Many other films could be discussed including Deadly Games (1989), Panic Room (2002), Hard Candy (2005), Martyrs (2008), Kidnapped (2010), You’re Next (2011), Hush (2016), Hosts (2020), and more. The invasion of the safe spaces in peoples’ lives remains, and likely always will be, a primal fear. I have no doubt that horror and thriller filmmakers will continue to exploit that fear for a long time to come and in increasingly terrifying and innovative ways.

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6 Other Public Domain Characters That Deserve Horror Movies

From Pinocchio’s Revenge  to Silent Night, Deadly Night , taking beloved cultural icons and turning them into cold-blooded killers is nothing new in horror. I mean, corrupting traditionally innocent iconography is pretty much the genre’s specialty, but I still find it fascinating how modern filmmakers are fighting back against franchise monopolies by re-imagining popular figures like Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse as murderous monsters as soon as they enter the public domain.

And with the announcement that the Winnie the Pooh: Blood & Honey team’s “ Twisted Childhood Universe ” is expanding to include evil versions of characters like Bambi and Peter Pan, I think it’s time that filmmakers start looking at some less obvious source material when coming up with their public domain scares. With that in mind, we’ve decided to highlight six public domain characters that also deserve their own horror movies. After all, if these genre subversions are here to stay, they might as well get creative with it.

For the purposes of this list, we’ll be avoiding public domain creations that were already meant to be a part of the horror genre at the time of their creation – which means no entries derived from classic writers like Poe, Lovecraft and Shelley.

With that out of the way, don’t forget to comment below with your own public domain favorites if you think we missed a character that’s especially suited for big-screen terror.

Now, onto the list…

6. Felix the Cat – Feline Follies (1919)

Felix may not have the same star power as some of his animated contemporaries (mostly due to the fact that his most popular cartoons were from the silent era), but this mischievous black cat is still responsible for developing the general blueprint for nearly all animated mascots to come. At one point, Felix was so big that he even co-starred alongside a 2D Charlie Chaplin in one of his landmark shorts, making him one of Australia’s biggest celebrities.

And while it’d be easy to take the anthropomorphic mutant animal approach like many of the recent public domain horror adaptations, I think a Felix horror movie would work best as a meta slasher. In this more down-to-earth story, a Felix-obsessed fan could dress up as the iconic cat and commit feline-themed murders following the insane logic of those silent-era cartoons.

5. Jack Frost – Oral Tradition

You can’t exactly copyright winter , and while the most notable iterations of Jack Frost are off limits (i.e. Rankin/Bass’ 1979 TV Special and 2012’s Rise of the Guardians ), the idea of a living, breathing embodiment of freezing cold is very much available for any genre filmmaker wishing to tell an effects-driven tale of icy terror.

I think a supernatural horror approach would work well with this one, having a group of youngsters offend the wintery spirit and fall victim to his wrath in increasingly bizarre deaths. Hell, you could even make the whole thing take place during a blizzard and trap the main characters inside a single location in order to make filming easier.

And before you say, “but Luiz, wasn’t there already a Jack Frost horror flick back in 1997?”… that movie is actually about a serial killer who turns into a mutant snow-man – not the living embodiment of winter!

4. Mowgli – The Jungle Book (1894)

While most people are only familiar with Disney’s loose adaptation of the book from 1967, Rudyard Kipling’s original Jungle Book is actually a collection of stories following the feral boy Mowgli and his encounters with beasts representing different human archetypes. The original tales were deeply allegorical yarns about laws and society (with some scholars even arguing that the text contains some problematic imperialist tendencies), but I think the horror genre could especially benefit from Kipling’s jungle-borne thrills.

After all, evil children are a timeless staple of the horror genre, so imagine a scary story about a feral child who can communicate with animals and vengefully unleashes them on the humans who “rescued” him from his natural home. Think The Beastmaster but with more jump-scares!

3. Sherlock Holmes – A Study in Scarlet (1887)

One of the most popular fictional characters of all time, it baffles me that we’ve yet to see a fully fledged horror film about Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic detective, Sherlock Holmes. Sure, we’ve had glimpses of terror in stories like The Hound of the Baskervilles , but where’s my supernatural thriller about Holmes and Watson facing a Cthulhu death cult hell-bent on ending the world?

There are already several literary crossovers pitting the world’s favorite detective against the eldritch horrors of H.P. Lovecraft (courtesy of authors like James Lovegrove and even Neil Gaiman), so why not bring these conflicts of madness and reason to the big screen?

2. Gertie – Gertie the Dinosaur (1914)

One of the more obscure entries on this list, Gertie the Dinosaur was the main attraction in a pioneering example of cinematic mixed media. A 12-minute animated short accompanied by a vaudeville act, this silent film introduced the world to a “wonderfully trained dinosaur” who would eat out of the hands of trainers and perform goofy tricks alongside live-action performers – all this decades before movies like Who Framed Roger Rabbit .

And while Gertie’s extraordinary popularity has mostly been lost to time, I’d love to see a full-on monster movie about an exotic wild animal reaching its breaking point after one trick too many and going on a destructive rampage a la the tragic real-life story of Tyke the elephant.

1. Casper the Friendly Ghost – The Friendly Ghost (1945)

Casper the Friendly Ghost isn’t exactly an A-lister cartoon character these days, with few notable projects involving the cutesy spectre since 1995’s divisive film adaptation (which, as a 90s kid, I happen to love despite its many flaws). However, I think Casper is a prime candidate for a terrifying reinvention due to the fact that his first animated appearance never had its copyright notice renewed.

While this means that only 1945’s The Friendly Ghost is technically up for grabs (which doesn’t even feature the character’s iconic uncles), there’s still no shortage of horrific subversions that filmmakers could come up with when telling a chilling story about a lonely child’s spirit wandering the world of the living in search of company.

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The 20 Best Home Invasion Movies of All Time

Home Invasion has long been a sub-genre predominantly installed within the horror category and rightfully so. Home invasion occurs when someone unlawfully gains entry to a private dwelling in order to commit a violation upon the resident.

In most instances the perpetrator’s intention is to cause psychical or psychological violence. Through evolution, we have ingrained the image of our home being our safe-haven, a place to where we can retreat and feel protected from the outside world. But if cinema has taught us one thing, it is to never rest on our laurels.

The following films all contain instances of home invasion, some more than others. As one of the most crucial ingredients in these movies is tension, I have tried not to include spoilers but as ever, proceed at your own risk.

20. Panic Room (2002)

David Fincher directed this 2002 crime thriller, starring Jodie Foster and a pre- Twilight Kristen Stewart. It tells the story of a mother and young daughter trapped inside their panic room, after three criminals force entry into their newly purchased property.

Having recently moved into their new home in New York, Meg (Foster) and Sarah (Stewart) are the victims of home intrusion when three criminals break in to the property. With the culprits (expertly played by Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto and Dwight Yoakam) intent on stealing the previous occupier’s secret safe, the unaware mother and daughter enclose themselves in the panic room. The only problem being, it is also the very same place as where the spoils are hidden. From then on, an exciting game of cat and mouse ensues.

An excellent, edge of your seat thriller, the movie contains skilful cinematography and sterling acting performances. An intense and certainly underrated thriller, Panic Room is an entertaining and suspenseful piece of cinema from a highly successful and talented director.

19. The Strangers (2008)

Released in 2008 and starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman, The Strangers was a worldwide box-office success. It is another horror movie on this list that focuses more on suspense instead of gore. Described by the director, Bryan Bertino, as ‘inspired by true events’, The Strangers is a chilling account of home invasion at its most shocking.

Kristen (Tyler) and James (Speedman) are a young couple who are staying at James’ parent’s vacation home. Still up, due to a rejected marriage proposal, the two are disturbed by a late night/early morning knock at the door. When the caller is informed that they have the wrong house, the young couple decide to take a break from their debate. However, when the earlier refused comes back to call again, anarchy transpires. What started off as a romantic road trip has now transformed into a wicked fight for survival.

A startling and climactic tale of intrusion, The Strangers is a non-stop, thrilling horror that thoroughly delivers.

18. Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)

Starring Hollywood heavyweights, Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster, Sorry, Wrong Number is a slick film-noir released in 1948 and set in New York. The story is told in a series of flashbacks and is almost played in real time.

Leona Stevenson (Stanwyck) is the bedridden daughter of a rich pharmaceutical business owner. Whilst trying to ring her already late from work husband Henry (Lancaster), she experiences a cross-wire connection and overhears a plot to murder a woman at 11.15. Without hearing any more details, she desperately calls the police to inform them, however with so little information; the policeman advises that they are powerless to investigate any further.

Certainly a film where the less known the better, you can look forward to a compelling and suspenseful ending. With death creeping outside her door, can Leona devise an escape? And where has her husband been all this time?

Very Hitchcockian in style, Sorry, Wrong Number is a classic insight into paranoia and helplessness. Containing superb cinematography and fantastic performances from both Stanwyck and Lancaster, this is a nerve-racking film that will have you on the edge of your seat. If you are a fan of Rear Window, you’ll love this.

17. When a Stranger Calls (1979)

The story of the babysitter and the killer is an urban legend that has now been reiterated many times on the big screen. Whilst a number of these become nothing more than a box office flop, the majority will have been inspired by 1979’s When a Stranger Calls. Starring Carol Kane as the terrorised babysitter, the film was a commercial success and is now regarded as a cult favourite. More of a psychological thriller than a typical ‘slasher’, it’s an effective spine-chiller that ends with a nail-biting climax.

Jill Johnson (Kane) arrives at the Mandrakis household to babysit their children whilst the parents go out for the night. With the children already asleep, Jill’s peace is disrupted by a serial telephone caller. At first, thought as no more than just prank calls, they become much more sinister and alarming when asking, “Have you checked on the children?” Becoming so spooked, she reports the incidents to the police who, after a tense period of time waiting, advise her that they have traced the calls and they are coming from inside the house!

Without wanting to give away any spoilers or explain the entire plot, what follows is a well-directed, atmospheric game of cat and mouse. A gritty and hauntingly realistic horror, When a Stranger Calls is a memorable reminder to all babysitters, to check the children, before a stranger calls.

16. Suddenly (1954)

Starring Frank Sinatra and Sterling Hayden, Suddenly is a 1954 drama from director Lewis Allen. With the U.S President scheduled to visit a small American town, the local community finds its peace interrupted by a violent lunatic, plotting an assassination attempt.

In this town lives the Benson family, which contains Widow Ellen, her 8 year old son Pidge, and Pop, the boy’s grandfather. With the tranquil town well-guarded by the gallant sheriff Todd (Hayden), the Benson family see no real cause for alarm when they get a knock at the door from the FBI.

What they don’t realise is that their house has been identified as the perfect location for an ambush on the president and that these self-proclaimed FBI men are actually hired assassins, intent on eliminating him. Fronted by the callous John Barron (Sinatra), the hoods take over the home and hold the family captive whilst they await the arrival of the President. Will the sheriff risk the lives of the innocent family and thwart the assassination attempt? Or can the crazed Baron get his shot at the President?

A tense and low-budget thriller, Suddenly is an entertaining and well-acted tale of suspense.

15. Wait Until Dark (1967)

One of the most impressive readings on an actor’s resume, is when they can successfully play a part in a film, that no-one would expect them to even attempt. In 1967’s Wait until Dark, Audrey Hepburn absolutely shattered her type casted role of the playful, but regal, good-time girl. Brilliantly directed by Terence Young, this thriller stars Hepburn as a young blind woman who is the victim of home invasion.

The film starts with a man named Sam being handed a doll by a complete stranger, whilst he is in an airport. Unbeknown to him, the doll is filled with Heroin. With the doll in seemingly high demand, three crooks arrive at Sam’s home to fetch the reward. With Sam sent out on a mock work engagement, that leaves Susy (Hepburn), a recently blinded young woman, alone in the property.

After gaining entry due to a detailed but innocuous story, it is not before long that things start to get complicated, especially with the help of Suzy’s helpful young neighbour, Gloria. Can Suzy outsmart the conmen that not only seem hell-bent on acquiring the doll but in destroying her in the process?

In this superb, gutsy thriller, the director brilliantly constructs suspense by letting the viewer see more than what the victim can. Then, ingeniously, he throws us into the same position as our on-screen hero, as Suzy smashes all the lights, leaving us all in complete darkness. Wait until Dark is an outstanding tight-knit shocker, that culminates in a pinnacle of suspense and terror.

14. Black Christmas (1974)

Often cited as the first ‘slasher’ movie in modern cinema, Black Christmas is a 1974 horror, directed by Bob Clark. Using innovative camerawork and clever POV shots, the director exquisitely creates a tense and menacing atmosphere throughout the film. The story concerns a group of girls staying in a sorority house that are bothered by a disturbed prank caller. What at first seems to be just a twisted deviant turns into a suspected homicidal maniac.

Despite constant phone calls from the man they call ‘the moaner’, most of the girls dismiss the pest as nothing more than a nuisance. That is, until one of the sorority girls goes AWOL and along with another young girl reported missing, a search party is initiated. When the tragic young girl’s butchered body is found, it is not before long that the body count starts rising and panic amongst the sorority ensues. With the police now firmly on the case, is there a link between the killer and the caller? And will anyone in the sorority be left alive to find out?

With fantastic performances from Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder as members of the sorority, Black Christmas is a scandalously overlooked gem from the horror genre. A film that will leave you with more questions than answers, Black Christmas asks, if you make sure you have locked your windows and doors, how do you know that the killer isn’t already inside?

13. Cape Fear (1991)

With an all-star cast of Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange and Juliette Lewis, this 1991 thriller tells the story of a convicted rapist, released after 14 years imprisoned and hell bent on revenge. With superstar director Martin Scorsese at the helm, Cape Fear is a gloriously gripping spine-chiller.

Sam Bowden (Nolte) plays the part of a lawyer, with his wife Leigh (Lange) and teenage daughter Danielle (Lewis). Fourteen years have passed since Sam’s client Max Cady (De Niro), was deemed guilty of the rape and battery of a young woman and imprisoned for such crimes. However, with each and every day spent incarcerated, the more enraged Max becomes. Due to his belief that he was double –crossed by his representative, Max plots revenge on Sam and his family. As the film progresses, we witness how this bloodthirsty psychopath intrudes the lives and home of the Bowden family, determined to achieve his retribution at any cost.

Cape Fear is one of eight hugely collaboration between Scorsese and De Niro and although this is perhaps not the strongest in their filmography, it’s certainly one of the most frightening. A remake of the 1962 classic of the same title, this is a merciless and violent film illustrating one man’s vengeance and spiteful obsession.

12. Haute Tension (High Tension) (2003)

Now we travel to France for another relentless and bloody horror, this time from director Alexandre Aja. Released in 2003, Haute Tension is an uncompromising and suspenseful film with violence and gore in abundance.

The film follows two young woman named Alex and Marie, who travel to Alex’s parents’ house for the weekend. Upon arrival, the two women are affectionately greeted by Alex’s’ parents and younger brother. After a pleasant evening consisting of a tour of the house followed by dinner, Alex and Marie retire to their separate bedrooms to get ready for bed. Unbeknown to them, a night of devastation and extreme brutality is lying in wait.

With brilliant gut-wrenching twists, Haute Tension is an unsettling and twisted modern take on the classic ‘slasher’ genre.

11. Hard Candy (2005)

Starring Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson, Hard Candy is a 2005 psychological thriller concerning a 14 year old girl and a suspected paedophile. In this, his first feature film, director David Slade expertly creates an intense, fast paced atmosphere with superb camera work and first class performances from the lead actors.

After back and forth emails, Hayley (Page) and Jeff (Wilson) arrange to meet up face to face for the first time, at a local café. Despite several hints at telling Jeff exactly how young she is, Hayley successfully encourages Jeff to take them both back to his place. Unknown to Jeff however, is that Hayley has been tracking him down for some time, ever since she suspected him for a paedophile and even murderer. With Hayley maniacally intent on torturing a confession out of her victim, what happens if this charming, accomplished, professional photographer is not as guilty as first thought? What starts off as a reserved, simple drama turns into a ferocious and unrestrained emotional shocker.

Hard Candy is a savage and remorseless film that is not for the easily disturbed. Undeniably a tough nut to crack (excuse the pun) Juno , this isn’t.

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10 best home invasion movies (that aren't home alone), according to reddit.

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10 Scenes That Most Define Hulk's MCU Movie Story

Netflix’s new kaiju movie just made me even sadder that del toro’s pacific rim sequel didn’t happen, one of millie bobby brown's two stranger things replacements is far more exciting than the other.

Barbarian , starring Georgina Campbell and It 's Bill Skargård, is now playing in theaters. Bolstered by superb reviews from critics, the film opened above expectations to the tune of $10 million domestic, per Box Office Mojo . But similar movies in the "home invasion" subgenre have been going strong since the 1960s.

Furthermore, it's expanded from its typical horror/thriller genres to embrace everything from holiday classics such as Home Alone and The Ref to the crime films Becky and Windfall . Which of them are worth watching, according to Redditors ?

Wait Until Dark (1967)

Stream on hbo max.

For whatever reason, Hollywood hasn't made a big-screen Audrey Hepburn biopic , and while films like Charade and Breakfast at Tiffany's showed a side of her that audiences know well, Wait Until Dark was brand new.

In fact, the film still feels at least somewhat modern, even 55 years after its release. It's a genuinely well-made, well-acted thriller that has Hepburn's presence matched by a never-more-sinister Alan Arkin, who also shines. It's solid all around or, as Mprovin put it: " Wait Until Dark is a rare movie everyone should see."

Straw Dogs (1971)

Not available to rent or stream.

In Straw Dogs , a fresh-faced Dustin Hoffman portrays introverted intellectual David Sumner. He and his English wife Amy leave the U.S. and head to her hometown, yet David is greeted with far from open arms. Soon, Amy is sexually assaulted, and the pacifist in David is replaced with someone who can get vicious to defend his love.

Redditor amanobsessed started a thread to call Straw Dogs "one of the most widely misinterpreted masterpieces of all time." They then elaborated on how the film made them feel which, unsurprisingly, is how the 1971 original strikes most people; Specifically, the film "Rattled" them to their "core."

Cape Fear (1991)

Stream on amazon.

Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear (a thriller that's basically a horror movie ) isn't quite one of the auteur's most noteworthy films, but it is well-acted and often chilling. It also adheres quite a bit to both the story beats and style of the 1962 film, led by Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck (both of whom make role-reversed cameos in Scorsese's remake).

Ceasarsean wrote that they "really enjoyed" it. The Redditor then noted that they took in the Mitchum-Peck original as well, yet they "enjoyed this one more...The ending credits [are] so eerie." Both are moody and effective films, and while there is an argument to be made that Scorsese emulated the original film to too significant a degree, it's still a more effective emulation than Gus Van Sant's later shot-for-shot remake of Psycho .

The Ref (1994)

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A now-deleted user started a thread for the Denis Leary-led holiday B&E minor classic, The Ref . The Redditor wrote that both Leary and Kevin Spacey were "fantastic in it."

Then the Redditor then brought up a very accurate point: "Spacey was very much on his way to playing Lester in American Beauty and was just perfect as the unhappy husband." It's true, American Beauty 's main character , Lester Burnham, and The Ref 's Lloyd Chasseur are both very despondent men but (all personal faults aside) Spacey makes them both seem very individualistic.

Funny Games (1997)

Michael Haneke's Funny Games has a horrifyingly straightforward plot because there's nothing that couldn't happen in the reality everyone exists in. Two 20-somethings break into a relatively affluent family's vacation home. Then, they engage in a series of escalating, sadistic mind games.

Redditor tdvh1993 started a thread and picked apart the acclaimed film's appeal in depth. The highlight: "Haneke set out to make a point about our love for violence and I think he did on hell of a job."

Lakeview Terrace (2008)

Stream on starz.

Lakeview Terrace is a fairly standard thriller, with an escalating tension that just about strains credibility. Samuel L. Jackson portrays LAPD cop Abel Turner, a single father who's just gotten some new neighbors. Unfortunately for him and his worldview, his new neighbors are a mixed-race couple. After they make out in a pool and his kids see, Abel begins acting irrationally, though he's obviously not quite rational from his first frame on screen.

Abel often seems more like a caricature than a character. Life is filled with racist people, but the long shots of Jackson peering condescendingly the moment the couple pulls into the driveway don't allow for much character building. He's already revealed himself. But Redditors like walklikeaduck enjoyed it, who wrote that "It's a pretty entertaining thriller, with some good performances and Samuel L. Jackson doing some great angry acting."

The Last House On The Left (2009)

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A very solid remake of one of the best movies like Ti West's X , the 2009 version of The Last House on the Left is a slightly tamed down but still more-than-suitably-tense journey down the path of vengeance and suffering. But it's also well shot and extremely well cast, and if anything the taming down is beneficial. The film is far more accessible to the general audience, including Redditors.

Like playboyslife , who started a thread on the film and compared it favorably to Wes Craven's 1972 original: "I liked it [the 1972 original], just finished watching the 2009 version and I LOVED it, I might even go as far as saying it's better than the original and a lot more satisfying." The latter point is interesting, as it's arguably a slight against the film. The original took some gargantuan risks and the fact that it played on even one screen is surprising, while the latter is a fairly standard horror remake among the glut of them that came out during the aughts. But it's one of the best of them, and its reputation has remained strong.

You're Next (2011)

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An excellent home invasion horror movie , Adam Wingard's You're Next is shocking even for those who have already seen it. The plot centers on the Davisons, an affluent family with a vacation home in Missouri. Joining them for the weekend is Erin (Sharni Vinson), the girlfriend of Crispin Davison. Unfortunately for Erin and the Davison clan, they're being picked off one by one, and it may well be an inside job.

Redditor SirHuffDaddy couldn't have spoken more highly about the film, writing that they had a "blast." They elaborated on their experience watching it in a group, noting that it made them "scream, and jump, some with joy, others with fear." You're Next is one of several home invasion movies that blends genres; For the most part, it's definitively horror, but it does possess a humorously self-aware quality.

Knock Knock (2015)

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Eli Roth delivered his best film to date with 2015's Keanu Reeves-starring Knock Knock . Featuring commanding supporting performances from A-list Knives Out star Ana de Armas and Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood 's Lorenza Izzo, the film puts Reeves through his paces even more than if he were cast as the MCU's Wolverine .

A now-deleted Redditor started a thread to champion Roth's film, writing that "the strength and necessity of [the film's] social commentary is painfully evident...this movie really pi**es people off...." Indeed, the movie is divisive, but when someone vouches for Knock Knock they go all the way.

Parasite (2019)

Bong Joon-ho's Parasite was heralded as a modern classic from the moment it hit the big screen. Naturally, what followed was a massive financial success, accolades from critics, and a host of Academy Award wins. The film is a scathing, tongue-in-cheek look at the class system, with twists so well-executed they're surprising on repeat viewings.

AudioCinematic started a thread to write that Parasite is one of the greatest movies they had ever seen. They said that there are "times when it's laugh out loud comedy and other times when it's stomach-turning and on the edge of your seat suspense."

NEXT: 10 Movies With Spin-Off Series Announced Or Currently In Development

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‘Intrusion’ Review: Freida Pinto Stars in a Netflix Home Invasion Thriller That Could Have Been Much More

Siddhant adlakha.

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There’s an incredibly interesting story lurking somewhere beneath “Intrusion,” about the way mistrust and paranoia can slowly chip away at a marriage. The film, however, eschews this tale in favor of something a little more rote, and a little bit trashier. It’s a fun watch, to be sure; as a home invasion movie of sorts, it has a number of thrilling moments, and lead actors Freida Pinto and Logan Marshall-Green each do a stellar job with what they’re given. However, the final product also exudes trepidation about its most intriguing aesthetic and narrative elements — ideas which may have only enhanced its genre sensibilities, had the filmmakers further pursued them.

Married couple Meera (Pinto) and Henry (Marshall-Green), a psychiatrist and an architect, met in college in Boston, but their fancy new duplex sits in rural New Mexico. Per the film’s dialogue, their big move was owed at least in part to the wide-open landscape, which director Adam Salky and cinematographer Eric Lin present in picturesque fashion, even if they never quite capture the relationship between the characters and the space around them. How they feel about their surroundings is (or ought to be) paramount, in a story where their sense of comfort is thrown out of balance by a violent late-night break-in, which results in Henry shooting one of the perpetrators dead, using a gun Meera didn’t know he owned.

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What initially follows is an excavation of the encounter’s fallout, between Meera’s lingering PTSD, a police investigation about the wider circumstances of the attack, and the couple’s increasing disconnect. Their secrets, both large and small, begin slowly chipping away at what seems like a happy relationship. Meera, who’s recovered from breast cancer in the past, hasn’t been entirely forthcoming about recent developments, while Henry ceases to open about his nightly whereabouts. However, this carefully crafted character drama soon switches gears, when fewer details about the case seem to add up, and Meera begins investigating a number of leads, including some related to her husband, and the way he built and designed their house.

It’s here that the film’s construction begins to feel half-baked, compared to what came before. In earlier scenes, where the focus is squarely on Meera’s doubts and silent realizations, the camera weaves and tilts as it moves through space or pushes in on her, magnifying her lingering sensations in the process. However, once the film takes on a mystery bent, its focus on physical details is awkward, misplaced, and worst of all, noncommittal. The camera stands mostly still as Meera reacts to addresses, logos, and other bits of information that appear to mean something to her, but few of these things are ever established for the audience, and so their meaning remains vague for unbearably lengthy stretches of time, especially as the plot begins to displace most of the character drama. Pinto is even shot in profile for at least one of these sequences, which really doesn’t help unearth what’s meant to be happening (emotionally or logistically). Were it not for the film’s suitably jagged and propulsive music by Alex Heffes, which hints at how all this information might eventually fall into place, such scenes of discovery would be entirely perfunctory.

It also seems, at times, like director Salky and screenwriter Chris Sparling are left unaware of some of the added cultural baggage (and opportunity for an even deeper marital wedge) that arises thanks to Freida Pinto’s presence. It’s unclear whether Meera was always meant to be an Indian character, or whether her name and backstory — a single, stray line about her having moved to the U.S. for college — came about after Pinto was cast, but her foreignness (in general) and her Indianness (in specific) lead to a couple of interesting dynamics.

For one thing, the presence of a gun in the story is a big deal, but its sudden emergence is tied only to questions of Henry’s dishonesty when it comes to owning a firearm, rather than what that firearm might represent to Meera as a non-American caught in a distinctly American story. She’s a character to whom the very idea of a gun might, at least in theory, be more aberrant or shocking, than if she had grown up in the United States, where guns are common, and while this story beat is within the realm of possibility, instead, the gun soon fades from conversation.

Additionally, Pinto’s performance — specifically, her accent — also speaks to Meera’s sense of discomfort within the story. As a woman who’s spent time in the U.S. but whose speech retains elements of Indianness, her delivery is often restrained and measured, as if she’s constantly considering the right syllable to hit, and the exact balance of Indian and American enunciation in her voice, the way she might if she and Henry had only been dating a short while (Marshall-Green, meanwhile, feels totally at ease when he speaks). But while Meera’s dialogue frequently searches for the right place to land, her face tells a different story. Pinto’s performance is exacting and precise in quiet, personal moments — especially moments of doubt and contemplation —as if who Meera is in her own private world is at a disconnect from who she is around Henry (though the film never explores this dichotomy).

Marshall-Green’s work is equally nuanced, as a man who constantly needs to care for someone else, both for selfish and selfless reasons. His performance is remarkably balanced. There’s something unsettling about Henry; the way he concedes arguments feels ever-so-slightly resentful, and the way he peeks out from behind his unassuming glasses is like he’s surveying the world around him.

Unfortunately, Henry’s bespectacled appearance, coupled with the film’s home invasion plot and some other key details, also brings to mind the far superior film “Straw Dogs” by Sam Peckinpah, which “Intrusion” feels like it’s trying to subvert in several ways. It doesn’t have the thematic heft or careful craftsmanship necessary to do so, but it has just enough by way of excitement, action, and winding turns to be worth a watch.

“Intrusion” is now available to stream on Netflix .

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10 great home invasion films

Lock your doors and windows...

The concept of home invasion makes for extremely potent drama precisely because it is so deeply uncomfortable. Here, the villain is in plain sight, their intentions nakedly clear to their potential victim: there is something particularly haunting about being able to stare your enemy in the face. Rather than jump out from the shadows or from under the bed for a split-second confrontation, the conflict in a home invasion film remains in close contact but is drawn out significantly, sometimes to an almost unbearable degree.

Even more unsettling is the way this type of story hinges on the very concept of trust in your fellow man, and its limits. How much faith should we have in the people out there, and how much should we fear them and their intentions? Beyond a straightforward concern for one’s life, these questions also bring up with them much thornier anxieties around just how confident we should really be about our safety, and, in fact, about any of our day-to-day certainties.

If someone breaks in, does this mean we were wrong to feel protected – were we being arrogant? Conversely, are we sometimes being paranoid when we insist on locking all the doors and checking them twice? Is our trust in the safety of our own walls misguided, or are we being too optimistic about strangers?

In short, are we making fools of ourselves without even realising?

The selection below explores the ways filmmakers have delighted in exploring this heap of conflicting emotions.

Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)

Director: Anatole Litvak

Adapted from her own radio play by Lucille Fletcher, this film noir cleverly revolves around a series of phone conversations. Its set-up highlights some of the central dynamics at the heart of the home invasion film, no doubt later inspiring Fred Walton’s When a Stranger Calls (1979) – itself the model for the opening scene of Wes Craven’s Scream (1996).

Barbara Stanwyck stars as a bedridden woman whose main point of contact with the world is her landline, which she uses constantly. Desperate not to be left out and anxious not to be abandoned by her handsome husband (Burt Lancaster), her loneliness is so strongly felt that we wish someone would come and pay her a visit; the film’s power hinges on this oppressive feeling of alienation. When she overhears a murder plot due to a wrong connection, the outside world enters the film first through flashbacks (and flashbacks within flashbacks) and, finally, with shocking violence.

Straw Dogs (1971)

Director: Sam Peckinpah

Tied with the idea of protecting one’s home are macho ideas of man as the designated defender of his supposedly weaker wife and children. Yet just as sexist is the assumption that a man should be able to enter into any place he likes and cast out whatever stranger he disapproves of. The two concepts clash spectacularly in Straw Dogs, a powerful indictment of fragile male ego (though based on his own comments about the film, American director Sam Peckinpah may not have intended it so).

Dustin Hoffman puts his sometimes annoyingly mannered acting style to wonderful use as a bespectacled American mathematician who moves with his young wife (Susan George) to her Cornish hometown, where he is immediately ill at ease with the less sophisticated ways of the local men. For their part, they resent him being a stranger who seems to look down on them. Mutual suspicions and misunderstandings soon escalate, culminating in a sequence of breathtaking brutality.

When a Stranger Calls (1979)

Director: Fred Walton

It’s impossible to talk about home invasion films without mentioning Wes Craven’s masterpiece Scream and its flawlessly executed opening sequence. But neither would exist had it not been for When a Stranger Calls, itself expanded from Fred Walton’s own 1977 short film The Sitter, centred on a young babysitter harassed by a man on the phone, who asks her if she’s checked on the children.

Film openings don’t get much scarier, but, rather unexpectedly, the rest of When Stranger Calls takes a more sober, almost classical approach to suspense, moving at an oppressively portentous pace as it centres on the ominous atmosphere created by the escaped stranger of the title, himself abandoned by a failing mental health industry.

Home Alone (1990)

Director: Chris Columbus

On the poster for Home Alone, Macaulay Culkin makes a face like Munch’s The Scream, and the film has evoked for generations of traumatised viewers feelings of dread not too dissimilar to those captured by the famous Norwegian painting. Like many of the titles on this list, this Christmas classic flips the expectations of home invasion scenarios on their head by making the person inside the house a lot less helpless than initially assumed. But while much of the tension derives from watching two naive and poorly organised burglars suffer grievous bodily harm, Home Alone also draws much of its power from the genuinely terrifying, high-stakes scenario it sets up and essentially threatens to realise throughout: the person left to deal with the two intruders is only a small child.

The film also plays on parents’ fears of accidentally neglecting their children just as much as it does on kids’ fantasies of having the house all to themselves, free to eat tonnes of ice cream and make their way down the stairs on a sleigh.

Funny Games (1997)

Director: Michael Haneke

Austrian master Michael Haneke’s take on the subgenre (remade by Haneke himself in an American setting in 2007) is an extremely visceral watch, centring on an Austrian family being terrorised in their lakeside home by two young intruders. As is usually the case in his films, however, the violence in Funny Games is far from random and emanates instead from a highly critical view of bourgeois hypocrisy. More famously, the film toys with ideas of audience participation in on-screen brutality, drawing an unfortunate and reactionary correlation between cinematic and real-world violence.

Still, in choosing a home invasion scenario to make this (very silly) point, Haneke did get one thing right: what makes the idea of strangers with bad intentions entering your house so potent is that practically everyone can imagine it happening to them too.

Panic Room (2002)

Director: David Fincher

This taut thriller from David Fincher is less interested in psychological complexity than it is in technical prowess – on the part of both the filmmaker and the characters themselves. As his camera snakes its way through the New York brownstone where a divorcée (Jodie Foster) and her daughter are menaced by intruders, his usual cold and controlled tone fits both the scheming minds of the burglars and the family hiding out in the apartment’s high-tech ‘panic room’. Rather than any real attempts at psychological bargaining, the two sets of characters deal in tactical manoeuvres designed to neutralise their opponent. However, the actors – chief among them Forest Whitaker – do eventually manage to inject a few drops of humanity into this well-oiled machine, and we come to feel for some of the people on both sides of the reinforced steel wall.

Although Panic Room’s conclusion feels rather unsatisfactory, Fincher’s film remains a suspenseful and technically impressive achievement.

High Tension (aka Switchblade Romance, 2003)

Director: Alexandre Aja

So delightfully entertaining it would no doubt make Michael Haneke very upset, this French slasher takes its cue from American cinema, discarding the rough-around-the-edges aesthetic of much local horror at the time in favour of a slick, commercial look. In a remote countryside house, two beautiful and sexually liberated young women find themselves hunted down by an imposing truck driver. References to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and the cinema of Wes Craven abound, but High Tension’s fast-paced action and inventive storytelling keep the film from getting mired in metatextual horseplay.

Them (2006)

Directors: David Moreau and Xavier Palud

Stripping the home invasion film down to its bare essentials, this New French Extremity title turns the scenario into an almost existential experience. The plot is simple: a young couple move into a big country house, where they soon are taunted by silent, masked intruders. The audience, like the central characters, are put on high alert for a visceral ‘us versus them’ power struggle, the film eschewing all particulars to better sustain moment-to-moment terror and awaken primal reflexes of misanthropic paranoia. Rather than getting away through careful planning and elaborate traps, the couple only ever make it out by the skin of their teeth, and the film’s dark and lo-fi aesthetic eerily echoes their lack of resources and unpreparedness.

Inside (2007)

Directors: Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury

This New French Extremity entry is perhaps the most terrifying and upsetting film listed here. The premise alone is enough to make you flinch: Béatrice Dalle plays an unnamed woman intent on entering the house of young widow Sarah (Alysson Paradis) to take her baby – from inside her womb. The sense of personal transgression that makes a home invasion scenario so uncomfortable is thus made painfully literal, as a trespassing of the flesh.

Directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury maintain a disturbingly composed perspective throughout, the camera unflinchingly surveying the unfolding events with a calm detachment that offers no relief from the tension and gore. Achieving a fever pitch of intensity and alarming dread, Inside is a full-body experience.

Better Watch Out (2016)

Director: Chris Peckover

This underrated horror film belongs to the sometimes tiresome recent trend of knowing, self-aware slashers playing on genre tropes and expectations for an audience not inclined to suspend their disbelief for too long. Unlike many of its contemporaries, however, Better Watch Out is genuinely surprising and furiously entertaining, beginning as a reasonably spooky babysitter-in-distress film only to then considerably up the ante in terms of disturbing twists and graphic gore.

It wears its influences on its sleeve, but does more with them than simply wink at the audience: one scene, for example, has a character wonder what it would really be like if someone’s head got hit by a paint can, as happens in Home Alone. Needless to say, the result isn’t pretty.

Cruel Flesh: Films of the New French Extremity , including screenings of High Tension, Them and Inside, runs at BFI Southbank throughout May.

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A group of embittered gangster rappers scheme to rob the office of a local, successful hip-hop label that has, much to their distress, refuses to sign them. Once they realize their actions were caught on security cameras, they take the label head's girlfriend hostage. With a two-hour deadline and no foreseeable escape, she hopes to put an end to the stand-off by making a copy of the surveillance video.

The Knife Review: Nnamdi Asomugha & Melissa Leo Are Superb in a Stunning Racial Thriller

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A black man stands his ground in the knife, melissa leo's spellbinding performance, an excellent film with no easy answers.

Former NFL cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha proves he's also a star off the field with a truly stunning feature directorial debut. The Knife tells a riveting account of how a black family's search for the proverbial American dream turns into a horrific nightmare. The film boldly addresses complex themes of race relations, police accountability, and false perceptions of the truth. A lean, 80-minute runtime packs important details into tense interactions that can easily be overlooked. Your visceral, gut punch reaction to what transpires may be clouded by wrong judgment. There's a lot more than meets the eye in a challenging situation fueled by poor choices.

Chris (Asomugha) gingerly walks around his new house late at night, finishing home repairs. He overhears his daughters giggling when they should be asleep. Chris tucks in his elementary school-aged children (Amari Price, Aiden Price) before checking on the baby. Chris gently slides into bed beside his sleeping wife, Alex (Aja Naomi King), but is startled awake by a loud noise. Alex sleeps soundly undisturbed. He cautiously exits the bedroom and looks down the hall. There's a shadow moving in the kitchen. He's terrified to see someone standing near the cupboards. Chris asks the intruder to leave immediately. He's going to call the police.

The Knife (2024)

All Chris ( Nnamdi Asomugha ) wants is to carve a promising future for his beloved wife Alex ( Aja Naomi King ) and their two girls; a young family chasing the American Dream. One fateful night, Chris’ entire world is shaken to its core as a stranger mysteriously shows up in their humble abode. Distressed by the events of the night and the revelations seemingly at every turn, the family must also contend with the steadfast Detective Carlsen ( Melissa Leo ) who’s eager to solve the mystery of their intrusion.

• A tightly scripted and excellently tense thriller that keeps you guessing.
• Melissa Leo is phenomenal is a cop with more to her than meets the eye.
• Nnamdi Asomugha explores difficult racial and social issues with ambiguity and intelligence.

Asomugha, who also wrote The Knife , brilliantly captures the confusion and terror of the worst-case scenario. A father's first duty is to protect his family. A stranger has broken in after midnight with possibly nefarious motives. But will law enforcement see the situation and its aftermath that clearly? Alex doesn't believe he'll be viewed as innocent. Chris is a Black man in America. He's guilty just by the color of his skin. The police won't be sympathetic to them. There can be no doubt as to what happened in the kitchen.

The first responders treat Chris with suspicion, as Alex expects. The lead policeman (Manny Jacinto) doesn't empathize with the shaken family. His decision to radio for a senior officer alarmingly raises the stakes. Chris, Alex, and their children become uneasy. They are suspects in their own home. The arrival of Detective Carlsen (Melissa Leo) puts the family on edge. Her initially sweet demeanor and sympathic voice aren't comforting. She's there to find the truth. This means interviewing everyone separately. Carlsen tells the frightened girls not to be afraid. Surely there's nothing to hide.

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The home invasion thriller is one of the most horrifying subgenres of horror. Here are the best home invasion movies of all time.

The Knife's second act is absolutely spellbinding . Leo may have to clear the shelf for another Best Supporting Actress Oscar ( The Fighter ). Carlsen stalks the house like a vampire looking for drops of blood. Decades of experience has taught her to trust her instincts. She's a meticulous investigator who's not afraid to bend the rules. These scenes are sure to infuriate those with a negative opinion of police tactics. Would Carlsen treat Chris differently if he were a white man? Her questioning of Alex and the girls is breathtaking to witness . Again, would a white wife and kids get a softer response?

The reasons behind Carlsen's ruthless methodology aren't cut and dry. This is the daring genius of Asomugha's script and the crux of his overall message. It's easy to brand Carlsen as a racist cop targeting Chris. That fits the narrative of police as enforcers of systemic racism who unfairly subjugate Black people in every instance.

But is the first blush of Carlsen's actions the correct one? She agrees with the cop that called her in. The crime scene doesn't fit the family's story. They're obviously decent, working-class people trying to build a better life for treasured children. That doesn't allow them a pass if they're hiding something serious. Choices have consequences. Could it be that Carlsen is a good cop just doing her job?

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The Knife strikes at the heart of a tough societal discourse . Every Black parent has had "the talk" with their children about what to do when confronted by law enforcement. Tamir Rice, Elijah McClain, George Floyd, and literally last month with the killing of Roger Fortson in his own apartment. These incidents paint an ugly picture of police racial bias that's widely held by many Black Americans. But is this belief self-defeating, practically untenable, and false by tarring all police? Does it lead to dangerous actions when doing nothing and remaining passive is automatically discounted?

A logical criticism is why don't Chris and Alex lawyer up at the first sign of trouble? But can they afford a lawyer? Alex declares her family are the real victims, not the other way around. Would an adversarial response make them look guilty and things worse for the children? Key moments are left unseen for the audience to infer what actually occurred . It's important to watch every second of this film, including the credits . Asomugha purposely shades The Knife in gray. He doesn't tread lightly through a minefield.

The Knife is a production of Iam21 Entertainment. It premiered at New York City's Village East by Angelika theater as part of the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival's US Narrative Competition .

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Tribeca Review: A Black Family's Home Invasion Twists 'The Knife' Into Unbearable Tension

By Jason Adams | Film | June 18, 2024 |

The Criterion Channel recently featured a collection of films titled “One Night” which featured movies like Collateral , After Hours and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? where, like the title says, all of the action unspooled over the course of a single night. It’s a time-tested sub-genre that seems to work more often than it doesn’t, memorably engulfing us in a moment while plinking on the ticking clock strings of tension and claustrophobia before the sun rises and with its rays ends our story. Well, add another classic to the collection because writer, director, and lead actor Nnamdi Asomugha’s The Knife , about the aftermath of a home invasion on a Black family, is an exquisitely crafted and acted example of what these pictures can do at their best.

Chris (Asomugha) is a construction worker who’s finally earned enough money to buy his family—including his elementary school teacher wife Alex (Aja Naomi King), their two daughters Kendra and Ryley (played by real-life sisters Amari and Aiden Price), and an infant—their own home. It’s not quite the “dream” home, at least not yet—it needs a lot of work, which Chris has been staying up late at night in between his shifts to get done. And it’s not in the best neighborhood either. But none of that seems to matter inside those walls, where this loving family seems genuinely happy and at peace. Sure Chris’s daughters comment on the beer they can smell on his breath as he tucks them in, but this could be any family anywhere in America on any given night.

Until, on this fateful evening at hand, Chris is woken up by a sound in the other room. Just the smallest creak in the floorboards, but it’s enough to sit him straight upright while Alex keeps dozing away at his side. He waits, peering into the silence, trying to make his mind believe it’d tricked itself… and then it hits. Another creak. Asomugha, who gives a perfectly understated performance as Chris, wisely plays up the disorientation of the moment—we can see all the possibilities playing out on his face. Frozen, compelled to action, confused, terrified—it’s the twister of contradictory impulses every single one of us would face in such a moment.

Chris manages to rise, get halfway across the room, and then he stops, doubling back as he realizes he needs some protection if he’s about to confront a stranger in his house. If that’s what it is. Maybe one of the girls got up? But here lands the first of many fateful instinctual actions that will spin this fateful evening off its axis, and this happy family toward a possibly much unhappier fate—Chris pulls a knife (yes, the titular character) out of his bedside drawer.

An entire piece of its own could be probably written on why Asomugha and co-writer Mark Duplass decided Chris would have a knife on hand for protection and not a gun, but the answer I imagine cuts pretty close to what the whole of The Knife is about—the film knows that Chris having a gun for protection while being a Black man in America plays very differently than it would if this was a white family. Chris, his wife and daughters, and the film watching them, are all aware of those differences. And those differences will quickly become the infuriating engine fueling the evening, and its keenly observed main source of tension.

Because there is indeed an intruder in Chris’ house. And it’s perhaps the worst option possible for a Black man to be forced to confront. Chris (who rather infuriatingly refuses to turn on any lights as he wanders the house—come on Chris!) comes upon an older, clearly disoriented white woman standing in the corner of his dark kitchen.

What happens next drives the entire film. And we’re as in the dark about it as anyone because Asomugha’s camera cruelly cuts back to Alex asleep in bed, being woken up by the loud sudden sounds coming from the kitchen. We watch her and the girls rush into the kitchen, where together they find Chris standing over the woman’s body laying silent, unmoving on the floor. Chris is in shock. They know they have to call 9-1-1. And unlike what a white family would be worrying about in this moment, this Black one knows that inviting a police presence into their home, where a maybe dead white woman is laying on the floor, might mean something else entirely. They have to get their stories straight. Maybe the ambulance will arrive first? Nope—that’s a cop car.

And from there, the fateful decisions start piling up, one small one on top of one small one, each making some sense to the person doing them in their moment, but each ultimately shooting this family’s story off in directions they never could have dreamed or would have intended. What The Knife most reminded me of were the moral quandaries introduced by the films of the brilliant humanist director Asghar Fahardi from Iran—great movies like About Elly and A Separation where good intentions and human foibles all lead to unintended disaster. If Farhadi were able to make a movie about the Black American Experience, I think it would look very much like The Knife , and that might be as high a compliment I can hand out to a first-time filmmaker.

As the police enter the story—there’s a watchful first responder (played by Manny Jacinto) and a seasoned detective (a stellar turn from Melissa Leo, awash in contradictions) who separates the family to question them one by one—the family’s nerves begin to get the best of them. And that in turn has its own consequences. Asomugha masterfully tightens the film’s noose around his characters and his viewers, and all of us are caught up together in the quicksand of an impossible situation. Chris and his family cannot afford to be anything less than perfect. But unfortunately they’re only human. And The Knife walks that tragic edge masterfully.

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How Paul Tremblay mined a lifelong love of scary films to craft new novel 'Horror Movie'

For high school math teacher turned author Paul Tremblay , a lifetime of watching scary movies has led to an acclaimed bibliography full of enjoyably creepy horror novels.

So with the title of his latest being “ Horror Movie ,” you know Tremblay’s not messing around. This spin on the “cursed film” trope centers on an art-house flick made in 1993 by a group of indie filmmakers but never released, outside of a few scenes put online. A fandom has grown around its legend, to the point that it’s being remade, and the only surviving member of the cast – who played a masked teen called “the Thin Kid” – is a producer. Through past and present perspectives, and the script of the film, Tremblay’s book is a slow-burn narrative of creative egos, disturbing circumstances and the tragedy at the heart of the original production.

Tremblay didn’t read for fun until his 20s, “so my very nascent early understanding of story and story structure was all through movies,” says the author, whose 2018 book “The Cabin at the End of the World” was adapted by M. Night Shyamalan into last year’s “ Knock at the Cabin .” Writing “Horror Movie” was “getting to break that apart and try to make a horror movie be a part of a book.”

The 52-year-old Tremblay, who’s working on the middle-grade horror novel “Another” (coming in 2025), runs down the cinematic chillers that influenced “Horror Movie” and inspired his own writing over the years.

Review: Stephen King knows 'You Like It Darker' and obliges with sensational new tales

‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ was the initial ‘Horror Movie’ inspiration

Tremblay’s original impetus for “Horror Movie” came from an online conversation he saw about the 1974 slasher classic that mentioned the 2013 book “Chain Saw Confidential,” Leatherface actor Gunnar Hansen’s first-person account of what happened when making the movie. “It just sent me down a ‘Chain Saw’ rabbit hole. I read that book and they took so many chances on set, like what would've happened if the chainsaw slipped?” Tremblay says. “Then I just started thinking about the 1970s and the ‘90s, people making an independent movie and something went wrong, and that was just really the start of it.” (A chainsaw also heavily factors into the plot of “Horror Movie.”)

Tremblay mined “that raw, almost desperate energy" of indie horror movies, be it the arty works of A24 – the company known for the likes of “The Witch” and “Hereditary” – or the Dutch film “Borgman,” a “weird, messed-up movie” about a drifter taken in by an upper-class family. “I definitely wanted some of that same messed-upness” in "Horror Movie," he says.

Tremblay surrounded himself with possession films for ‘A Head Full of Ghosts’

When writing one of his books or short stories, Tremblay tries to tailor his entertainment consumption and surroundings to stuff that best serves his project. For 2015’s “ A Head Full of Ghosts ,” about a possibly possessed teenage girl featured on a reality TV show, Tremblay watched and rewatched “The Exorcist” and others of its ilk.

“I’m usually reading things that I think will sort of inspire ideas, too," he says. "I'm not too worried about the intrusion of other voices. In fact, I enjoy getting unexpected sparks from things.” (A movie version of “A Head Full of Ghosts,” which “scared the living hell” out of Stephen King , is in the works from producer Robert Downey Jr. and “Goodnight Mommy” directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala.)

‘The Cabin from the End of the World’ spawned from home invasion movies

Admittedly a “longtime scaredy cat,” Tremblay’s love of horror stemmed from watching 1950s and ‘60s black-and-white movies like “The Killer Shrews” that “would give me nightmares” when he was 7. To this day, he doesn’t like home invasion movies, “partly because they're so icky, they're so scary,” he says, but the ones Tremblay digs – the French film “Them,” “Hush” and the old Audrey Hepburn film “Wait Until Dark” – inspired him to do a book version of one with “The Cabin at the End of the World.”

“It was more messing around with, oh, it'd be really weird if the strangers showed up and started killing each other instead of the family," Tremblay says. "Why would they do that? That was just sort of a little bit of a logic puzzle for me."

‘Knock at the Cabin’ turned into a meta influence for Tremblay’s ‘Horror Movie’

The author visited the set of Shayamalan’s “Cabin” adaptation, which featured a significantly different ending than the book, and the author's experience so far in the movie industry informed the filmmaking bits of “Horror Movie” where the older Thin Kid is dealing with producers and directors to get a movie made. “I have enjoyed it, but it has been weird. It's been super-stressful at times, too,” Tremblay says. “The business side of it still just makes zero sense to me. That's fine, maybe it's not supposed to make sense to me.”

The writer admits some of the “Horror Movie” stuff is from personal stories, while others are anecdotal from other authors: “We novelists don't have a union so when weird things happen in Hollywood, our only revenge is to write about it."

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Review: In a Nostalgic Revival, ‘Home’ Is Where the Heart Was

Samm-Art Williams’s 1979 play about the uprooting of a Black farmer returns to Broadway for the first time.

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By Jesse Green

To say that Samm-Art Williams’s 1979 play “Home” is old-fashioned is to say that “The Odyssey” and “The Wizard of Oz” are too: They are all tear-jerking stories about lost souls working their way back to the proverbial place where the heart is. But another way to see them is as keen records of how we thought, at particular points in time, about our place in the universe. Is that ever old-fashioned?

For “ Home ,” which opened on Wednesday at the Todd Haimes Theater, the particular point in time is the tail end of the Great Migration, bringing millions of Black Americans to the North from the South in an attempt to escape racism and poverty. Among them is the play’s protagonist, Cephus Miles, a North Carolina farmer who winds up in a big city a lot like New York after spending five years in prison. His crime: taking too seriously the biblical commandment to love thy neighbor and the injunction not to kill. He refused to serve in Vietnam.

Though the outline of the story might seem to warrant a furious response, like that of many antiwar and antiracist works of the ’70s, “Home” follows a different line, its honeyed cadences glazing its anger with affection. That’s apt because Williams is ultimately less interested in the embitterments of the world than in the ability, indeed the necessity, of masking the bad taste of unfairness with love.

And Cephus (Tory Kittles) is certainly not angry at the South. His memories of hard work, tall tales and odd characters in segregated, fictional Cross Roads — likely based on Williams’s Burgaw, N.C. — are surprisingly upbeat. The poverty, being general, is bearable. (And funny: If a possum falls into the moonshine still, so be it.) The racism shows up mostly as marginalia, implied rather than prosecuted. Black boys shoot dice in the white section of the cemetery, Cephus tells us, because “that’s where the nice cement vaults were.” The Black section’s graves provide no level surface.

The nostalgic style, unfashionable for decades, may be why “Home” has not until now been revived on Broadway, despite its successful and much-praised premiere . Kenny Leon’s production for the Roundabout Theater Company — a result of the company’s Refocus Project , designed “to elevate and restore marginalized plays to the American canon” — is thus especially welcome, if perhaps overly faithful to the original vision. With golden light (by Allen Lee Hughes) and a set consisting mostly of a rocking chair and a tobacco field that make the sharecropping life look strangely inviting (scenic design by Arnulfo Maldonado), it steers right into instead of away from sentimentality, giving us the full flavor of the writing at the cost of courting hokum.

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‘the knife’ review: a nightmarish evening upends a black family’s sense of safety in unnerving debut.

In Nnamdi Asomugha's film, co-written and executive produced by Mark Duplass, a man trying to protect his family becomes the suspect in a menacing police investigation.

By Lovia Gyarkye

Lovia Gyarkye

Arts & Culture Critic

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A palpable tension permeates Nnamdi Asomugha ’s unsettling feature directorial debut The Knife . It’s evident from the opening sequence, in which Chris (Asomugha), a young Black father, returns to his family after a long day of work. As he slinks into his daughters’ bedroom to say goodnight, the tension holds. It’s still there when he snuggles next to his wife, Alex ( How to Get Away With Murder and Lessons in Chemistry star Aja Naomi King), in bed. 

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Premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival, The Knife explores what choice and safety look like for Black people in America. Asomugha, who co-wrote the screenplay with his executive producer Mark Duplass , tackles these familiar themes with a visceral frankness. He includes scenes, especially near the end, that highlight with a chilling matter-of-factness how quickly a life can unravel. Even though Asomugha sometimes capitulates to clichéd narrative choices or visual tropes, The Knife maintains an impressively nauseating level of anxiety. 

When Chris calls for an ambulance, the authorities of Towson County, presumably in Maryland, send a cavalcade of police officers instead. Their patrol cars and vans surround the modest home in the suburbs. The agents take the old woman to the hospital, cordon off the premise with yellow tape and search the house for evidence. One officer, played by Manny Jacinto, eyes Chris with suspicion while Detective Carlsen (Melissa Leo), an older woman with a distrustful resting gaze, begins to take testimony from other family members.

The detective’s conversation with Chris, Alex and their two children Ryley (Aiden Price) and Kendra (Amari Price) reveals how America’s carceral state works against Black people. The notion of innocence until proven guilty is upended by the system’s violent belief in Black criminality. Asomugha envelops the audience in this claustrophobic reality through close-ups. The intimate perspective evokes the feeling of being in the room as Carlsen uses the family’s testimonies to construct a shocking narrative. Her comments about trying to get to the truth become more sinister with each invocation. The question, then, is: whose truth? 

Asomugha opens The Knife with a voiceover from Chris about advice that his grandmother gave him. It goes something like this: Life presents choices and each choice has a consequence. This framing sets The Knife up to be a simpler story than it is. What is a “choice” in a rigged system? As Chris and Alex try to save themselves and their family, Asomugha makes his way toward gripping and complicated queries.

Still, the cast delivers. Aiden Price and Amari Price solidly portray siblings under duress, nailing some particularly poignant scenes that show the specific pressures Black children face under this system. Asomugha and King play Chris and Alex as a familiar, upwardly mobile couple reaching for their version of the American dream. Early in the film, they revel in thoughts of raising their kids in a real home. The possibility of losing this future is what makes The Knife a story not just of horror, but of heartbreak.

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Top 25 Home Invasion Movies

2. The Collector

3. The Strangers

4. Funny Games

5. Silent House

6. High Tension

7. Panic Room

8. Kidnapped

9. The Last House on the Left

11. Single White Female

12. You're Next

13. Black Christmas

14. The Hand That Rocks the Cradle

15. Straw Dogs

16. The People Under the Stairs

17. The Purge

18. When a Stranger Calls

19. Unlawful Entry

20. The Others

22. No Good Deed

23. Sleep Tight

24. The Gift

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What the Hell Is Klyntar, Venom's Home Planet in 'The Last Dance'?

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The Big Picture

• In Venom: The Last Dance , Venom faces an invasion of symbiotes, exploring themes of identity and redemption in a deadly confrontation.
• Venom's origin from the "Planet of the Symbiotes" arc hints at Klyntar's history in Marvel Comics.
• Knull, the God of the Symbiotes, might be a major villain in Venom: The Last Dance , as well as Toxin.

The first official trailer for Venom: The Last Dance set its stakes astronomically high by revealing that an invasion of symbiotes has come to planet Earth, while Eddie Brock ( Tom Hardy ) and the Venom symbiote are on the run. (There's also a Venom horse!) While the internet is going head over tails out of trying to figure out where director Kelly Marcel 's The Last Dance fits into Sony's Spider-Man-less Spider-Man movies, just the idea of Venom battling an army of invading symbiotes is huge — especially as the film looks to explore Venom's home planet, Klyntar . Klyntar has a vast history in Marvel Comics, particularly two storylines that may have an impact on The Last Dance 's narrative.

Venom: The Last Dance

Eddie Brock and Venom are thrust into a deadly confrontation with a formidable new enemy that threatens the city they call home. As the stakes rise, they must work together to uncover the true nature of this new threat while dealing with the complexities of their unique relationship. The film delves into their dynamic partnership, exploring themes of identity, power, and redemption, culminating in an epic battle that will shape their destinies.

The "Planet of the Symbiotes" Marvel Comics Storyline Hints at Venom’s Origins

Spider-Man first encountered the Venom symbiote during the original 1984 Secret Wars storyline, which saw him using it as a costume for a while before he discovered it was alive and trying to forcibly bond itself with him. The symbiote eventually bonded with Brock, becoming Venom, but in a cruel twist of fate, Brock rejected the symbiote when he learned it was forcing him to take lethal action. The symbiote let out a psychic scream that drew a ship containing other symbiotes to Earth , setting up the " Planet of the Symbiotes " arc. Brock, Spider-Man, and Ben Reilly (also known as the Scarlet Spider ) learned that the symbiotes came from another world, and would forcibly override their host bodies. (They'd conquered multiple planets in this fashion.) Eventually, the duo faced off against Carnage, who was absorbing other symbiotes to become more powerful, and Brock reunited with the Venom symbiote.

James Cameron's Wild R-Rated Spider-Man Would've Changed Marvel Forever

Like the ill-fated ship he did make a film about, Cameron's Spidey film also sunk, on an iceberg of movie rights and wild ideas.

Klyntar itself would appear in the Guardians of the Galaxy comic, with Brian Michael Bendis and Valerio Schiti finally going to the titular Planet of the Symbiotes . There it was revealed that the Venom symbiote (this time bonded to Flash Thompson) was an "agent of the cosmos," tasked with defending the innocent by any means necessary . Flash would continue as an agent of the cosmos until he returned to Earth and perished at the hands of Norman Osborn, with the symbiote soon returning to Eddie Brock.

Knull Might Be Venom's Biggest Threat

In 2018, Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman upended everything that people knew about Venom when they boarded the ongoing Venom title. In the opening arc, Eddie Brock encounters a group of feral symbiotes with a mysterious spiral symbol covering their faces, as well as a massive symbiote dragon that terrorizes New York City. He eventually comes face to face with a mysterious being calling himself Knull, the God of the Symbiotes and the self-proclaimed "King in Black." Knull tells Eddie the true nature of the symbiotes: he had forged them as weapons to combat the god-like Celestials, with the first ever symbiote serving as the Necrosword that Gorr the God Butcher would eventually use in his battle against Thor. But the biggest revelation came from the fact that Klyntar was not a planet, but a cage of symbiotes holding back Knull .

Eventually, Knull breaks free of his cage and heads to Earth in the " King in Black " run with an army of symbiote dragons backing him up. The heroes of the Marvel Universe fight the invasion, with Venom eventually taking Knull on in battle and slaughtering the dark deity. In the aftermath, Eddie Brock becomes the new King in Black , leading the symbiotes on missions for peace while eventually granting the Venom symbiote to his son, Dylan. Cates and Stegman's run had a massive influence on Marvel's Spider-Man 2 , as the game's version of Venom sprouts wings similar to Brock's "King in Black" update and there are symbiotes who bear the spiral mark of Knull's servants.

Is Knull 'Venom: The Last Dance's Villain?

If Venom: The Last Dance is drawing from the Donny Cates/Ryan Stegman run of Venom , it could provide a unique twist to the Venom films . Eddie and Venom previously fought other symbiotes including Riot ( Riz Ahmed ) and Carnage ( Woody Harrelson ), but Knull is in a whole other league since he's the literal God of the symbiotes. Plus, it would give new meaning to the subtitle of The Last Dance , as in King in Black , Knull rips the symbiote off Eddie and drops him off the top of the Empire State Building, resulting in him briefly dying. (He gets better because, well, that's how comics work.) Venom: Let There Be Carnage also hinted at a deeper nature to the symbiotes, which could in turn be paving the way for Knull .

Another symbiote who might play a major role in Venom: The Last Dance is Toxin, who is the grandson of the Venom symbiote . Toxin's host, Patrick Mulligan ( Stephen Graham ), first appeared in Venom: Let There Be Carnage and was implied to have gained his symbiote; the trailer for The Last Dance shows Mulligan locked up in a secure site. With Knull's ability to possess symbiotes, he could make Toxin a herald for his invasion of Earth. Carnage previously filled that role in the Absolute Carnage series, where he started murdering other symbiote hosts in order to free Knull from his prison; with Kasady having his head bitten off by Venom at the end of Let There Be Carnage , it only makes sense for someone else to fill that role and Toxin would be a perfect fit. Either way, it certainly seems like the end of an era for Venom on the big screen.

Venom: The Last Dance slithers into theaters on October 25, 2024.

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