Based on True Events…Not Even Close

Posted by Trevor
May 29, 2008

After receiving so much interest in the previous post about The Strangers I thought that it would only be appropriate to write a follow up, especially with the release of the movie being tomorrow.  First off, I’d like to thank all those who commented on the previous post, especially those who did some research of their own and turned up multiple unsolved murders that could have been used for the film.  One comment I found particulary interesting was from Joann:

Am I missing something or what? I don’t recall seeing or hearing anywhere that this movie was about a murder. I know that it says they force themselves to go beyond what they thought possible to live. I don’t remember seeing that it says they were murdered.

She is definitely right, we are assuming that the home invasion results in murder.  Without any murders this would have thrown off our search by quite a bit but in the end I don’t think it matters.  From all the searching online, it’s safe to say that the film is not based on any one case in particular but is a generalization of all home invasions.  Since home invasions do happen and some result in murder, torture or robbery, we can assume that this is what helped “inspire” the film.  I even tried to contact Universal for some information regarding the film and the “inspiring events” but as I suspected their contact email is forwarded to the trash, so no help there.  Another commenter Jeanine found a great article from the LA Times which had an interview with the writer, which had him saying:

I just tried to think about what I was most frightened of, and the moments that I’m most frightened are my girlfriend waking me up in the middle of the night and saying, ‘I think there’s someone in the living room.’ So the whole idea came about as, ‘What if you went into the living room and there was somebody there?

I agree, that definitily would freak me out but that’s why I keep a Katana in my room, screw baseball bats.  I think this helps paint the picture that the script was written with no particular events in mind but the tagline “Inspired by True Events” was slapped on to help sell the film to audiences.  I even think that getting audiences to search for the actuall events could have been put to greater use with viral sites and online videos about the film.  There could have been fake news site set up with articles about the home invasion, photos or videos of the crime scene, wanted posters, etc.  I still think the film looks great and intense, based on true events or not.  Make sure you lock you doors and windows after seeing this film, I don’t think any of us want the film to become non-fictional.

Do you still plan on catching the film or does the lack of evidence of true events turn you off?

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Movies, New Releases, Rants

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  • Josh
    Dude...
    This movie sucked. =/
  • Dee
    Oh ya forgot to post the fact that Encyclopedia of Serial Killers is indeed based on true facts, actual events, and true stories. So, anyone trying to point out the fact that this movie is a dud, full of false events, is walking around in the clouds unaware of the crazies in this world.
  • Dee
    WOW!! Haven't been that scared since Blair Witch!! True events is right, since there are diffenently crazy ass people in this world. Pick up the encyclopedia of serial killers next time you are out. When you get home curl up on the couch, after turning off all but one light in the house, and see if you don't get scared to be alone!
  • Tina
    Just watched this last night and it made me jump several times and grab ahold quite tightly to my pillow :) I have been trying to find anything that shows proof of it being a TRUE EVENT and NO luck. I agree I think it may have been based on SEVERAL different events, the ones that we all hope and pray never happen to us! Still...GREAT movie!
  • Michelle
    The reason the killers were not caught was because......It Wasn't REAL! lol Yes it was inspired by actual events those events were as Bertino said one of the events was a night in his childhood that people knocked and asked for someone that didn't live there. He later found out that the empty houses around there were broken in to that night. As a child this was frightening to him. Other events that inspired the movie were the Manson murders and events in the Manson family lives. The first script was very bloody and the mask strangers were seen a lot more, but as you can see in the final production he created much more suspense and did exactly what he wanted......I mean look at all of the comments...................EVERYONE is interested and left wondering!!!! He was very successfull!! Great job! And.......this is the first scary movie for several years that actually made me jump, scream at one point, and continue to be intriqued as to what was going to happen, who did it, where it took place.....etc... I hope everyone enjoys this movie and leaves with that desire to find out more!
  • Martin Magnia
    Ummmm For Alicia Im almost "Postive" that Kristen is indeed alive....Because take note that in a movie the story was only based upon her...Not the Male Charecter James....Because they couldnt ask a dead man what happened....But the girl most likly said what she remembered....What I found to be VERY strange though is that...how didnt they catch the murderer?? Ok...so say the girl did die...The "Strangers" left Fingerprints on just about everything Including the dead bodies and weapons....hmmm I think I will look more into this...

  • alicia
    Ali, it definitely looked like the girl lived in the movie, but in the beginning of the film, when they were talking about the "real" events, it mentioned that no one knew what happened that night at the Hoytt family vacation home, so that's why I think no one lived in the "real" event, but, I guess the girl could have lived in the movie. So scary!
  • Ali
    One more thing, I think the fact that they don't tell you a town this happened in leads me to believe that this wasn't a true story. Maybe some of it was "inspired" by several actual events but this storyline in particular isn't true I don't think.
  • Ali
    I saw this movie last night and whether or not it's a "true" story, it was very terrifying. Yes, it would have been more meaningful if it really did happen. Not saying that I would want this to happen to someone. Alicia, if you recall at the end "kristen" grabbed the boys arm so did she die or not?
  • alicia
    We definitely know it was a murder story because in the beginning it says "no one knows for sure what happened that night"; therefore, no one lived to tell about it...I wish I didn't know that at the beginning of the movie, though, because it gave away the ending.
  • Peter
    This is what I found in the production notes, available to press: "As with most great scares, pieces of the writer/director’s script were based in reality. Bertino remembers, “That part of the story came to me from a childhood memory. As a kid, I lived in a house on a street in the middle of nowhere. One night, while our parents were out, somebody knocked on the front door and my little sister answered it. At the door were some people asking for somebody that didn’t live there. We later found out that these people were knocking on doors in the area and, if no one was home, breaking into the houses."

    So far for the inspiration..
  • At the beginning of the movie, it says "inspired by true events" as opposed to "based on." I found that to be interesting when I saw it.
  • Trevor
    thx for the research but it turns out that the script for The Strangers was written before the movie Them, from what I've read anyway.
  • julie trevino
    I've seen a comparison on another site who states this could very well be a remake of a french movie called Them which is also supposed to be based on true events. Even when searching for the events that inspired the french movie, it seems a little bogus. The only think I could find (and several others apparently) was a plea by a sister of a woman named Clementine Saveur looking for Clementine and and her boyfriend.

    I hope this helps.
  • almakelly
    I think that the movie “Stranger”, is going to be really good. I will be seeing it tomorrow night. I have read a lot people wanting to know if it is true. From what I have read it is based on a true story. The actual story is the Keddie Cabin. If you look up that title you will see that the setting is about the same. The story is changed a little because the “Keddie Murder” was on 4 people who were murdered and the “Stranger” is based on 2 people who were murdered. The setting is based on the “Keddie Murder”.
  • Yeah, Tobe Hooper is such a big man. I TOTALLY respect him, now that he's come forward and admitted to being full of shit. Yeah, other directors should follow the GREAT example he set. Blah, blah.
  • Jackie
    I'm sick of directors slapping based on a true event on trailers, just to make more money. Tobe Hooper admitted after making The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, that it wasn't exactly based on a true story, more like an algamation of all the stories he heard about Ed Gein as a child.

    If Tobe Hooper can be a big enough man to admit that the stuff in his most famous film, wasn't exactly true, why can't other directors? It's a cheap tactic, and I feel in some cases is used by directors who know they don't have a movie that will sell on it own merit.
  • Quite frankly, I thought Hollywood was over the horror movie marketing tactic of pretending that your movie has one foot in non-fiction. I can only assume that there was some market study done several years ago that determined that the average ticket buyer for any given major theatrical horror release finds scares in horror that is more realistic than supernatural so all of a sudden every movie out of the Hollywood machine had this ridiculous tag dangling from it, alleging that it has some true story behind it. Remember this? Wildly divergent remakes even used it. The Texas Chainsaw Remake, The Amityville Remake, both insisted that they were, in part, true stories yet neither even remotely resembled the source material. Worst of all was Wolf Creek which was an amalgamation of several crimes solved and unsolved. The Strangers is taking quite a leap by trying to convince you that it somehow happened. Moreso than that killer crocodile movie (Primeval) where the advertisements went out of their way to conceal the fact that the killer wasn't even a human in spite of the claims that an African serial killer had claimed more than 300 lives.

    Hollywood horror really has zero redeeming qualities. In spite of the machine cranking out a dozen major studio backed horror flicks a year, they still seem to display the purest contempt for the genre. Just think of the money they could make if they respected horror movies and their fans. Those of us bitching on the sidelines might actually, you know, go see them.
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