Is ‘The Strangers: Chapter 1’ based on a true story?

The Strangers: Chapter 1 is the new chapter in the franchise about masked killers who target their victims apparently at random. Surprisingly, though, the terrifying tale is based on true stories.

As a retelling of the original movie, The Strangers: Chapter 1 draws from the same sources of inspiration. However, the new film also introduces some new elements.

Which real-life crimes inspired 2008’s The Strangers?

Written and directed by Bryan Bertino, 2008’s The Strangers follows Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman as a couple dragged into a sick cat-and-mouse game by three masked killers. Instead of just slaying their victims, these killers like to terrorize them first, pushing them to the brink of their sanity before landing the final blow.

The Strangers became a cult classic because it proposes a different kind of slasher, one in which there’s no reason for the crimes to happen, and the victims are chosen randomly. To make matters more frightening, the movie’s opening tells the audience that real-life events inspired the story. While that is true, Bertino took many liberties with his sources of inspiration.

According to Bertino, the first true story that inspired The Strangers came from his past. When Bertino was a child, some strangers knocked at his door one evening, asking if their parents were home. Bertino’s sister lied and told the people at the door their father was in the shower, scaring the strangers away. In the following days, Bertino learned that the people were invading the houses where no one answered the door, leaving to luck the choice of the places they would rob. The randomness of these crimes remained engraved into his memory as a grim reminder that no one is ever truly safe. 

The Strangers’ second source of inspiration was the Manson Family murders from Aug. 9 and 10, 1969. Influenced by America’s most famous psychopath, Charles Manson, cult members murdered seven people in two evenings, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate. To this day, there’s no definitive answer to what motivated the murders. Furthermore, the Manson attacks were somewhat random, as the family members didn’t know who would be in the homes they struck.

While Bertino only lists these two true stories as inspiration for his beloved movie, people found some parallels between The Strangers and an unsolved multiple homicide case. Curiously, The Strangers: Chapter 1 incorporates elements of this accidental resemblance into its story.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 goes full circle with its true story inspirations

When 2008’s The Strangers came out, people compared the movie and the Keddie murders. On the night of April 11-12, 1981, four people were mysteriously murdered in a cabin located in Keddie Resorts. Three children inside the house remained unharmed and heard nothing strange during the night. However, in the morning, there were three bodies in the cabin and one missing person. The bones of the fourth victim would be retrieved only in 1984, confirming her passing.

The Keddie murders were never solved because the crime was born from a random act of violence, not unlike the killings committed in The Strangers movies. However, despite the similarities, the original creator, Bertino, has never mentioned this unsolved case as a source of inspiration.

From the trailers of The Strangers: Chapter 1, we can already see that the movie is not a simple remake. Instead, Chapter 1 will retell the home invasion story with new characters and a new location. Funny enough, the site of Chapter 1’s attack is a cabin in the woods, exactly like the Keddie murders. So, while the new movie tries to find a voice of its own, it still echoes the behind-the-scenes story of the original work.