Your home is your fortress. Your place of safety. You lock the doors and close the windows. You are safe. No one can get you. Well, home invasion horror movies would make you think otherwise. Playing on a fear anyone can relate to home invasion horror movies can elicit a kind of fear that makes you double check under your bed before you go to bed. That can linger with you and leave you with a feeling of unease.
From Sam Peckinpah’s brilliant Straw Dogs (1971) right upto The Purge (2013 - 2016) this sub-genre has some serious nerve-shredding power. The French movie Them (2006) is a prime example of the home invasion movie done right. It’s hard to talk about it without dropping spoilers but trust us, you will not feel safe after watching this movie.
Funny Games (1997) and it’s shot-by-shot remake (2007) work with a slow pace gradually building up the tension and unease in the viewer until it is almost unbearable. Both original and remake are almost identical (both directed by Michael Haneke) so it doesn’t really matter which one you watch. But is recommended viewing for any fans of this sub-genre.
The home invasion horror movie trend is still going strong with the commercial success of The Purge (2013) and its subsequent sequels. And most recently Mike Flanagan’s tense and atmospheric Hush (2016) and Fede Alvarez’ equally tense Don’t Breath (2016). It seems the sub-genre is enjoying boom at the moment and if the quality of titles are as good as these then HorrorRated can’t wait for more.
A few honorable mentions we just can’t leave out include Adam Wingard’s superb You’re Next (2011), The Strangers (2008) starring Liv Tyler, and Emelie (2015) - the babysitter from hell. Check out our complete list of home-invasion horror movies and let us know if we missed any. And as always, if you’ve seen it, rate it.
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Home Invasion Horror Movies
Angst
Year: 1983
Released: N/A |
Director: Gerald Kargl
7.5
2.5
3.7
3.6
The plot
A troubled man gets released from prison and starts taking out his sadistic fantasies on an unsuspecting family living in a... [read more]
Black Christmas
Year: 1974
Released: 20 Dec 1974 |
Director: Bob Clark
7.2
6.1
3.8
4.3
The plot
A sorority house is terrorized by a stranger who makes frightening phone calls and then murders the sorority sisters during... [read more]
Inside
Year: 2007
Released: 13 Jun 2007 |
Director: Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury
6.9
7.4
3.8
4.1
The plot
Four months after the death of her husband, a woman on the brink of motherhood is tormented in her home by a strange woman... [read more]
High Tension
Year: 2003
Released: 10 Jun 2005 |
Director: Alexandre Aja
6.8
5.2
42
3.6
The plot
Best friends Marie and Alexia decide to spend a quiet weekend at Alexia's parents' secluded farmhouse. But on the night of... [read more]
