Top 10 Home Invasion Movies
Answering that doorbell just got a lot more ominous… Whether it's a targeted attack or a random one, these home invasions left us shaking in our seats and terrified to open our doors. In this video, http://www.WatchMojo.com, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 home invasion movies. For this list, we're looking at those films where unwanted, surprise visitors push or break their way into movie homes. WARNING: Contains mature content.
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#10: “Cape Fear” (1991)
Martin Scorsese’s remake of the 1962 Gregory Peck classic one-ups the original in terms of boundaries and overall nastiness. Robert De Niro is Max Cady, a convicted rapist released from a 14-year prison sentence who seeks revenge on he lawyer that ensured he went to jail. What follows is a cat-and-mouse game where Cady stalks his prey and his family with an intensely savage frame of mind. And, it all boils down to a gripping final showdown at sea when Cady hops a ride on the family’s houseboat.
#9: “Inside” [aka “À l'intérieur”] (2007)
Terrifyingly scary and brutally violent, this French horror flick will make anyone think twice about letting a stranger use their phone – not just expectant mothers. A female psychopath invades the home of a soon-to-be-mother with the intention of taking her unborn child. Unrelenting and graphic, “Inside” doesn’t shy away from showing anything and is hailed as a modern-day classic. It’s also a searing look at how far some people will go for a baby.
#8: “Hard Candy” (2005)
This one’s a home invasion movie with a twist. Instead of the child being the victim of an online predator, 14-year-old Hayley Stark turns the tables on the man she suspects of pedophilia, child rape and murder. By scamming her way into his home, drugging him and tying him up, Hayley presents us with a uniquely twisted affair as one torturous episode after another unfolds, all which leave the viewer shaken and asking many questions.
#7: “Home Alone” (1990)
The only comedy in this decidedly bleak list, “Home Alone” sees 8-year-old Kevin McCallister stuck at home – gasp – alone while his family’s on Christmas vacation, when a twosome of bumbling thieves decides to raid the neighborhood. Harry and Marv’s only problem is they underestimated the kid: Kevin’s much smarter and cleverer than he seems. So this is no simple home invasion: the Wet Bandits must deal with booby traps all over the house and a precocious kid with too much time and not enough parental supervision. Slapstick comedy ensues.
#6: “Panic Room” (2002)
On the night they move into their swanky New York brownstone, Meg Altman and her daughter become the victims of a home invasion. But, it’s no big deal, since the house has an extensive security system and – better yet – a panic room that’ll keep them safe from the attackers. Unfortunately for the mother-daughter duo, what the thieves have come for is found inside that very room. The claustrophobic atmosphere that director David Fincher creates is palpably pulse pounding and relentless as the homeowners struggle against the robbers.
#5: “The Last House on the Left” (1972)
Leave it to Wes Craven to a thrilling and almost exploitatively violent home invasion movie. Two girls just trying to score some weed at a concert end up kidnapped and tortured by two sadistic prison escapees, who follow up their rape-fest by visiting one of their victim’s homes dressed as travelling salesmen. Craven never loses that human touch as Mari’s parents clue into what happened to their daughter, and embark on an epic revenge plot. This one’s about family, the ties that bind, and payback – plain and simple.
#4: “Wait Until Dark” (1967)
Audrey Hepburn is Susy Hendrix, a recently blinded woman who gets fooled and tortured by three small-time hoodlums that believe she has a doll that belongs to them somewhere in her apartment. Oh, that doll is also stuffed to the seams with heroin. Though Susy is unassuming and naïve, she puts up a valiant fight against the invaders by breaking light bulbs so they’re just as in the dark as she is.
#3: “The Strangers” (2008)
Like the French film “Them,” this movie is about senseless and random crimes against an unsuspecting pair. A young couple decides to take it easy and trek out to a vacation home. But when they get there, they’re distracted by a woman at their door who keeps asking for the nonexistent Tamara. Pure chaos ensues when they’re imprisoned and terrorized by a group of masked assailants. Based on a few true stories, “The Strangers” is an exercise in unabashed, but very controlled home invasion mayhem.
#2: “Straw Dogs” (1971)
Sam Peckinpah did not hold back when showing how violence can creep into our society. Never was this more true than in his 1971 masterpiece “Straw Dogs.” An American moves to a small English village to be wife his wife, and to escape the increasing protest-related violence in America. But he’s confronted by even more aggression in Europe, when he’s bullied and harassed by a local construction crew. In the film’s shocking climax, an angry mob swarms the young couple’s house, and a worst-case-scenario home invasion scenario begins.
Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:
- “The Purge” (2013)
- “The Ref” (1994)
- “Trapped” (2002)
- “You’re Next” (2011)
#1: “Funny Games” (1997)
Though Austrian director Michael Haneke did film an American remake of this horrifying home invasion story in 2007, we gotta hand it to the original. Two psychotic young men take a mother, father and son hostage in their own home, forcing them to perform sick and twisted acts just for the hell of it. Haneke’s grotesque, funny, disturbing, violent, and one-of-a-kind film set the bar for movie violence that is as effective visually as it is psychologically. It also reminds us to be careful who we let into our homes…
Do you agree with our list? What home invasion movie makes you not want to answer the door? For more Movie Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.
