The Strangers (2008)

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Wikidata Q1259466, film, IMDb tt0482606, TMDB 10665: matched by corpus:resolve, told apart by episode credits Roy Lee as producer who noticed the script (‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap!); 1 more episode agrees.

What a model would be handed about it, for corpus:ask.

In the store as #545, The Strangers (2008).

Who talked about it

Blank Check — Patreon

The Big Picture

Came from

What the speakers say it drew on. Each is a speaker's account: “the maker said so” when they report the maker's own words, “the host's read” when the read is theirs.

Manson family murders: 1 line the maker said so ×1

  1. lineage (lineage): Manson family murders ⇒ The Strangers (the maker said so). Bertino cited the Manson family murders as an inspiration, but the speaker finds that unsatisfying because Manson had intent while the Strangers act at random.
    “Bertino says that the Manson family tape murders were a big inspiration for this.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:33:41 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60 sure it was them)

The Town That Dreaded Sundown: 1 line the host's read ×1

  1. lineage (lineage): The Town That Dreaded Sundown ⇒ The Strangers (the host's read). The tall stranger's sack mask calls back to The Town That Dreaded Sundown.
    “wears a kind of sack mask that recalls like the town that dreaded sundown.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:26:00 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60 sure it was them)

Led to

What the speakers say drew on it, marked the same way.

No line says another film or person drew on it.

Connected to

Mamma Mia!: 4 lines theme ×2 contrast ×1 people ×1

  1. contrast (contrast): Mamma Mia! → The Strangers. Sean sets the loose, wander-around-and-pour-wine viewing of Mamma Mia against the locked-in, what-will-happen-to-them viewing of The Strangers.
    “I contrast that with the strangers where I was like sitting in a movie again for 79 minutes, like what is going to happen to these people?”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:57:36 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)

Brian Bertino: 1 line career ×1

  1. career (career): Brian Bertino → The Strangers. Bertino looked like a major horror director after The Strangers but never reached the mountaintop again, partly because its spareness is hard to revisit.
    “I thought he was going to be one of the most significant horror directors of his generation, and he's worked, but has never really kind of reached the mountaintop again.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:47:57 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)

Friday the 13th: 1 line contrast ×1

  1. contrast (contrast): The Strangers → Friday the 13th. Classic slashers punish teens for transgressions; The Strangers rejects that strategy and punishes no one for anything.
    “a lot of horror movies are basically showing the trans, especially slashers are showing the transgressions of other people.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:35:36 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)

Funny Games: 1 line contrast ×1

  1. contrast (contrast): The Strangers → Funny Games. Released a year after the Funny Games remake, The Strangers is similar in kind but is a pure experiential film with no meta commentary.
    “But unlike funny games. This movie could not be less meta.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:21:31 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)

Liv Tyler: 1 line career ×1

  1. career (career): Liv Tyler → The Strangers. The Strangers, released within two weeks of Hulk, may be Tyler's best performance.
    “Strangers may be her best performance.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Incredible Hulk · 0:49:24 · Griffin or David (0.30 sure it was them)

Manson family murders: 1 line lineage ×1

  1. lineage (lineage): The Strangers → Manson family murders. Bertino cited the Manson family murders as an inspiration, but the speaker finds that unsatisfying because Manson had intent while the Strangers act at random.
    “Bertino says that the Manson family tape murders were a big inspiration for this.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:33:41 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60 sure it was them)

Mark Romanek: 1 line what-if ×1

  1. what-if (what-if): The Strangers → Mark Romanek. Universal passed on a bigger-budget version and the film works better for being small.
    “He wanted to make it as a $40000000 movie and they didn't want to.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:30:12 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)

Merle Haggard: 1 line craft ×1

  1. craft (craft): Merle Haggard → The Strangers. A Merle Haggard record the intruders put on supplies the film's closing haunting song, Mama Tried.
    “Yeah, but, you know, mama tried as like the closing haunting jam, you know, is kind of that's a tough one.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:47:03 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)

Nightmares: 1 line craft ×1

  1. craft (craft): The Strangers → Nightmares. Scott Speedman's late-night drive is a horror trope, like the woman in Nightmares who leaves for cigarettes while a killer is loose.
    “she's like, I just fucking need cigarettes.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:40:21 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)

Roy Lee: 1 line industry ×1

  1. industry (industry): Roy Lee → The Strangers. Roy Lee called Bertino after The Strangers script placed in a screenwriting contest; Lee is known for getting in early with young talent.
    “He got a call from super producer Roy Lee, who's gone on to be arguably the most successful independent producer in Hollywood last year.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:19:34 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)

Saw: 1 line contrast ×1

  1. contrast (contrast): The Strangers → Saw. The Strangers arrived amid the torture-porn wave (Saw, Hostel) but works by randomness and withholding rather than gore.
    “there was also a kind of torture porn, uh, saw hostile, you know, those films were also very popular in the horror mainstream.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:21:08 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)

Scott Speedman: 1 line people ×1

  1. people (people): Scott Speedman → The Strangers. Sean thinks real-world familiarity with Speedman and Liv Tyler enriches the film because celebrity itself is about cracking a persona, while Amanda finds their star quality the only thing keeping it Hollywood.
    “So I think using Scott Speedman and live, Tyler, 2 beautiful people who you do have some sort of relationship to, like compliments, the themes of the movie.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:28:20 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)

Scream (Ghostface mask): 1 line contrast ×1

  1. contrast (contrast): The Strangers → Scream (Ghostface mask). The sack mask feels familiar but not commercialized into oblivion like the Ghostface mask.
    “it's like familiar, but it's also not like the ghost face mask, like commercialized into like total oblivion at this point.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:26:11 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)

The Dark and the Wicked: 1 line career ×1

  1. career (career): The Strangers → The Dark and the Wicked. Bertino's second-best feature is a similarly unnerving domestic horror.
    “2020 is the Dark and the Wicked is probably his 2nd best feature, which is a similarly unnerving domestic horror, starring Marin Ireland”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:48:14 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)

The Strangers (sequel and newer Strangers movies): 1 line verdict ×1

  1. verdict (verdict): The Strangers → The Strangers (sequel and newer Strangers movies). The sequel and remake-origin follow-ups miss the point; part of the original's power is that it exists out of nowhere with no origin.
    “We don't need an origins right now.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:22:08 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: 1 line programming ×1

  1. programming (programming): The Strangers → The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. In 2008 horror favored slick remakes and torture porn, so a stripped-down original like The Strangers stood out.
    “this was at a time when like Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake was happening, the Nightmare on Elm Street remake was happening, the last house on the left remake was happening”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:20:55 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)

The Town That Dreaded Sundown: 1 line lineage ×1

  1. lineage (lineage): The Strangers → The Town That Dreaded Sundown. The tall stranger's sack mask calls back to The Town That Dreaded Sundown.
    “wears a kind of sack mask that recalls like the town that dreaded sundown.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:26:00 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60 sure it was them)

You're Next: 1 line lineage ×1

  1. lineage (lineage): You're Next → The Strangers. Chris pitches You're Next as The Strangers with the dial turned up.
    “is basically the strangers on steroids”
    The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:17:29 · Chris Ryan (0.90 sure it was them)

Where it came up

What was said about it, by kind

career (3)

  1. career (career): Brian Bertino → The Strangers. Bertino looked like a major horror director after The Strangers but never reached the mountaintop again, partly because its spareness is hard to revisit.
    “I thought he was going to be one of the most significant horror directors of his generation, and he's worked, but has never really kind of reached the mountaintop again.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:47:57 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  2. career (career): The Strangers → The Dark and the Wicked. Bertino's second-best feature is a similarly unnerving domestic horror.
    “2020 is the Dark and the Wicked is probably his 2nd best feature, which is a similarly unnerving domestic horror, starring Marin Ireland”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:48:14 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  3. career (career): Liv Tyler → The Strangers. The Strangers, released within two weeks of Hulk, may be Tyler's best performance.
    “Strangers may be her best performance.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Incredible Hulk · 0:49:24 · Griffin or David (0.30 sure it was them)

contrast (5)

  1. contrast (contrast): The Strangers → Saw. The Strangers arrived amid the torture-porn wave (Saw, Hostel) but works by randomness and withholding rather than gore.
    “there was also a kind of torture porn, uh, saw hostile, you know, those films were also very popular in the horror mainstream.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:21:08 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  2. contrast (contrast): The Strangers → Funny Games. Released a year after the Funny Games remake, The Strangers is similar in kind but is a pure experiential film with no meta commentary.
    “But unlike funny games. This movie could not be less meta.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:21:31 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  3. contrast (contrast): The Strangers → Scream (Ghostface mask). The sack mask feels familiar but not commercialized into oblivion like the Ghostface mask.
    “it's like familiar, but it's also not like the ghost face mask, like commercialized into like total oblivion at this point.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:26:11 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  4. contrast (contrast): The Strangers → Friday the 13th. Classic slashers punish teens for transgressions; The Strangers rejects that strategy and punishes no one for anything.
    “a lot of horror movies are basically showing the trans, especially slashers are showing the transgressions of other people.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:35:36 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  5. contrast (contrast): Mamma Mia! → The Strangers. Sean sets the loose, wander-around-and-pour-wine viewing of Mamma Mia against the locked-in, what-will-happen-to-them viewing of The Strangers.
    “I contrast that with the strangers where I was like sitting in a movie again for 79 minutes, like what is going to happen to these people?”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:57:36 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)

craft (2)

  1. craft (craft): The Strangers → Nightmares. Scott Speedman's late-night drive is a horror trope, like the woman in Nightmares who leaves for cigarettes while a killer is loose.
    “she's like, I just fucking need cigarettes.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:40:21 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. craft (craft): Merle Haggard → The Strangers. A Merle Haggard record the intruders put on supplies the film's closing haunting song, Mama Tried.
    “Yeah, but, you know, mama tried as like the closing haunting jam, you know, is kind of that's a tough one.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:47:03 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)

industry (1)

  1. industry (industry): Roy Lee → The Strangers. Roy Lee called Bertino after The Strangers script placed in a screenwriting contest; Lee is known for getting in early with young talent.
    “He got a call from super producer Roy Lee, who's gone on to be arguably the most successful independent producer in Hollywood last year.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:19:34 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)

lineage (3)

  1. lineage (lineage): The Strangers → The Town That Dreaded Sundown. The tall stranger's sack mask calls back to The Town That Dreaded Sundown.
    “wears a kind of sack mask that recalls like the town that dreaded sundown.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:26:00 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60 sure it was them)
  2. lineage (lineage): The Strangers → Manson family murders. Bertino cited the Manson family murders as an inspiration, but the speaker finds that unsatisfying because Manson had intent while the Strangers act at random.
    “Bertino says that the Manson family tape murders were a big inspiration for this.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:33:41 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60 sure it was them)
  3. lineage (lineage): You're Next → The Strangers. Chris pitches You're Next as The Strangers with the dial turned up.
    “is basically the strangers on steroids”
    The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:17:29 · Chris Ryan (0.90 sure it was them)

people (2)

  1. people (people): Scott Speedman → The Strangers. Sean thinks real-world familiarity with Speedman and Liv Tyler enriches the film because celebrity itself is about cracking a persona, while Amanda finds their star quality the only thing keeping it Hollywood.
    “So I think using Scott Speedman and live, Tyler, 2 beautiful people who you do have some sort of relationship to, like compliments, the themes of the movie.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:28:20 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. people (people): The Strangers → Mamma Mia!. Both are 2008 films framed around a wedding and a daughter or couple at a wedding crossroads, and the hosts tie both to the marriage-skepticism joke.
    “Are you, and again, this gets back to like our, should we be getting married?”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:59:49 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)

programming (1)

  1. programming (programming): The Strangers → The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. In 2008 horror favored slick remakes and torture porn, so a stripped-down original like The Strangers stood out.
    “this was at a time when like Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake was happening, the Nightmare on Elm Street remake was happening, the last house on the left remake was happening”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:20:55 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)

theme (3)

  1. theme (theme): The Strangers → Mamma Mia!. Amanda argues the two 2008 films share a theme of knowing thyself and what can't be known; later both end by withholding the answer.
    “And I would, I'll argue, has some things in common with Mama Mia.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:02:42 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  2. theme (theme): The Strangers → The Strangers. Critics read the film as a post-9/11 horror about random violence, set against the revenge-and-gore reading of torture porn.
    “There are 2 ways of looking at horror in the aftermath of 911.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:30:23 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  3. theme (theme): Mamma Mia! → The Strangers. Mamma Mia, by never confirming the father, honors not-knowing the way The Strangers does, which Amanda says gives it more nerve.
    “This movie understands that the greatest fear and the greatest power lies in not knowing.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:29:03 · Amanda Dobbins (0.70 sure it was them)

verdict (1)

  1. verdict (verdict): The Strangers → The Strangers (sequel and newer Strangers movies). The sequel and remake-origin follow-ups miss the point; part of the original's power is that it exists out of nowhere with no origin.
    “We don't need an origins right now.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:22:08 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)

what-if (1)

  1. what-if (what-if): The Strangers → Mark Romanek. Universal passed on a bigger-budget version and the film works better for being small.
    “He wanted to make it as a $40000000 movie and they didn't want to.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:30:12 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)

Fun items about it

  1. fun, about The Strangers: Amanda admits the film gets under her skin without being gory or supernatural, because her horror problem is irritation, not fear.
    “it's actually not fear that is my issue.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:18:51 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about The Strangers: Sean saw it in theaters knowing only the trailer; the hosts say it was shot in 2006-07 and sat on the shelf a year, which is how it landed in 2008.
    “Apparently this movie was shot in 2006, 2007 and just sat on the shelf for a year.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:19:06 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about The Strangers: The hosts guess the unmasking was shot but cut because the film is stronger if you never see the faces.
    “they filmed it where they take the masks off and then they realized an edit that it's more powerful if you never see their faces.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:31:59 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about The Strangers: The final line: asked why, the masked woman answers because you were home. The hosts debate whether no answer would be better.
    “she says, yes, doll face.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:34:44 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
  5. fun, about The Strangers: Sound design: a single knock at the door is the film's most upsetting moment, with very little score or dialogue.
    “a single knock at a door at 4.30 in the morning can be the most upsetting thing that could possibly happen to you.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:38:41 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  6. fun, about The Strangers: Bit about the proposal: the ring, the parking lot, the pear-shaped diamond from Sex and the City, and Sean's diamond shaped like Babu Frick.
    “The diamond that I got for Eileen when I proposed is in the shape of Babu Frick.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:43:13 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  7. fun, about The Strangers: Self-defense riff: the hosts argue about whether you can kill an intruder and why the couple never barricades the door with furniture.
    “It's just a real like barricade the home situation.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:46:25 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
  8. fun, about The Strangers: The couple's vinyl collection includes Joanna Newsom, Merle Haggard, Gillian Welch, Billy Bragg and Wilco and Richard Buckner; later the strangers put on the Merle Haggard record, with Mama Tried as the closing jam.
    “This couple had awesome taste in music.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:46:41 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
  9. fun, about The Strangers: Sean gives it 3.5 stars on Letterboxd and notes the strangers franchise is now IP.
    “Uh... 3.5?”
    The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:47:49 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)

Who the speakers said made it

As said on the shows, not checked against the real credits.