SHOCK looks at a pack of pulse-pounding pictures that bring horror to the home.
With the recent release of maverick director Mike Flanagan’s unforgettable, no-nonsense home invasion horror movie HUSH, SHOCK got to musing on other great films where the womb-like sanctity of ones house is violated by violent external forces.
It really is one of the core nightmares of our society, this illusion of safety we construct, our homes, something that, if we let our guard down can be so easily threatened and taken away from us. The world is a scary place, we know this. But surely a deadbolt on the door and a window closed would keep that scary stuff out, right?
Wrong!
Here’s a list of 9 remarkable motion pictures that savagely exploit the horror of home invasion.
HOME INVASION THRILLERS
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THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1964)
The first adaptation of Richard Matheson’s I AM LEGEND and the blueprint for George Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, LAST MAN sees Vincent Price arming his suburban bungalow into a garlic and mirror shrouded fortress when, nightly, the bloodthirsty vampires that have taken over the planet come to break down his walls and devour him.
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WAIT UNTIL DARK (1967)
Audrey Hepburn went from carefree Holly Golightly to a terrorized blind woman being menaced endlessly by home invading thug (Alan Arkin) in the tension-filled 1967 horror melodrama. Great performances, unbearable suspense.
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STRAW DOGS (1971)
Sam Peckinpah’s controversial masterpiece is so much more than a home invasion movie, but it oozes into being one. Dustin Hoffman proves his manhood when the drooling, hive-minded local brutes aim to break in and lynch a man, causing Hoffman’s otherwise milquetoast protagonist to be even more ruthless and brutal. Violence begets violence in this turf-defending, disturbing paean to the necessity of barbarism.
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ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (1976)
John Carpenter’s second feature film is the first of many nods to the siege western RIO BRAVO, here focusing on the titular cop-shop under attack by a gang of murderous thugs. Violent, tough and pulse-pounding, ASSAULT is in essence NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD without the ghouls and much more firepower.
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DESPERATE HOURS (1990)
Michael Cimino’s stab at quoting the classic Bogart original was unfairly maligned upon release. It casts Mickey Rourke as the smooth lead of a crew of criminals who take over the home of a wealthy man (Anthony Hopkins) and his family, with said family forced to slowly, surely turn the tables on the invaders. A solid thriller, a great Rourke villain.
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ILS/THEM (2006)
This lean French thriller is a kissing cousin to THE STRANGERS and leaves its invading assailants identity a complete enigma, until the film’s final frames. No gore, nothing sensational, just a jolt of 70-minute panic, stylishly shot and edited.
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FUNNY GAMES (1997 or 2007)
Whether you prefer the original or remake, it matters not. Both films are directed by Michael Haneke and both pictures are totally disturbing, with a pair of white-gloved dandy’s insinuating them into a family’s summer home, toying with them and torturing them in unbearable ways. The films serve as straight thrillers but also as a kind of punishment to audiences who would perversely want to watch such films in the first place.
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THE STRANGERS (2008)
Simple, elegant and blacker than midnight, this malevolent and compact thriller is home invasion perfection, a film that doesn’t ask us to care who its antagonists are. They just are. They’re the collective grim reaper, nothing more nothing less.
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HUSH (2016)
Mike Flanagan delivers, again. He's a true artist and atmosphere architect who has chosen horror as his vessel and Flanagan’s HUSH is a masterpiece, expertly constructed and laced with emotion. We care about our deaf protagonist deeply, even though we barely know her when a masked psychopath comes to call. Using sound so deftly for a film about a women who cannot hear, Flanagan creates a two-hander funhouse from hell. Essential.
