Shubhabrata Dutta
While home invasion movies in themselves are scary, filmmakers often take a step further to make things more sinister. It’s not just the motive of the invader that matters but the person as well. While, in some movies, we get to know the person, or the invading entity, in other movies, we don’t. In the latter, it is the mystery that develops. In this list, we bring you the best home invasion horror movies that include both types.
6. Barbarians (2021)
The nature of the plot is just like the title i.e. barbaric, though not in a slasher way. We have two couples, Adam (Iwan Rheon) and his girlfriend Eva (Catalina Sandino Moreno), who are the current leaseholders of the “Gateway” property that they are currently in, and Lucas (Tom Cullen) and his girlfriend Chloe (Inès Spiridonov), with Lucas being the owner of the property. As day turns to night, the celebration of Adam’s birthday turns to chaos as dark secrets come to light. But that’s not all. While they are not done sorting things out among themselves, three men wearing animal masks arrive at their doorstep. Then, it’s all about survival of the fittest. Who lives and who dies, because lives are indeed lost, you can find out by watching the movie right here.
5. Hell Is Where the Home Is (2018)
This film (also known as ‘Trespassers’) is directed by Orson Oblowitz and follows two couples who rent a luxury house in the middle of a desert for a weekend to add spice to their romance. But the spice that a lady, whose car has apparently broken down nearby, is about to add to their lives is something they have no idea about. With secrets, suspicious policemen, masked people, guns, sharpened knives, and blood-induced trauma that follows, ‘Hell Is Where the Home Is’ is a perfect mix of “hell” and “home” that reminds us to be careful of who we offer help to while at a vacation in an unknown place. You can watch the movie here.
4. V/H/S (2012)
A unique approach to the home invasion horror genre, this film, which includes an anthology of stories revealed in the form of VHS tapes that are a part of the main plot, follows a group of criminals who are hired by an unknown person to break into a house and steal a VHS tape. When they arrive at the house, they find a dead old man land not one but many tapes. And with every tape that is played by them, one of them goes missing and the disappearance is accompanied by a bizarre story recorded in the tape. If you are looking for something new in the titular genre, go for ‘V/H/S.’ You can watch it here.
3. Intruders (2015)
A home invasion gone insane is one way to describe this film. We have three intruders, namely Perry, Vance, and J.P., who are looking for some money at Anna’s childhood home after tying her to a chair. Anna has severe agoraphobia which doesn’t allow her to leave her house even when she knows she can be killed at any moment. But this doesn’t happen. On the contrary, the three guys slowly begin to realize that they are in her world, one that she built with her now-dead brother Conrad who was a serial killer. Directed by Adam Schindler, ‘Intruders’ offers a scary yet intriguing watch. You can check out the movie here.
2. No One Will Save You (2023)
With only five words in the entire screenplay, this sci-fi horror is really scary in an inhuman way. Directed by Brian Duffield, it follows Brynn (Kaitlyn Dever), a young adult who lives all alone in her house and is shunned by the local townsfolk. However, she makes do in her own way and is moving on. Soon, strange occurrences tell her that someone or something has invaded her house. While an animal or a human would make things clear no matter how terrifying, Brynne soon finds out that it is an entity that has no description and isn’t even from this planet. Indeed, her home has been invaded by an alien that will stop at apparently nothing to get her. How she defends herself and whether she is able to escape from it, which seems to be one among many, is what the movie entails. You can watch ‘No One Will Save You’ here.
1. The Intruder (2019)
A quintessential home invasion that follows couple Scott (Michael Ealy) and Annie Russel (Meagan Good) who buy themselves a new house in Napa Valley. They buy it from its previous owner Charlie (Dennis Quaid) who lost his 2 years prior and plans to move to Florida with his daughter. However, Scott notices how Charlie tries to be over-friendly with Annie but stays put. Nevertheless, Charlie keeps on arriving at their home uninvited until the couple doesn’t like it anymore. It slowly gets clear that Charlie is obsessed with the house. Scott starts digging and finds out that Charlie’s wife shot herself to death and that he was forced to sell the house due to legal issues. Meanwhile, Annie finds an underground cellar. Certainly, there’s more to Charlie than meets the eye. To find out what secret he is hiding, you can watch the movie here.
Read More: Best Abduction Movies on Hulu
