Trivia
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Spoilers (3)
Originally scheduled for release in summer 2007. After 2 delays, it was released May 30, 2008.
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In one scene, Merle Haggard's "Mama Tried" plays loudly on the record player. His band was "The Strangers."
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Many theaters across the United States were sent faulty reels of the movie, containing sound problems, which made a few minutes to several scenes of the movie filled with nothing but static. Most movie-watchers didn't even realize the sound was a problem, since the dark overtone and loud background music at some areas make the static seem like part of the movie.
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Arguably based on the 1981 Keddie Resort murders in northern California, although this has not been substantiated by anyone connected with the movie, with the writer claiming it is based on a childhood experience.
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The film was shot entirely with hand-held cameras or steady cams. Every shot has some camera movement.
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According to director Bryan Bertino the film is partially based on an incident he experienced as a child. One evening, a stranger came to his door, asked for someone who wasn't there, and left. Later, Bertino found out that other homes in his neighborhood had been broken into that night.
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The song "Mama Tried", which is heard several times during the film, is a 1968 hit by Merle Haggard and the Strangers.
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The exterior shots of the house were filmed at an actual farm house. The film makers were surprised to discover the property had a barn, garage, a forest and a long enough road.
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The film makers tried to design the house as one that "your brother could have lived in, that you could have grown up in" in order to make the audience feel more attached to the film.
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The movie was not shot inside of an actual house, the interior of the home was built on a sound stage.
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During filming, in order to get an actual reaction from Liv Tyler, Bryan Bertino would tell her where to expect a loud bang from, but would then have the loud noise come from a completely different direction.
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Before filming any scene after The Strangers begin terrorizing the couple, Liv Tyler would have to run laps, do jumping jacks, and other physical activities to get her out of breath. This was so she would have the panicky feeling the real life characters would have been experiencing.
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Spoilers
According to Bryan Bertino and Liv Tyler, the finale had much more interaction and dialog between the victims and the strangers in the original script. It was cut to keep the intruders mysterious and eerie.
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To make it look like he had actually been shot at point blank range, Glenn Howerton had to sit in the makeup chair for three hours.
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There were two special prosthetic makeups for Glenn Howerton. One of them was for fresh kill, when he was shot in the face by Scott Speedman, and the other was for 1 hour after death prosthetics.
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