There’s a reason that home invasion horror films like The Strangers, Them, The Purge, Hush, Don’t Breathe, Funny Games, and more rank highly among horror fans. The very concept of your private sanctuary getting corrupted and invaded by an unhinged intruder who means you grave harm is inherently terrifying. The realistic thrills of home invasion films can offer some of the most intense horror, and some of the biggest surprises when the formula is subverted.
This week’s streaming picks are dedicated to home invasion horror movies that unleash suspense, chills, violence, and stalker thrills. Here’s where you can stream them this week.
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Angst – Kanopy, Midnight Pulp, Mubi, Tubi
An unconventional, stylized Austrian horror movie that largely influenced Gaspar Noe’s work, Angst follows a psychopath as he’s released from prison and eager to commit crime again. After a botched murder attempt, the psychopath flees to a large house, and proceeds to torture and murder the three family members that live there. The psychopath is based on Werner Kniesek, a killer who brutally slaughtered a family of three while on parole. Director Gerald Kargl may have taken a stylized approach, but it’s an unpleasant, creepy watch that makes for one of the more extreme entries in home invasion horror.
Door – SCREAMBOX
Director Banmei Takahashi’s home invasion horror begins in simple, familiar fashion. A beleaguered housewife, Yasuko (Keiko Takahashi), spends her days trying to keep her home tidy while looking after her son and husband. She has no time for the salesman that’s insistent upon making a sale, leading to an encounter that leaves the salesman with a massive grudge. Then the creepy phone calls and stalker behavior ensue. While Door offers all of the intense cat-and-mouse sequences and stalker chills of home invasion horror, Banmei Takahashi escalates the horror to insane levels of madness and bloodletting. Come for the home invasion horror and stay for one of the most insane finales ever. This obscure gem deserves more love for its commitment to subverting some archetypical tropes via gonzo, gory chaos.
Sleep Tight – freevee, Kanopy, Peacock, SCREAMBOX, Tubi
Jaume Balaguero’s Sleep Tight gets under your skin, especially if you live alone. Luis Tosar is one of horror’s most underrated and scariest villains as apartment concierge, Cesar. He’s miserable, and all he wants is for everyone around him to be discontent too. He revels in making the tenants’ lives hell, and they’re typically easy to agitate. But the unflappable Clara, with her sunny outlook, becomes the object of Cesar’s fixation in his fervent desire to induce a mental breakdown in her. It means consistently breaking into her apartment – often with her there at night, sleeping peacefully in her bed – to find new ways to inflict suffering without her being aware. It’s bleak, disturbing, and one of the most uncomfortable viewing experiences ever.
Wait Until Dark – Tubi
Audrey Hepburn stars as a blind woman whose home is invaded by a trio of criminals seeking their lost heroin stash. Originating from a stage play, the film was one of the most popular during its release in 1967 and earned Hepburn an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Wait Until Dark may not be anywhere close to the level of intensity and brutality that we’re accustomed to now in the subgenre, but it’s a foundational classic that many have borrowed from since. Hepburn makes for a winsome lead that has no trouble earning rooting interest, but it’s the suspenseful atmosphere that sets this apart. It culminates in one of horror’s greatest jump scares of all time. If you’d like to make it a double feature with a similarly themed home invasion horror, check out See For Me on Hulu or Shudder.
When a Stranger Calls Back – freevee, Pluto TV, Tubi
One of the earliest examples of a sequel far superior to its predecessor, this under-seen cable movie delivers severe tension starting with one of horror’s best openings of all time. Jill Schoelen (The Stepfather, Cutting Class) stars as this outing’s babysitter, the target of an unseen stranger when left to care for two sleeping kids. While the first film delivered the iconic “The calls are coming from inside the house” trope, this sequel goes to surprising and frightening places, often involving home invasion. When a Stranger Calls Back offers up one of the most eccentric killers of the decade, and that’s saying a lot. More importantly, the opening sequence alone earns this film’s spot among some of the scariest home invasions that horror has to offer.
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