Top 5 Home Invasion Films

5. Funny Games (2007)

The first in our list of top 5 home invasion films is a remake of an Austrian film some ten years earlier by the same director. Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, and Michael Pitt all excel on screen in a slow-burner with a brutal, honest ending, the film follows two teenagers as they torture, maim and kill a family of three over a matter of several hours with their insane games.

4. Us (2019)

Jordan Peele’s second directorial film after the excellent Get Out, Us is a film with many, many layers, and the most recently released entry on our list of top 5 home invasion films. Whilst not a traditional home invasion film like others on the list, it spends a lot of its screen time with the main family trying to avoid their darker counterparts getting into their house, and then when they do, fighting them off and escaping. A film with a message about racism, classism, and the opportunities afforded to one group over another, it also has more than just the tension and gore going for it.

3. Hush (2016)

A home invasion film with a more unique take on the genre, it features Kate Siegel who has gone on a solitary retreat in an attempt to write her latest book. Squirreled away in the woods in a cabin, she’s isolated and far from anything resembling help. Her being a deaf-mute means the perpetrator spends his time toying with her, sending photos of her showing she’s being watched, cutting the power off, moving things, and so on. The film plays on the deafness of the main character in an excellent, oppressive fashion, as when we see events unfold from her point of view, all sound is removed completely, putting us directly in her shoes in a very simple manner.

2. Don’t Breathe (2016)

It’s rare that in a home invasion film you’ll find yourself the ones doing the invading, but Don’t Breathe is exactly that. When a group of teenagers breaks into an old, blind war vet’s home intent on stealing his money, they find much more than they bargained for. Whilst now blind, the vet’s sense of hearing is so attuned he can navigate his house with ease, notice the smallest noise or disturbance in his huge house, and even build huge kidnapping contraptions for his own nefarious needs. The sequel released last year expanded on this to almost ridiculous levels and was far beneath its predecessor in pretty much every regard.

1. The Strangers (2008)

The scariest crimes are the ones with no particular reason or motive, and that’s certainly the case with The Strangers. The last entry in our top 5 home invasion films list, features an unfortunate couple Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler, who end up the tortured playthings for a group of masked assailants, themselves intent on mentally torturing the couple, as much as physically. Told they were the chosen victims “because you were home”, it’ll stick in your head for a while after knowing that some of the worst things that can happen to us can happen for no reason, and you might not feel very safe for a few days after watching.

That is my 5 top home invasion films, but what ones have I missed? What would you have put instead? Let us know in the comments!

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