The terrifying 2008 home invasion fright film The Strangers was unhappily inspired by real-life violent crimes, including some brutal slaughters. While the fright genre is often, and not unfairly, associated with fictions of monsters, phantoms, and other supernatural humen, some of the most effective horror cinemas of all time rely on none of those things. As amusing as beings are, they’re not real, and aren’t something one has to be afraid of in real life. That’s where home invasion movies like The Strangers come in.

The Strangers is scary precise because it could very much happen to anyone watching it, as sadly, the world is full of destructive psychopaths, often hiding in plain sight. That’s not to say there’s a serial killer around ever corner, as the amount of TV demo revolving around them might lead one to believe, but there’s still a non-zero chance that any dedicated person could one day be slaughtered, maybe by someone they’ve never even met before.

Related: Saw: The True Story That Inspired The Horror Movie

On the bright side, that actually happening isn’t extremely likely, but it’s the potential reality of movies like The Strangers that manufactures them retained by love. While there thankfully aren’t a trio of executioners in concealments going around slaughtering whoever happens to be home, the film does have some true-blue inspirations.

According to writer and administrator Bryan Bertino, The Strangers is primarily based on three different affairs. The first is the atrocious sequence of assassinations committed by the Manson Family in 1969, peculiarly the home invasion and killing of actress Sharon Tate. The second is the likewise fairly atrocious 1981 Keddie Cabin Murders, in which four parties were killed in a small California resort town, including Sue Sharp, her lad John, daughter Tina, and John’s friend Dana. Disturbingly, the motive for those working slaughters are unknown, as the murderer( s) were never caught, and the dispute remains unsolved.

The third bit of real brainchild for The Strangers actually comes from Bertino’s own life. As a child, Bertino recalls a night his mothers weren’t home, and someone slapped on their opening asking for someone who didn’t live there. In a make of The Strangers though, Bertino says he later learned that the people knocking were looting rooms in the neighborhood where no one was home, instead of attacking people who were. Still, its own experience left a trade mark on Bertino that later acted him well as a screenwriter. Thankfully, the perpetrators in his event were only looking to steal valuables, and not take lives.

More: Final Destination True Story: Real-Life Disaster Inspired Horror Movie

Read more: screenrant.com