60+ Best Home Invasion Movies: The Definitive List
Home is supposed to be our safe space, housing who and what we love most. The thought of being stripped of our most basic security is terrifying. But horror movies allow us the catharsis to face our biggest fears without danger, which is why home invasion is such a popular subgenre. The premise of home-invasion movies is pretty straightforward: An uninvited person enters another’s home with ill intentions. But over the last few decades, filmmakers have found many ways to bring their own twist to the genre.
Lock your doors and don’t let your guard down — here are the most terrifying home-invasion films:
Old Home Invasion Movies
Wait Until Dark (1967)
This is one of the original home-invasion movies, and it even earned Audrey Hepburn an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress — a rare feat for a horror film. Sam Hendrix (Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.) and his blind wife Susy (Audrey Hepburn) accidentally harbor a doll that was used to smuggle heroin to New York City. Criminals show up at the Hendrix home to retrieve the doll but find that it’s been misplaced. This leads to a game of cat-and-mouse as Susy fights off the attackers alone in her apartment. She decides to level the playing field by breaking every light so that they can’t use their sight, either. The film holds a 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Last House on the Left (1972)
In Wes Craven’s exploitation film, friends Mari and Phyllis are unknowingly led to their deaths while attempting to buy weed from prison escapees. After the four criminals sexually assault and murder the girls, they wind up at a nearby home where the owners allow them to stay the night, believing the gang to be traveling salesmen. After seeing pictures of Mari, they realize they’re staying in their victim’s house. Mari’s parents also become aware of the predicament after finding bloody belongings and seeing one of the killers with their daughter’s necklace — which leads to a face-off between the criminals and the vengeful parents. The movie generated a lot of controversy due to its highly explicit and violent scenes. However, it didn’t disgust everyone — Roger Ebert gave it 3.5 stars and said it’s “about four times as good as you’d expect.”
Black Christmas (1974)
Black Christmas frequently graces greatest-horror-movie lists and it’s cited as an inspiration for John Carpenter’s Halloween. It tells the story of a sorority house terrorized by a man hiding in the attic. The killer is credited as “The Moaner” in the original film but has come to be known as Billy based on repeated mutterings of this name. Unlike many modern-day slashers, Black Christmas focuses heavily on the script and character interactions — Margot Kidder won Best Performance by a Lead Actress at the Canadian Film Awards, and the movie also won Best Sound Editing.
When a Stranger Calls (1979)
The original When a Stranger Calls was a commercial success that earned over $21 million at the box office during its 1979 release. Even if you’ve never seen this film, you most certainly know the iconic line, “Have you checked the children?” The story opens with babysitter Jill (Carol Kane) receiving threatening phone calls that she learns are coming from inside the house. Jill is rescued by police and the man is captured, but it’s discovered that the children were killed hours before the calls started. Several years later, the intruder escapes from the asylum where he’s being held. The detective who investigated on the night of the murders vows to hunt him down — and the killer is on a hunt of his own. The opening scene of Scream is a tribute to the first 20 minutes of When a Stranger Calls.
Despite glowing reviews, Austrian film Angst was banned throughout Europe and wasn’t distributed in the US until recent years. After being released from prison, a psychopath breaks into a random home and enacts a reign of terror on the family that lives there. We learn details of the killer’s backstory through his voiceovers. The character is loosely based on the real-life mass murderer Werner Kniesek. In the 2020s, Angst held a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Hider in the House (1989)
Gary Busey stars as a home invader Tom Sykes in this psychological thriller. Sykes has recently been released from a psychiatric institution and has taken up residence in the attic of a local family’s home, unbeknownst to them. He kills their dog and spies on the family, hoping to estrange the couple as he has a sexual interest in the mother, Julie (Mimi Rogers). When the couple breaks up, he pretends to be a neighbor and tries to work his way into the family.
The People Under the Stairs (1991)
Wes Craven’s cult classic horror comedy is about would be robbers who meet their match when they discover the house they have broken into belongs to a sadistic couple who hold a group of pale children hostage in their basement dungeon. In order to survive, the children have become cannibals. Would-be home invader Fool finds himself trapped in the home, running from the couple and their prisoner cannibal children.
Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)
Julia Roberts stars in this psychological thriller about a woman who fakes her death in order to run away from her wealthy and abusive husband. She starts a new life in small town Iowa but her husband is suspicious and begins to track her down. The film climaxes with an epic home invasion scene where Roberts’ character realizes she isn’t alone in the house when she sees items in her cupboard straightened up, a habit her perfectionist, controlling husband had.
When a Stranger Calls Back (1993)
Like the original, When a Stranger Calls Back opens with a babysitter being terrorized by and unknown man. Babysitter Julia Jenz is harassed by a man outside the door of the house where she is working who claims his car has broken down and he needs help. Gradually the scenario becomes more and more terrifying as the phone line is cut and the man appears to be omniscient as to Julia’s actions. Julia’s charges are abducted and she is narrowly able to escape with her life. Five years later she is a college student living with the trauma of the home invasion. Jill Johnson (Carol Kane reprising her role) from When a Stranger Calls (1979) is a counselor at her college who helps her when the police ignore evidence that Julia is still being stalked. John Clifford (Charles Durning) also returns as a helpful police officer who works the case pro bono.
Fear (1996)
This psychological thriller is about nightmare predator David McCall (Mark Wahlberg) who sets his sites on 16-year-old Nicole Walker (Reese Witherspoon). When David starts abusing Nicole her father is unable to intervene. Nicole eventually breaks up with David after she catches him cheating on her. David goes ballistic and the film culminates in an intense home invasion scene in which David is intent on entering the Walker family home and taking Nicole by force. Warning: this film unfortunately features a pet death in the home invasion scene.
New Home Invasion Movies
Don’t Say a Word (2001)
A memorable scene in this psychological thriller involves a home invasion at the residence of child psychiatrist Dr. Nathan R. Conrad (Michael Douglas). His wife and child are threatened by seemingly all-seeing criminals who promise to kill them if Conrad cannot extract information from one of his patients. Conrad takes drastic measures to try to get to the bottom of what his patient (Brittany Murphy) knows and why people are so desperate for the information.
Enough (2002)
A kind of reverse home invasion movie that follows Slim (Jennifer Lopez) as she escapes from her abusive husband Mitch (Billy Campbell). When Mitch tracks her down again and again, Slim realizes that the only way this will end is if she can stand up to him herself. After spending time gaining strength and training in hand-to-hand combat, Slim breaks into Mitch’s house and confronts him and the two fight to the death.
Panic Room (2002)
Panic Room is a legendary home-invasion tale with more academic analysis than many others on the list. The film’s creative team and cast were filled with Academy Award winners, including director David Fincher, lead actress Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, and editor Angus Wall. Newly divorced Meg (Jodie Foster) and her 11-year-old daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart) move into a new home in NYC’s Upper West Side. The previous owner was a millionaire whose grandson Junior (Jared Leto) is determined to break in and retrieve what he believes to be $3 million in bearer bonds hidden in the home. Junior and his associates didn’t expect Meg to be occupying the residence so soon but continue with their plan anyway. The mother-and-daughter duo take refuge in their panic room — precisely the place that the thieves need to access — and fight for their lives. In Roger Ebert’s rave review, he said that Panic Room is as close to “the ideal of a thriller existing entirely in a world of physical and psychological plausibility.”
Red Dragon (2002)
This forgotten prequel to The Silence of the Lambs (1991) was released over 10 years after Lambs became the first horror movie to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The film follows cannibal psychiatrist Hannibal Lector and his friendship with a prodigious police detective, Will Graham, who discovers Lector is a killer, leading to his arrest and imprisonment seen in Lambs. Graham then retires. Years later a new serial killer, known as the “Tooth Fairy”, puzzles the FBI and Graham is brought on to consult. The film ends with an incredibly tense home invasion showdown between Graham and the Tooth Fairy.
High Tension (2003)
The early 2000s saw the rise of New French Extremity, and High Tension is a prime example. Best friends Maria and Alex plan to stay with Alex’s parents for the weekend, but things take a dark turn when the family is savagely attacked. The parents and Alex’s brother are quickly picked off and Marie, who manages to hide from the killer, takes drastic measures to save her friend. Empire gave it four stars and James Berardinelli of Reel Views praised High Tension by saying, “For those who enjoy horror films and don’t mind copious quantities of red-dyed fluids, this one is not to be missed.”
A couple who recently moved into a remote Romanian country house becomes tormented by an unknown force. Many of the happenings seem like juvenile pranks — faucets suddenly start pouring water, music comes from outside, the TV mysteriously turns on. But the couple also discovers someone driving off in their car, and it escalates from there. The New York Times said in its review, “Them revels in atmosphere, using long unbroken takes and ambient sound to lull you into complacency before unleashing nerve-jangling shocks.”
