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The Strangers are a group of the three main antagonists that appear in the 2008 film The Strangers. The members consist of "Man in the Mask" (played by Kip Weeks), "Dollface" (played by Gemma Ward) and "Pin-Up Girl" (played by Laura Margolis).
Biography
The Strangers
The three masked strangers begin harassing a couple, Kristen McKay and James Hoyt and their summer vacation house. First Dollface knocks on the door asking for a random person. When discovering that only Kristen and James resided at the home, she had left to join the other two. When James went out to get cigarettes for Kristen, she had remained in the house. The strangers found their way into the house somehow and began moving objects and sneaking around, freaking her out. When Kristen had a cigarette in the kitchen, the Man in Mask could be seen lurking in the background in the living, however he doesn't do anything and simply vanishes before she turns around.
When James arrived back, the Man in Mask began hacking the door with an axe and their car was destroyed by Pin-Up Girl who rammed it with a truck. James and Kristen hid inside a room with a shotgun, waiting for night to come up. Later on James' friend Mike arrived at the vacation home to check up on them and was stunned by the mess of the place. Whilst walking about, he was being stalked from behind by Man in Mask brandishing a mask. When Mike arrived at the room James and Kristen were hidden he was shot dead, mistaken for one of the attackers, causing devastation to James.
James attempts to go and get help but is captured. Kristen tries to contact help, but is later herself captured. The strangers tie up James and Kristen, and when Kristen asks why they are doing this to them, Doll-face simply replies calmly "Because you were home". The trio then unmask themselves (although their faces aren't directly shown to the viewer) and take turns in stabbing the couple with a blade. Once done, the couple were untied and the three left. When driving down the road they come across two Mormon Boys. They stop and Doll face asks for a leaflet. When one of the boys ask if she is a sinner, Dollface replies "Sometimes". After getting the leaflet, the three of them drive off, with Pin-up girl promising "It will be easier next time."
James and Kristen were later discovered by the two boys. Although James was dead, Kristen had survived the ordeal and the police were contacted. It is not made clear as to whether Kristen lived much longer due to her severe injuries, and her fate is left ambiguous.
Strangers: Prey at Night
In this sequel, they hunt down a family in a trailer park belong to their slained relatives. However, in the end, they failed to kill the entire family and are finally killed by two children of the family with Pin-Up Girl being stabbed to death by the youngest member, Luke; Dollface being blasted in the face with a shotgun and the Man in Mask being bashed to the death with a baseball bat by the eldest daughter, Kinsey, ending their reign of terror for good.
Personalities
The M.O. of "the strangers" is to approach isolated homes and knock on the door late at night. If the door is answered, they ask for someone who likely doesn't live there. When they are told that they are not home, they then pretend to leave and return to terrorize and, later, murder the inhabitants of the home. They do this by removing their masks, binding them up and taking turns slowly stabbing them until they die from their injuries. The way they torment their victims increases in intensity, starting off with moving objects inside the house and banging on the windows and doors, then escalating to staring at them from outside and chasing them around. The identities of the strangers are deliberately left ambiguous to make them more mysterious and frightening. Overall, the three characters are very mysterious with no apparent personalities, and very few observable details about their characters. They have no apparent motives for their actions other than sadism. Based on Dollface's response to Kristen's demands to know why they were targeted for this torment, it can be argued that The Strangers target completely random people who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The strangers apparently enjoy the thrill they get from tormenting and stalking their victims, however all three killers are totally indifferent to the pain and suffering they cause, and, strangely, do not appear to enjoy it very much, as all three are totally detached emotionally from the things they do, suggesting that they are sociopaths. They take their time with what they do, as shown by how they terrorize Kristen and James from four in the morning until daytime, likely as late as ten in the morning, and taking the time to put Kristen into her nice dress before stabbing her. They also may take things from their victims, such as clothing. This is shown when the Man in the Mask changes from the brown suit he was wearing to a blue outfit that he may have taken from the closet.
Although serial killers are typically Caucasian males, there is only one man who wears some sort of cloth bag (similar to Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th: Part II) over his head with a blank expression drawn on it, possibly a small grin. He is credited as "The Man in the Mask" but is also called "Sackhead" or "Baghead" by fans. The "Man in Mask" is the only member of the trio not to have a line of dialogue. A brief glimpse of the side of his face shows that he has a beard. The "Man in the Mask" is also the only member of the group to not wear a vintage style vacuform face mask with a pop-art design. All three masks are simple and unique and it is entirely plausible that the strangers made their masks themselves. Dollface is a young woman with long blonde hair, and the one who talks the most, although she still seldom speaks, and when she does, barely raises her voice above a whisper and talks in a low, flat tone with no emotion whatsoever.
She wears a cheerfully creepy mask of a big-eyed smiling woman with blushing cheeks, lipstick and pouty lips. Dollface is likely the craziest of the three because she appeared to take the most pleasure in tormenting Kristen and James. Dollface also took a pamphlet from the two Mormon boys, suggesting that she does not rule out the possibility that she and the others are doing wrong. The Pin-Up Girl is the most mysterious of the three, and only has a single line in the film, suggesting that "next time" it will be "easier. The Pin-Up Girl has short brown hair and wears a mask depicting a girl with curly black hair, lipstick, pink eye shadow and blushed cheeks with a blank expression.
Trivia
- Before being called "The Strangers", the name for the film was "The Faces".
- 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. Bertino later combined the Manson Family murders of 1969 with that incident to create the basic premise for "The Strangers". The Strangers have the exact opposite M.O. Instead of avoiding inhabited homes, they target inhabited homes.
- To play "The Strangers", the filmmakers cast relatively unknown actors to further keep their identities more of a frightening secret. "The Strangers" are also played by attractive, normal-looking people to give the impression that they could be anyone deemed normal or trustworthy by society.
- The faces of "The Strangers" are never directly shown to the audience. Only portions of the side of their faces are ever shown.