The Strangers (2008) >> Alternate Ending

The Strangers >> Alternate Ending

When The Strangers was released theatrically, it had a great ending. The Strangers unmasked themselves (off-camera) to James and Kristen and took turns stabbing them. After finishing them off, The Strangers leave in their truck but briefly stop to speak to two mormon boys who give them a pamphlet on Christian Living. After The Strangers leave, the boys come upon the house and James and Kristen’s bodies. As one of them reaches down to Kristen, she jumps up screaming and grabs his arm, indicating she is still alive. Needless to say, that ending resonated with audiences and left them feeling frightened for the rest of the night. But what they didn’t know at the time, was that there was a whole lot of footage removed and edited to achieve that lasting effect.

If you have read the original script for the movie, posted right here on our site, you can see what’s missing from the ending. A whole lot of dialog and more action from The Strangers. It has been confirmed that almost all of this was filmed through interviews conducted with Laura Margolis and Kip Weeks, and that a lot of this footage was eventually cut to get the effect that Bryan Bertino wanted.

If you haven’t read the script, the scenes that are missing include The Strangers putting on music for James and Kristen, cleaning up the house after they’re done, stealing James and Kristen’s clothes and changing into them. As well as a lot of dialog, including Pin-Up Girl whispering “sorry” to James as she stabs him. It makes sense in the end that this footage was cut, but sadly it has never been released.

However, what has been released is a portion of that footage which forms an extended ending for the film. If you read pages 100-101 of the first draft of the script, I believe these are the pages that the extended ending corresponds to, albeit the dialog between The Man in the Mask and Kristen has been removed for mysterious effect. This extended ending picks up after James and Kristen have been stabbed. The Strangers appear to have left and Mike’s phone starts ringing next to his rotting body. Kristen is still, just barely, alive and she hears the phone and drags herself across the floor to grab it.

She misses the call and then attempts to call 911, but the floorboard creaks behind her and The Man in the Mask takes the phone from her and leaves her for dead. After that, it picks up with the theatrical ending with the mormon boys. This extended ending was only released on DVD, and can be viewed below.

As for the removed footage, I doubt we’ll be seeing it any time soon given it’s been so long since the movie has been released. But in due time, I’m hoping this website will become popular enough so that I can contact crew members who worked on editing the film and possibly get my hands on these scenes to release here.