Writer and Director Bryan Bertino wrote the movie based off an incident from his childhood where a stranger knocked on his door, asked for someone who wasn’t there and left. He later discovered that this was a ruse to see who was home and who wasn’t so that they could rob the houses.

The entire film was shot with hand-held or steady cameras.

To get a reaction from Liv Tyler, Bertino would tell her to expect a bang from one area and then have the sound come from a different direction.

The film was shot in chronological order.

Actor Kurt Russell mentioned that this movie always scares him.

The exterior shots of the house were filmed at a real house however the interior was shot on a sound stage.

The script was originally titled “The Faces”.

Liv Tyler suffered from tonsillitis during shooting.

The film was originally scheduled to be released in 2007 but was delayed to 2008.

The scene where The Man breaks through the door with an axe is a reference to “The Shining”.

Mark Romanek was originally signed on to direct, when he dropped out Bryan Bertino chose to direct the film himself.

The finale of the film had a lot more dialogue and interactions between Kristen and James and The Strangers however in order to keep the strangers mysterious, the dialogue was cut.

To get herself psyched up for scenes, Liv Tyler would run laps or do jumping jacks to get out of breath.

The Man in The Mask is the only stranger who doesn’t speak.

Kip Weeks stated that, to him, Dollface was the leader of the group and not The Man in the Mask as most assume.

Weeks also stated that he believes that this film was the first time The Strangers killed, and that it left them inspired to keep doing it.