Actually it is. It's based on an unsolved crime that is slightly related to the plot of a movie. The director got freaked out as a kid by some late night interaction with a stranger. Later he found out a bunch of houses in his neighborhood were robbed.
He combined that experience with Helter Skelter and boom got The Strangers. Apparently he had to revise the script because it was way too gory.
Either way, I didn't like the movie. It tried to play up as a psych thriller and didn't work out.
I don't get your comparison to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the original or the remakes, it's really nothing like them.
