Intruder (1989)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Thanks for the memories!

Pretty Good

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Why is it that some 80s slashers are so bad they're great, and some are so bad they're bad? Where is that mysterious dividing line? I don't know. But to draw a comparison, when it comes to 'teens- locked-in-shopping-areas-overnight' slashers, whatever it was that made Chopping Mall such an enjoyable treat is completely absent in Intruder, despite the fact that (killer robots aside) both are fundamentally the same and both are completely crap. Chopping Mall is somehow a lot of fun, but Intruder completely drags from the start. Despite the bright colours and snappy camera angles, the whole thing feels enveloped by an invisible vacuum of dullness. It limps from one boring scene to the next and by the time the kills come I'd already lost interest. Even the actors seem bored. It's pointless being too critical because 80s slashers are like the Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards of the movie world anyway, but Intruder is just dull.

Personally my favorite horror film is My Bloody Valentine (1981), but Intruder isn't bad. It follows the story of workers in a supermarket as an unknown killer hunts them down one by one. It has decent acting for a low-budget film, eerie soundtrack (some of it has been used in the Spongebob episodes), a great cast and an original plot similar to the novel Laundromurder by Racheal Bates. It deserves a higher rating and better reputation than what it has, and I highly recommend it. Hey, even if you decide you really hate it, you can still at least enjoy its nostalgia and cheesy, funny moments, and laugh at it's, uh, "low-budgetness". After all, horror movies aren't always meant to be scary, some are just meant to entertain us.

Give screenwriter / director Scott Spiegel for his inventive contribution to the slasher film cycle of the 70's and 80's: a supermarket slasher! That's right, the overnight crew of a friendly local supermarket fall victim to an utterly deranged and hilariously sadistic psychopath. They were about to lose their jobs as the place was soon to be sold by its owners, but they do find that there ARE worse things to lose than jobs! If you're a fan of gory slashers, you're sure to find this an absolute hoot, as Spiegel and crew make use of a number of the implements to be found in such places. You'll be howling with laughter and appreciation. The bloody mayhem is courtesy of K.N.B., in one of their earlier gigs, and is just great. Not only that, but the filmmakers invest this with more style than one might expect, coming up with some great gags in terms of how to shoot scenes. Not only that, but they dispense with some of the standard genre clichés - the first one to go may actually be the nicest character in the whole thing, and there's more than one survivor at the end, which is darkly ironic. Spiegel, who scripts based on his and producer Lawrence Bender's story (Bender, of course, having gone on to great success with his collaborations with Quentin Tarantino), invests the proceedings with some genuine suspense and atmosphere, but most importantly, an irresistible macabre humour - one of the best moments involves a character receiving a beat down with a severed head (!). And who can pass this up seeing real-life brothers, director Sam Raimi (as the butcher) and actor Ted Raimi (as the produce guy) among the victims? (A word to the wise that if one watches this for Bruce Campbell, he only turns up at the very end; his role is really just a cameo.) Cute Renee Estevez (sister of Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen), who'd also been in "Sleepaway Camp 2", and sexy Elizabeth Cox are appealing; Dan Hicks is particularly great as Bill. In addition to Campbell, veteran actors Emil Sitka and Alvy Moore have delicious cameos as well. Overall, "Intruder" is just a whole lot of nasty fun. The first half mostly consists of setting things up, but once the movie cuts loose, it's fantastic. It comes highly recommended. Eight out of 10.

Slasher films in the eighties were a dime a dozen. Some were just carbon copies of more successful franchises (IE: The Burning). Some were bloated, gimmicky sequels to a surprising success (IE: Friday the 13th Part III ) And finally, some offered an interesting take on the genre rather than just duplicating it. However, some of those films ended up lost in the shuffle, only to be discovered and branded with a cult following years later.One of these films happens to be the 1989 Intruder. Written and directed by Scott Spiegel, one of the co-writers for Evil Dead II. Spiegel worked along side Sam Raimi, one of his closest friends, on Evil Dead II and a lot of the "Sam Raimi spirit" seems to bleed through Intruder. It's gory, unapologetic in some of its kills, and offers the fast-paced style of storytelling we're so used to horror films. Almost like a "so many bodies, so little time" type motivation.The story is centered around a market which the owners announce will close the following day and that the staff needs to stay late to mark down prices. The central protagonist is Jennifer (Cox), a young and attractive woman who gets into a fight with her ex-boyfriend very early in the film. Out of nowhere, in the wee hours of the night, someone begins to repeatedly kill the workers in the building. The staff doesn't begin to notice until less and less people are in the store. They are clueless, confused, and trapped.Horror films that center its plot around a claustrophobic place almost always succeed. For now at least. If the setting is utilized appropriately (by that I mean making us feel like we're trapped with these characters) and the music combines the right level of helplessness and tension, the film will most likely achieve its goal. Intruder takes place mostly all in the supermarket. Very few times do we leave to check out the parking lot. These characters are trapped and so are we.Sadly, many of the characters are very bland and undeveloped. Except for, of course, the female lead. Everyone else is just victim to a splatter film. Speaking of a splatter film, this one definitely succeeds because it doesn't pull cheap punches. It shows us what we came to see. Remember the original Friday the 13th? Of course it occupied a very good setting and was dripping with unsettling atmosphere, but it didn't show us what we wanted. The murders. Intruder, at first, seems like it's another film that censors its action, but in reality, it shows us just what we came to see.The ending is not the simple, mindless contrivance we've become used to in horror films. No cliffhangers, no abruptness to the story, no clichés, truly an original ending attached to complete a good horror film. What more can you sincerely ask for? Starring: Elizabeth Cox, Renee Estevez, David Byrnes, Dan Hicks, Sam Raimi, and Ted Raimi. Directed by: Scott Spiegel.