Movie review of Intruder

Horrorphile

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Intruder

April 11th 2007 03:08

Intruder (1989) is deep trash, make no mistake, directed with self-conscious enthusiasm. It was originally called Night Crew: The Final Checkout (known in Germany as Bloodnight and Night of the Intruder, in Portugal as Terror Outside of Hours and in Italy as I Turn Without Fear) and was released straight to video back in 1989 with much of its notorious gore cut to fit an R rating. Uncut versions were floating around as well, which is what I saw on VHS in the early 90s.

My memory was of a more sophisticated and inventive movie. But on second viewing the movie falls to bloody pieces. The only really memorable bits are the oddball cast and a couple of standout gore sequences (which weren’t all that well edited in the first place). Still, Intruder does hold a kind of guilty pleasure for me. I’m not entirely sure why. Hmmm, perhaps I need to re-name my blog Guilty Pleasure of Nightmares.

Directed by Scott Spiegel, an old buddy of Quentin Tarantino’s, and co-written with producer Lawrence Bender (who would produce Reservoir Dogs a few years later) Intruder is a fairly pedestrian stalk’n’slash flick. It is set almost entirely inside a mini-mart (a few scenes are directly outside in the car park) during after hours. The staff members are picked off one by one by an unknown assailant. There is a pink herring (not red, as it ain’t that hard to guess the real killer) and a teaser ending. Dumb ass dialogue litters the screenplay (why Speigel didn’t enlist the aid of his film geek buddy to deliver him some lines to actually chew on, I’ll never know).

Where Spiegel is mildly inventive is in his use of camera placement (phone-cam, trolley-cam, etc), but they’re hardly inspired, in fact they come across more like a bored film student’s idea of silly visual tricks. They’re pointless too.

Sam Raimi and his younger brother Ted give support, along with Estevez, the youngest daughter of Martin Sheen (who takes the family name like her older brother Emilio). Bruce Campbell lends a hand as a cop, but his screen time is virtually non-existent. The uncharismatic lead roles are played by Elizabeth Cox as the ex-boyfriend harassed Jennifer and Danny Hicks as the cheerfully disgruntled Bill Roberts.

The two stand-out gore sequences are technically very good (early work from Greg Nicotero and co.), but Spiegel seems to shy away from them as he builds up the anticipation. It’s as if he wants to spit in the face of the MPAA, yet doesn’t quite have the balls to go the distance. The two scenes are graphic, but they certainly don’t linger in the way a good splatter flick should.

band saws are great for curing splitting headaches

One victim has the top half of his head sheared off by a pneumatic garbage crusher, while another victim has his head forced sideways into a vertical band saw which rather messily takes half his head off which the audience see from above. It’s progressive stuff for an American horror movie. But it lacks the sledgehammer impact it could have commanded had it been edited more skillfully. I don’t mean it should have been more suggestive; on the contrary, it should have been lengthier, more over-the-top in its gruesome ghastliness.

I never warmed to the overtly smug so-called post-modern perspective of Wes Craven’s Scream (1996), but watching Intruder again makes Scream's screenplay seem positively intellectual. Intruder has a small cult following, but it’s pretty juvenile stuff, hardly of the kind of twisted calibre that lifts other deep trash onto more blood-soaked, hallowed ground.

Intruder is really only one for gorehound and Sam Raimi completists.

For those of you more interested in what Sam Raimi had to offer, here is a rare clip of him as well as director Scott Speigel being interviewed on the set of the movie when it was still called Night Crew:

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Comments

7 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by JohnDoe

April 11th 2007 03:20

Film & TV on DVD

This one made me smile back upon release, i have been meaning to revisit it since...your review makes me doubt it will live up to my memory..it was fun at the time though.

Comment by Cibbuano

April 11th 2007 04:51

Hunt Famous
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sounds terrible, but interesting cast to look back at...

Comment by Nickoftime's Sanity Corner

April 12th 2007 23:13

Great blog with lots of great movie info...thanks for sharing!

Take care,

Nick

Comment by KylieW

April 13th 2007 02:21

Celebrity Obsession

Ah, we've all gotta have a few guilty viewing pleasures.

Comment by Bryn

April 13th 2007 05:17

Horrorphile

JD and Cibby ... yeah, doesn't quite cut the mustard like I remembered it ....

Nickoftime ... cheers for popping by, glad I could be of dark assistance!

Kylie ... a few?? ahem ... my shelves are littered with them! LOL