Intruder

A lunatic goes on a bloody rampage inside a grocery store on the night it's due to close.

Director Scott Spiegel knows where to put his camera and when to cut away from and when to hold on the masterful gore effects, but the characters aren't the most interesting bunch which drags the pacing down. It's still worth it for the gore effects and creative camerawork.

Or it could've been called "Market Massacre," "Clean Up on Aisle Dead," "Thank You for Chopping with Us," "Slay-Offs" or "Wal-Mart." Anything but the generic "Intruder."

This movie has many flaws, including said highly generic and actually false title. It's goes from intentional humor to unintentional humor on a dime, but gosh darn it, it's a fun ride with incredible practical gore and inventive props. This should go without saying since it stars Sam and Ted Raimi.

Ah-hem, the "Intruder" is about a night crew paid to clean and stock a soon-to-be-sold and closed down grocery store when a blood-red herring is stalking some of the employees and not all will live to clock out.

There are so many flaws, it's incredibly silly at times and it has some laugh-out-loud props, like shelves of blank tin cans for sale. It's actually hard to take this seriously. That is, until some genuine scares and kills brings you back to the reason you're watching an 80s slasher in the first place. So, I kept flip-flopping on what rating I needed to give this.

It is fitting for a dead-even 3/5 stars as for every amateur mistake and missed opportunity, it is also a great time capsule for that decade of horror. I am shocked though, as a life-long slasher fan, I've never even heard of it. I thought this as the movie opened and the FULL MOON logo appeared.

I literally said out loud: "Well, that explains it."

***

Final Thoughts: I came up with some additional superior titles than the actual one: "Inconvenience Store," "A Mom and Drop Dead Store," "Five-and-Died," "You'll Flee Market" and "Slashed Prices." Okay, fine, I'll work on my comedy bits.

"Intruder" wasn't a bad movie. I expected less. It's about the night crew at Walnut Lake Supermarket being stalked down by a killer one night at work--the last night, before the store closes. The story takes just a little to get going, but it's entertaining the whole time. The killings seem to go pretty quickly, and the climax is fantastic! I just love the setting. I didn't particularly think ALL those freaky camera angles were so great. (ie: in the phone, under the sweeping broom) But some were really cool. Anyhow, I definitely recommend this for at least the great climax. The conclusion is a little unsatisfying, but still pretty good. Great movie!

Creative camera work and over the top gore effects fill Intruder's fairly short run time with enough ingenuity and kinetic energy to power the less than exciting script and characters that frequently fall short of the mark. Evil Dead fans will like knowing Bruce Campbell has a charming cameo towards the end.

From the makers of The Evil Dead we got a slasher flick that for some reason is kind of a hidden gem. Not many people have seen this movie. I personally bought an Uncut version off a grey market site for 5 bucks. I should add that it was worth it.

Story takes place in a supermarket which seems to only sell cereal...not really, but they like to shoot scenes down that isle. The workers are closing for the night and they just want to finish up and head home. Well that's a shame since there's a killer in the store and the workers start dropping like flies. That's pretty much how the story goes.

But the movie itself was done pretty damn well. You have a cast that was definitely into this movie. They tried to seriously pull it off. There's some dark humor, some great lighting effects and some really good gore effects. I unfortunately was a little disappointed in the amount of gore. I kept on hearing there was tons of it....there's really not that much. But there is enough to keep an average gore fan happy. The movie unfortunately was not scary, but don't dismay, the movie has a special charm, that will most likely keep you (horror fan) happy.

Bruce Campbell is in the movie for a total of about 2 minutes, so even though it says his name on the cover...don't buy/rent it because of him. Intruder is a pretty fun flick to watch. It definitely has more positives than negatives and is better than most slashers. If you're into slasher films, this is definitely one you should add to your collection.