Intruders

Two children from two different countries are seemingly haunted by the same ghostly apparition. As the actions of this malevolent force begin to intrude more and more on their lives both desperately try to be rid of it once and for all.

The best thing about this movie is that it plays on fears and experiences that we have all had in our childhoods, the monster in the closet, the beast under the bed. Waking up in the night and hearing spooky sounds. It's these parts of the movie that are most effective in the scare stakes. Each time one of the children is cautiously peering over their bed sheets you know exactly how they are feeling.

Clive Owen as the father of the English girl is great. Playing the everyman role of the father fearing for his little girls safety is something he seems to take in his stride. The relationship between the father and daughter is very believable and helps towards the tension created later in the movie.

The other family's story a young boy and his single mother, I found distracted slightly from this story. Not that it's not interesting, it's just that I found the other story more interesting. The two do eventually collide and although you may see the twist coming before it's actually revealed it's still quite satisfying.

The feel and some of the imagery of Intruders brought to mind the 80's movie "paperhouse" which is a film I like and recommend if you enjoyed this movie.

The one real problem I had with the movie was the poor CG effects on the ghostly creature haunting the young boy and his mother. It seemed strange that they went with CG for one thread of the story and a much more convincing and creepier physical version for the other thread.

I did enjoy this film but I felt that it drifted a few times during the mid section. It's definitely one I could watch again.

A supernatural creature terrorizes a child, and the adults in that child's life either dismiss the child's fears as nightmarish, or assume the child has some sort of psychosis. This plot line has been done so many times that it's amazing that adults in present-day movies don't second guess themselves more often.

"Intruders" has a bit more of a clever twist to this tired horror movie story line in that the terrorized child, 12-year-old Mia (Ella Purnell), at least has an ally in her father John (Clive Owen), who has actually seen the being trying to harm his daughter.

The being, known to Mia as Hollowman, wears a dark hood and cloak that moves mysteriously in the air like something out of "The Matrix" (1999). The mysterious spirit has the shape of a man, but its face is completely obscured by its hood, making it look a lot like Bruce Willis in the underrated "Invincible" (2000).

The unwelcome visitor does not speak, but Mia somehow knows it does not have a face, and is willing to steal one from a child. Also, despite the plurality of the movie's title, there is only one intruder: this one.

Mia is apparently not the only child haunted by this creature. A much younger Spanish boy named Juan (Izan Corchero) also receives visits from it. The film intersects between the nightly terrors of Mia and Juan, and it makes you wonder what the connection is between these two children. Why did this spirit choose to haunt these two children in two different European countries (Great Britain and Spain), when there are millions of other children in this world whose face (or faces) he could steal? The way these two children's stories intersect is revealed late in the film in a twist I honestly did not see coming. Because it was so clever, I can't ruin it for you, the reader, either.

Unfortunately, it being a horror movie and a suspense thriller, the moments that were supposed to be shocking, and scary, weren't either. The film made the fatal mistake of making the music, which gradually got louder as a scary moment or a "gotcha!" part was approaching, ruin the overall suspense. By the time the mysterious hooded person appeared from out of the dark closet, the score felt more like a great opening act for a weak headliner.

The shock value of this film, or lack thereof, is even more unfortunate when you consider the superb cinematography and great acting from just about everyone involved. Clive Owen rarely fails to disappoint, and fortunately plays a parent who actually believes his petrified daughter.

I especially liked Ella Purnell, who is the kind of child actress who guys in their 20's look at and say, "In five years, she's going to be really hot!" Besides being strikingly beautiful, Purnell looks genuinely scared during the scenes with the creature in the hood, and she is very convincing as Owen's daughter in other less-intense scenes.

I also thought every scene with Corchero, as Juan, and his mother Luisa (Pilar Lopez de Ayala), scary or not, was done incredibly well. They played in good contrast to scenes involving John and Mia. Whereas John believes his daughter's problems are more than nightmares, Luisa believes her son, but uses words of comfort almost in vain. She tries to tell her boy it's only a bad dream, when she's really trying to convince herself. It's a fascinating paradox.

Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo is best known to American audiences as the writer & director of "28 Weeks Later" (2007), the well-received sequel to Danny Boyle's acclaimed "28 Days Later" (2003). He definitely knows his horror films, which is why it's so disappointing that "Intruders" didn't live up to his previous effort. While great acting and a dark, eerie atmosphere strengthened this movie, it wasn't enough to scare me.

Putting it another way, I consider a great horror film one where my hands are covering my entire face except one eye, and two of my fingers are on standby to affix over that eye should a scary moment present itself. With "Intruders", throughout the scary parts, my hands remained at my sides.

Two children, one in Spain, the other in England, are experiencing terrifying visits by the same demon who wants to possess them. The only viable link is that both children are writing a story...

A joint Spanish/English language production, Intruders is the sort of frustrating picture that has big and bold ideas on the page, but sadly on the screen in unfolds laboriously as it bites off more than it can chew. It came as no surprise to myself to find that upon opening internet sites frequented by horror fans, Intruders has greatly disappointed them. It's rarely frightening, sags desperately in the middle section, the pay off is weak, and ultimately it only skirts the boundaries of being a "horror" film.

So, the lack of shocks and suspense in bona fide horror terms needs to be tempered with genre expectation levels, this is more a family drama with fantastical horror elements lurking around the edges of the frame. This of course doesn't help anyone, like myself, who has bought into plot synopsis and the marketing strategy that accompanied the picture, but if able to see past the faceless demon that appears occasionally and promises something else? There's a decent and honest adult film pulsing away here.

Clive Owen plays the troubled father of the piece and he once again, as he did in Trust, shows that given this type of material he can deliver a performance of emotional substance. He's backed up by a very strong turn from young Ella Purnell as his daughter, and with the tech credits high - most notably Roque Baños' superb musical score - there is much to enjoy here. But as thoughtful as it is, and as solid as the film makers credentials are, its reputation is unlikely to be enhanced anytime soon. 6.5/10

'INTRUDERS': Two and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

A Spanish and British horror film starring Clive Owen and directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (who also directed the Spanish/British horror sequel '28 WEEKS LATER'). The film was written by Nicolas Casariego and Jaime Marques and tells the story of two children in different countries who are both haunted by the same demon looking to possess them. It co-stars Carice van Houten, Pilar Lopez de Ayala, Ella Purnell, Izan Corchero and Daniel Bruhl. The movie contains some frightening sequences and some decent acting but for the most part is a bore.

One story is set in Madrid and focuses on a young boy named Juan (Corchero) who is terrorized by a monster called Hollowface. His mother (Ayala) sees the demon as well but is unable to stop it so she calls on a local priest (Bruhl) to help exorcise it. Another story focuses on a young girl named Mia (Purnell), in London, who is haunted by the same ghost. Before seeing the monster she had found a box with the story of it hidden in a tree at her grandparents' house. She had been telling the story of 'Hollowface' to other students at her school before being stalked by it as well. Her father John (Owen) is extremely close to Mia, and protective of her, so when he sees the monster as well he becomes obsessed with stopping it. Unfortunately it's unclear whether the monster is in fact real or just a figment of their imagination and John's wife Susanna (Houten) is starting to believe the latter (as well as the priest in Madrid).

The movie has decent enough production values and looks great (for a low budget horror film); the monster looks cool as well and is pretty frightening. Like I said earlier the acting is all adequate as well, especially another passion filled performance by Owen: he kind of holds the movie together. The directing is decent enough as well but the overall storytelling leaves much to be desired. It's just too slow paced and uninvolving, despite the passionate performance of Mr. Owen. If you're just looking for some cheap monster movie thrills you could do a lot worse but you could also do a lot better.

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Ah, the twist! The "surprise ending", the "shocker", or lack there of. There is an art to surprising people at the end of the movie that is the lifeblood of films like this. This one, unfortunately, is dry. They do a good job of setting up the scenes, making you thoroughly confused before explaining everything. If you can make it that long, which you might not be able to, it is a boring show and the pay off is somewhat weak.

Now, the acting is top notch, Clive Owens does an very good job of playing father, and the supporting cast really commits to this movie. That said, it isn't enough to carry the film through the normal jumps and grabs while you just sit there saying, 'get on with it!'