The Intruder

Scott (Michael Ealy) and Annie (Meagan Good) are an upwardly mobile couple in San Francisco. She is excited to buy a lavish home in the country from Charlie Peck (Dennis Quaid). To Scott's frustration, Charlie keeps hanging around and befriending his wife. He starts to suspect that Charlie is unstable with ulterior motives.

Dennis Quaid plays the character very much on the nose. He is never that far away from creepy. It would be better to have less of that since he is supposed to be skilled at keeping appearances. Also the movie could play a bit more "is he or isn't he crazy". It's undeniable from the start and that takes away any chance of a mystery. It becomes nothing more than waiting for him to go fully berserk. That is a little value but mostly it's a tiresome waiting game. There is no real tension to this thriller.

Good for some mediocre scares and suspense. But story was a little slow and overdone. Dennis Quaid was awesome as usual! He saves the movie a bit but can only do so much.

The last time I saw Dennis Quaid put on his evil grimaces and psychopathic stare was in "Beneath the Darkness" in 2011. That was a rather weak and derivative B-movie thriller, and to be entirely honest, so is this "The Intruder". But hey, Quaid can surely portray a menacing and downright terrifying psycho! His performance is pretty much the sole reason to check out this otherwise clichéd and predictable thriller. Newlyweds Scott and Annie find their dream house an hour and a half outside of San Francisco, but original owner Charlie Peck obviously has difficulties leaving his previous property behind. You know how this goes further: at first, Charlie popping up every five seconds is just a nuisance, but he gradually becomes more intrusive and scarier. Add to this the typically overused sub plots and stereotype characters, like the young couple themselves going through marital issues, the obnoxious best friend becoming too curious, grim secrets from Charlie's past coming to the surface, etc. It's more than okay to watch once, but it will also be soon forgotten again.

The intruder is your typical thriller centred around characters that are exposed to a mentally unstable individual who slowly but surely is out to get them. What really saves this movie is Dennis Quaid's performance, his character seems to have conviction and even though he plays the antagonist, he carries the movie from start to finish.

The protagonists are a mixed bag of stereotypical characters, Meagan Good's character seems to be completely oblivious to Quaid's character's ulterior motives even though they are clear as daylight, and her husband played by Michael Ealy is indecisive and even shady in some aspects, only to go against his own character development at the end of the movie.

Thus it becomes increasingly difficult to root for the supposed protagonists and you kind of begin to side with Quaid's character because he looks like he actually has fun with his on-screen performance.

It is a very predictable and formulaic genre-piece which doesn't have the needed twist in it to separate itself from the flock. The only "twist" if one could call it that, is seeing veteran actor Dennis Quaid take on a role that we rarely ever see him in, and he does a very competent job carrying this movie the whole way through.

Of course this was not supposed to be a masterpiece. Yes it's predictable but it had its moments. It's a silly fun movie which keeps you on your seat. I had a good time and 2 extra stars just for Dennis quaid. He gave a crazy fun performance which made me and other audience feel uncomfortable at certain times. Especially the shower scene in bathroom, that's just pure gold. It's so uncomfortable that you'll just laugh. Overall its a fun movie to watch with your friends in a weekend.