Intruder

After reviewing Doctor Moreau’s House of Pain recently on Readers Digested, I left with the feeling I needed to take a step away from the 2000s when it comes to Full Moon Features. I always have enthusiasm to talk about the old-school charm that Charles Band and company have to offer, then, when the movie starts – I feel like it’s a real bloodbath for missed expectations. The 1990s were much more generous to Full Moon Features, meanwhile, the 1980s (which were mostly spent with Charles Band running the predecessor to Full Moon, Empire) were considered their highest highs. That’s when Stuart Gordon was doing his best work with things like Re-Animator, and was just an overall, more prolific time for them.

Enter Intruder, a 1989 slasher film written and directed by Scott Spiegel, and co-written and produced by Lawrence Bender. This is one of those films that’s technically in the Full Moon Features catalogue (available now on their YouTube page, in great quality, starting off with the Full Moon opening credits and everything), without really feeling like a Full Moon film. That’s because Empire only handled distribution of the film, whereas Beyond Infinity and Phantom Productions handled its creation. All of that in mind, it’s a pretty good get for Full Moon, given all the talent involved.

The director Scott Spiegel was a writer for Evil Dead II and the writer Lawrence Bender was producer for some heavy-hitters like Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting. Speaking of Evil Dead, Sam and Ted Raimi both appear as actors in this film, along with Ash Williams’ himself Bruce Campbell. So, this is definitely a film that feels like it was made hot off the heels of the Evil Dead movies, embedded with a certain core group of filmmakers, outside of the Full Moon bubble. That, by itself, I think is really neat and makes this a fun undiscovered gem.

The film is straightforward. As a supermarket is shutting down for the day, Craig, the douche-bag boyfriend of one of the cashiers named Jennifer, appears and begins doing what douchebag boyfriends do. After a short scuffle, a fight ensues that ultimately ends with Craig getting the boot out of the store. As you could surmise thereafter, slasher film has got to slasher film.

The acting is par for the course for a low-budget eighties film, and plays well within its wheelhouse of going for carving out its niche of being charming and light-hearted. The humor’s goofy and pretty much what I would want from the film. The decision to have the film take place in a grocery store also immediately helps create a fun, unique vibe for it.

Early on, I like the vibes. Every joke doesn’t land, but, even when they don’t, it pays forward the vibe that the film carries. The film can feel a little padded in its runtime (which is short film a film, average for a slasher, clocking out at under ninety minutes).

When you watch enough eighties slasher movies, you begin to notice a pattern. Although it has a unique setting with the store, if you swapped it with a summer camp, you’d be able to understand the formula. With a summer camp slasher, you bring people from all different walks of life and throw them into a setting they could realistically cohabitate. It also lets you have something to do with your low-budget, because you have so many characters you can offer small scenes to that both flesh out their characters and fill out your runtime. Sometimes, it goes well, other times, the workman-like nature of that formula can feel very prevalent.

A supermarket is a fun setting for a slasher film. The characters are goofy and all of it is over-the-top and playful. This is very much meant as a fun type of slasher film.

The actors I mentioned, those being Sam Raimi, Ted Raimi, and Bruce Campbell, are hardly in the film. Sam is a supporting character, Bruce is only in it at the end for what wouldn’t even qualify as a cameo, and Ted’s only in it for a bit. This isn’t a criticism, but, upon release, the film was heavily marketed around them – a misleading marketing tactic that’s, unfortunately, fairly common. Meanwhile, actor Dan Hicks (who also has roots with Evil Dead) is the most fun in the film, specifically because of how hard he hams it up for his character. I’d dare say, even, that he nearly saves the final act by how fun he is.

Intruder is a decent slasher. I’d hesitate to call it a good slasher film, but it’s a decent enough one. It hits a lot of the same beats as many of the other ones did, post-Friday the 13th, but the supermarket setting at least offers it a fresh coat of paint. As much as I would have liked it to have stuck the landing and joined the likes of 1986’s horror film Chopping Mall, as a slasher with a unique setting, it simply doesn’t have the fun factor that that film had. I can’t say anything necessarily gelled or stuff with me, however. I was fine with it, but considering the amount of recommendations I had gotten for the film, I can’t help but leave a little disappointed by it.