There are several reasons why I started up this site; finding a way to justify to my girlfriend my need to watch so many weird and random films, helping smaller independent filmmakers get even just a little bit more publicity for their films they work so hard on, even getting the occasional screener or two for films I would otherwise never get to see was a goal as well. But the main reason was simply trying to find new films to love that I wouldn’t have normally taken a chance on, and then hopefully convincing even one more person to watch that movie. Sure the discovery is fun, but it is sharing it with others that is what is truly worthwhile. This past weekend I found a film that firmly fit into this last category, and it is my extreme pleasure to present it to those of you who read this site.
Now as I mentioned in my previous review of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, I had a bit of a hectic week. And since I typically have to work at the theater on holidays, it ended up spilling into this weekend as well. When this happens Anna typically heads north to her family’s, content in knowing that I’ll be busy working and maybe watching the occasional terrible movie that she has no interest in seeing. This weekend was no different, and I had planned to watch a German horror film, but due to my not paying proper attention to our Netflix queue, a little known horror film called Intruder was shipped to us instead.
Since I had previously reviewed a Bruce Campbell film, I really wasn’t in any rush to review yet another (though for those who are wondering Bruce has a good 45 seconds of screen time, all in the final scene) because I am trying to be diverse with the films I review, and I didn’t want to double up on any one actor or director during the course of the year. The film was merely going to be a nice diversionary film, one to watch once I had schlepped home at one in the morning, hopefully just entertaining enough to keep me awake, yet boring enough that I could quickly fall asleep once it was over.
You see I had two other movies to review this week, one of which is my favorite guilty pleasure, while the other was one I have been hoping to watch for sometime and thanks to a generous friend, was able to borrow a difficult to find screener for my own private show. But Intruder forced me to change those plans, as it did far more then kept me conscious for a few hours, it was a cinematic awakening so powerful and extreme that I knew then and there that this was the movie I needed to write about.
The night shift at a local supermarket has just started work when mysterious stranger appears attempting to reconnect with his ex-girlfriend (Elizabeth Cox). But when he begins to become physical with her the other store workers forcibly remove him from the store, further enraging the intruder. Sure enough, the workers begin to die off one by one, as the remaining survivors struggle to survive the night with their lives.
The Slasher film is one of the most banal and boring of films, which is something I think we can all agree on. What started out as a unique and cutting edge style of horror film in the 70′s, quickly morphed into a sub-genre that was easily mocked and ridiculed for its wafer thin plots, ridiculous morals, and a host of other annoying problems that became routine in almost every film. As the Slasher film became more and more of a joke it eventually turned on itself when Wes Craven (who oddly enough enjoyed great success with his surrealist take on the Slasher film A Nightmare on Elm Street ) outright mocked the trite conventions of these films with Scream.
Unfortunately, rather then Scream creating a legion of imitators who created smart and interesting Slasher films that would actually entertain as well as scare audience, horror films tended to embrace the Know-It-All mockery of the film, creating a legion of derivative take-offs that became exponentially dumber with each new film. But unbeknownst to many, an earlier riff on the classic Slasher film existed several years before Scream became a cultural phenomenon, that film was Intruder.
Written and directed by Evil Dead II scribe Scott Spiegel, Intruder is a Slasher film that doesn’t merely play on genre conventions, it cranks them to eleven and then cranks eleven to eleven. Far more Black Christmas then Scream, Intruder relys on a bevy of alternately sophisticated and absurd camera tricks that even when seen can scarcely be believed. Using multiple POV shots (Up to and including from the bottom of a broom, inside a shopping cart, from a fluorescent light fixture, and most memorably from inside a rotary telephone.) Intruder defies the viewer to figure out just where the next shot will be from, openly mocking the rote and derivative stalking style POV shots so commonly found in its contemporaries. Not so much a Dadaist prank as an exercise in exponential oneupmanship, the camera work alone is enough to keep the viewer entranced at all the cinematographic flair on display.
But Intruder has even more then that in store for the audience. While the first act is heavy on camera tricks and light on plot, Intruder also manages to beautifully set up the rest of the film by exploring all the nooks and crannies of its supermarket setting. Offering numerous shots and angles that delicately foreshadow the potential grisly fates that awaits our intrepid staffers, Intruder, like any great horror film, tees up the audience and rears back as it eagerly awaits to unleash itself. And unleash it does.
The first killings are truly a sight to behold, though not because of their graphic nature, but rather because once again Intruder manages to stay a step ahead of its horror savvy audience. Just before each killing is about to occur, Spiegel quickly cuts to a different scene, allowing the audience to envision on their own just what horrific fate awaited the victims. Adding to this, is the scenes Spiegel cuts two, as an initial stabbing suddenly morphs into Ted Raimi preparing a watermelon with a meat cleaver. Or a savage beating is transformed into a sack of potatoes falling upon the floor. Both moments allow the audience to consider that maybe the on screen violence will be surprisingly minimal, as it appears as if Intruder is far more content at providing a few visual gags in place of buckets of blood. But soon enough Intruder once again lurches the audience in yet another direction.
Sure enough the blood does begin to flow, and in ways that one can scarcely imagine possible even in a big budget horror film, let alone a $100,000 micro Indie. You will witness a man being crushed by a bailer, another having his head bisected by a ban saw, and still another beaten to death with a severed head. The killings are so shockingly horrific and ridiculous as to be classified as nothing short of inspired.
But the insanity doesn’t end there. Soon enough you will witness a killer using a decapitated head as if it were a puppet, a fantastic chase sequence down the checkout aisles in which the killer leapfrogs from one checkout to the next, to a slow motion flight response that is clearly filmed in real time and where the heroine is simply running in slow motion. You simply have to see this movie!
And just when it seems as if Intruder has run out of genre defying twists, and is seemingly stumbling down the homestretch, it manages to pull one more trick out of its sleeve, and the one that might be the best of the bunch. I hesitate to tell you any more, but for those of you who have always wondered what happened to the survivors of a horrific killing spree as they have finally escaped into the arms of the slow to arrive police, Intruder offers up a fitting and seemingly perfect conclusion to the carnage that you’ve just witnessed.
Oh sure you may see better made movies, and certainly films with higher budgets and better marketing hooks then watching Ted and Sam Raimi get butchered on camera, but you’ll be hard pressed to find a horror film that is as visually stunning as Intruder, or with as much heart and passion behind it. This is a film made for horror junkies by horror junkies and it is truly a marvel to witness. It isn’t simply a Slasher movie, it just may be the best Slasher movie ever made. Suck on that meat hook Scream.
