Intruder



As a supermarket closes for the evening, workers begin cleaning up and stocking the shelves for the next morning. But they’re interrupted from their peaceful, structured monotony when the ex boyfriend of one of the cashiers shows up unexpectedly looking to “talk” to her, and then ends up hitting her instead. The other workers intercede and a fight ensues, before they and the owners manage to subdue him and throw him out. He stares at them menacingly for a while through the front door, and then slowly disappears into the night, leaving everyone in a heightened state. The police are called and the incident is reported, and everyone returns to business as usual. Except unbeknownst to the overnight crew, someone with ill-intentions is now stalking the aisles and back rooms looking to slash and stab anyone who may get in their way.



Well, this movie was a surprise. I’m not gonna lie though, it almost gave me a mild anxiety attack. Not because of anything in the movie though. No. It’s because right before the movie started the Full Moon logo popped up on my screen and I, having just recently finished watching ALL the current films in the Puppet Master series, reacted accordingly with “Gah! No! Not them! It’s too soon! I haven’t recovered yet!” But then I remembered this movie was from 1989, back when the studio was still involved with decent films and well before they started relying on cheap Z-grade schlock to pay their bills, and I calmed down and didn’t turn it off. And I guess that was good, because even though they’re mostly in supporting roles the movie has some good names attached to it like producer/writer Lawrence Bender, who has produced just about every Tarantino movie ever, and things like Good Will Hunting and Hacksaw Ridge, and it has actors Sam and Ted Raimi and Bruce Campbell, who I guess all took this opportunity to turn this into a mini Evil Dead reunion of sorts. So it’s got a smidge of clout, and a decent budget and premise, and you know I.… It.… Okay, there’s no way this movie would ever be considered one of the greatest slashers of all times, but it was better than I expected.



To be clear, I know I listed a few well-known names, but if you plan to watch this know that you shouldn’t get too excited by them, because none of the more familiar faces in the cast are really in it for all that long. They might have about 5-minutes total screen time each. Tops. Maybe. They may oftentimes get top-billing depending on which movie poster or packaging you’re looking at, but they’re barely in the movie. The main character is actually the one cashier played by Liz Kern, who some people may recognize from a couple other 80s horror movies like The Wraith and Night of the Creeps, and not much else. Unless you happen to live in the El Paso area, because I think she’s a new anchor now. Anyway, I just mention this to keep expectations in check, because while the acting caliber on display is decent, it’s also about what one would expect from a low-budget horror movie from the 80s. Nobody sucks, but nobody stands out either. To be fair though, this isn’t really the type of movie where anyone is given much chance to. Because with the exception of our Final Girl, everyone else is just there for your standard slaughter fodder. Most of them are so indistinguishable from one another that I guarantee you’ll forget most of their names about 10 seconds after they’re introduced. An issue that is not helped due to the fact that most of the male cast ends up looking remarkably similar to one another. I think the closest these poor schlubs get to having distinct personalities is that one of them likes beer, one likes music and a third may or may not be gay. So don’t expect any compelling backstories or character development in this one.

They could have at least given them some different shirts to wear. At least then I might be able to identify these dullards by color.

The movie also doesn’t do a very good job of disguising the killer or explaining their motive. I mean, the killer is hidden all the way up until the final act, so they were obviously trying to conceal their identity and make it a mystery, but… Look, I’ll just say that odds are that if you’re at all familiar with slashers you’ll be able to pinpoint who the killer is very early on and you’re not going to be surprised about the reveal. I guess they DO try to throw in a couple of smoke screens here and there, so to speak, but they make those attempts way too obvious to be believable. And then they kinda give the killer a motive, but their explanation only really explains away maybe ONE murder, and then they chalk the rest of the murder spree up to the killer going overboard. Seriously, the killer basically explains it away like, “oops, got a bit carried away, silly me”. Like, uh…. okay? I guess after one gruesome murder they developed a taste for it, but the rest of their death parade really feels like a HUGE overreaction from someone who seemed perfectly fine at the beginning of the film. But whatever movie, you do you.

Jason Vorhees’ motives were more succinct than what we got here. Just saying.

Other than those nitpicks though, this is a really solid slasher. The setting at the grocery store is very refreshing when compared to the innumerable faceless killers that seem to be stalking countless teenagers out in the middle of the woods every summer. There’s a bit of dark and even semi-cheesy humor sprinkled around here and there, but not enough to designate the film as a comedy. It’s actually used fairly lightly, just enough to add a small bit of levity and personality to what might otherwise be an overdone plot.

The deaths are relatively varied and increase the level of violence and gore with each consecutive kill (as all good slashers should), to the point where just about everyone ends up chopped up at the end (cool), so I’m sure the blood-fiends will be happy. They’re not without flaws, as I’m fairly sure at least one of them was impossible because the knife used wasn’t nearly long enough to stab all the way through that one guy AND pin him to a case of stale beer, but it was splashy and looked cool, so I’m willing to forgive it.


♪ Splish splash I was taking a…ew.

And the film even looks surprisingly good. The lighting is well-done, the framing is excellent. It’s clear that many of the scenes were very carefully thought out before being executed. My only issue is that the movie also liked to get a little “arty” sometimes. And by that I mean they were often VERY creative with things like shadows, reflections, angles or shooting at or through things. Not really during the slasher bits, but usually during the downtime. I guess the director of photography got bored or something like that? I don’t know, but it happens a lot. And while I can’t say that that’s necessarily a bad thing, as it does make the movie more visually interesting, I also can’t say I wasn’t a smidge distracted by it, because quite a few of them were so weird that they made me laugh.

Trash Cam: Shot through actual trash.


Phone Cam: Funny to me, likely incomprehensible to anyone born after 1990.

Intruder is really better than it has any right to be. It’s a slightly cheesy, low-budget slasher that on paper sounds like all the other generic 80s slashers out there. But unlike some of those movies, this film knows exactly what type of film it is and is self aware enough to poke a bit of fun at itself (both intentionally and not) without going overboard. The story may be generic, but it looks good, the effects are nice, the characters you do spend time with are entertaining, and the Final Girl ends up being smart enough to immediately arm herself while also being blissfully competent. My favorite part about the movie though is that half of the climax could have only worked the way it did because it happened in the 80s. Why? Because our heroine not once, but twice, thwarts the villain by conking them in the head with a bottle. And why do I say that wouldn’t work today? Because back then 90% of bottles and jars were made of glass and thus made much more of an impact when you whacked somebody with them. You could have easily given someone a concussion by chucking a jar of peanuts at their head back then. Today though that shit would barely faze a toddler, let alone someone willing to stab you. It’d probably just bounce off them and they’d look at you like, “Really, dumbass?” before corkscrewing you through the spleen while explaining how plastics work. So the movie is a real product of its time. But it’s still pretty fun though, so if you’re a fan of slashers give this one a shot. You’ll likely be entertained.

Intruder is available on a variety of streaming services.

Intruder is also available on DVD and Bluray.

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