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Intruder was a slasher film, and it is textbook slashing, that takes place in a grocery
store. The plot begins with a love-crazed ex-boyfriend Craig Peterson (David Byrne)
who comes to the supermarket to confront his ex-girlfriend Jennifer Ross (Elizabeth
Cox) in an argument that turns violent and hostile, leading to almost the whole grocery
store night shift engaging in a battle with Craig. Viewers peg Craig as the love-torn,
psychotic ex that completely snaps, punching Jennifer in the face when she calls him
crazy. When confronted by every employee in the supermarket, he flees.
The employees then begin the manhunt for Craig and our plot unfolds. Within the first
ten minutes, we are lunged into a slasher film in every sense of the word. I did not
feel that director Scott Spiegel really brought anything unique or inventive to the
genre other than a memorable performance by actor Dan Hicks as Bill Roberts, the
co-owner of the grocery store. The film has a certain campy cult appeal to it that I can
see standing the test of time, but the real reason I just don’t totally dismiss this film as
another mindless, uninventive, random slasher flick is the phenomenal gore and special
effects that KNB EFX (back when Kurtzman, Nicotero, and Berger were still working
together) accomplished with flawless execution.
The level of gore and bloodshed in Intruder really made watching this film a pleasure
to watch, especially in a supermarket. Also, quite a few cameos that may be worth
noting. Look for a super quick scene with Bruce Campbell as Officer Howard, Ted
Raimi as Produce Joe, Sam Raimi as Randy, Greg Nicotero as the Townie in Car, and
the director himself as the Bread Man. How is that for a line-up of cameos? There are
so many tools in the supermarket that can be used as implements of death and carnage.
This film has decapitations, limb removal, stabbings, eye-punctures, etc... One of my
favourite scenes was death by garbage press, resulting in an unlucky individual getting
pressed into a wafer thin pile of flesh. Unfortunately, the version I am reviewing looks
to NOT be the uncut version of the film, as its running time is five minutes shorter than
the uncut version, which means that I probably would have enjoyed it much more had
extra minutes of gore and carnage been left in it.
Some aspects of the film that I believe give it a cult-like appeal is the soundtrack to
the film, the cheesy script in the film, and the delivery of offbeat lines of dialogue.
The kill scenes in the film are pretty inventive as well. The table saw scene in which
someone’s face is sawed in half was really well done, but leads me to believe that
maybe I did not see every juicy bit of gore that was intended for my viewing pleasure.
The film comes down to one damsel in distress that is running from our psychopathic
slaughterer for a large duration of the film, figuring out a way to escape the perilous
grocery store until the very end when the audience finds out just who or what exactly
is killing off everyone in the building.
As far as slasher films go, it is on par with most of what is out there, probably more so
than many slasher films. Intruder has been hailed as one of the last great slasher films,
but I don’t know if I agree with that statement. I really don’t think many slasher films
are really great and that most of them are just average as far as horror films go. I will
say that since I am viewing a version of the film that has almost five minutes less gore
in it and has been heavily edited and butchered, I really think I would have been really
impressed had I seen the entire cut of the film.
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The quality of the print looked pretty good. Nothing spectacular.
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The quality of sound on the film was very good. No major drops in audio or
sound-effects.
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The extras totally blew. All we have is trailers for the film, Production Notes, and
filmographies. It is bare-bones, folks. There are some other Big Sky trailers for older
movies on here, too. Very disappointing.
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Due to the fact that I am reviewing a “cut version” of the film, one that is almost 5
minutes less and missing more gore (which was the only thing about the movie that I
really enjoyed), I have to give it a low rating. Add into account that the extra features
on the disc were next to nothing, I suggest one finds the uncut version of the film and
hope that there are some more features on it. The film may be one of the better
slasher films of its era, but I will not know that until I see the film in its uncut glory.
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