During a low-key evening at the local supermarket, cashier Jennifer Ross is preparing to close her till, only to be suddenly approached by her ex-boyfriend Craig Peterson. The man has been recently released from prison, having served time for a rather serious crime, and as the two begin to argue, the night crew appear and break up a potential scuffle between the former lovers. Calls to the police are made, and as Craig seemingly disappears into the night, the group prepares for their standard procedure of closing down and restocking the store. As shifts end, however, someone appears to be watching from the sides, with vengeance and bloodshed seemingly on their mind.
By the late 1980s, the quality of motion pictures categorized as "Slashers" had, to put it lightly, taken a bit of a nosedive. Sure, established moneymakers like A Nightmare On Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and Halloween were still going strong (and would do so going into the next decade), but originality and creativity had taken a backseat so that cheap thrills could take top priority. By the end of the decade, director Scott Spiegel (more well known for co-writing horror/comedy classic Evil Dead II) had concocted a screenplay for a gory little flick set inside of a supermarket, which was admittedly, a claustrophobic scenario that didn't appear too often. After their first choice for a director didn't pan out, he sat down in the chair himself, so that he would head the somewhat obscure Intruder, though lord knows the final product's life past its initial release date didn't come without some issues.
My first glimpse of Intruder came from observing the cover for its 2011 release on Blu-Ray. Apparently, I'm extremely lucky to have seen only this, since along with the poster I inserted above the synopsis, it's the most appropriate image one should have released to the public, as every other banner and trailer is rife with the revelation of the mysterious killer's identity. I have always been baffled by choices such as these. It's the equivalent of making a poster for King Kong, but having the words "HE'S SHOT AND FALLS FROM THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING" pasted above the title. Also confusing is the choice to list Bruce Campbell, Ted Raimi, and Sam Raimi (all of Evil Dead II fame themselves) as the main characters on nearly every single print prior to the Blu-Ray's street date. My apologies to those who wanted there to be as little spoilers as possible for this year's blog, but for the sake of saving some money for the diehards who may have only waning interested because of "Ash" being in anything else, the former's role is nothing more than a glorified cameo towards the end, and the brothers Raimi serve as nothing but minor support for the time that they are present.
As for the quality of Intruder? Well, it's decent enough for something that was once a part of the often-maligned "dead teenagers" genre (props to the late Roger Ebert for that one), but don't expect too much to blow you away. Elizabeth Cox makes for a fairly okay heroine, though outside of having a boyfriend who was rather insane, we don't get to know a great deal about her. The rest of the cast is filled with red herrings, burnouts, old timers, and even another female performer (Renee Estevez of Heathers fame). None of them are worth writing about for too long, but they aren't particularly bad given the simplicity of the script. Perhaps the one shining spot are some of the actual killings perpetrated by our unseen assailant. Actually, I should retract that. They WOULD have been a highlight if I had realized that I was watching the theatrical cut beforehand, which is so dumbed down that you could honestly classify it as a PG-13 horror movie. On subsequent home video releases, the murders are reportedly restored to what the filmmakers initially wished had seen the light of day, but unless you're willing to shell out some extra money from your paycheck for the "Unrated" iteration of Intruder, you will have to settle for watching these deleted slayings on sites such as Youtube. It's a damn shame too, especially when you see that Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead), Robert Kurtzman (From Dusk Til Dawn), and Howard Berger (Army Of Darkness) all had a hand in the makeup department, and censoring or editing sequences featuring their work just feels like a rotten thing to do.
Intruder is certainly worth a watch, but going into this with as little information as possible should be the only way to approach it. Paramount's own marketing may have done the film in for some, and the missing five minutes of gore hurt it far more than it should have. Still, it's competently acted and acceptably fun for when you have an evening alone to yourself, or some extra cash to spare for an expensive blind buy. For the time being, you can rent the theatrical cut on Amazon Prime for about $2.99, view it on noted streaming service Hulu, or track down and purchase the unrated version from Synapse Films.
Tomorrow, the 1980s have come to close, but a rising star/author named Clive Barker isn't quite done with scaring the hell out of moviegoers...
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