The Horror Show
Intruders
by Adam Schindler
Not to be mistaken with the 2011 Clive Owen film of the same name, Intruders is a 2015 horror film that takes you on a fun little ride.
Most home invasion flicks are pretty predictable. Somebody terrorizes somebody else, they run around for a while and try to hide instead of, I don’t know, leaving the house? Then someone decides to be the hero and fight back, yadda yadda yadda, wake me up when we’re done here. What sets Intruders apart though is that it’s upfront with viewers about what’s to come.
Straight away when you read the synopsis you know it’s going to be different than the typical cat and mouse horror film because they don’t try to disguise the twist as something genius. The twist is that you know it’s coming, you’re patiently waiting, but exactly what it is… that was the pay off.
From the get-go, Anna the agoraphobic is not your average girl. Sure, she’s sweet, she’s cute, but she’s got issues, the film doesn’t try to hide this from you. After her brother dies, Anna is basically alone in the world. She’s friendly with the family lawyer, but it’s pretty clear that she’s just being polite. There’s a delivery boy that Anna is smitten with, and he seems to be into her as well, and you think “well, this might be good for her.” And yeah, it could have been, until the delivery boy lets his redneck, loser friends in on a little secret: Anna is totally loaded.
What was an innocent confession on the deliver boy’s part turns into breaking and entering. Of course Anna wasn’t supposed to be home, but she’s agoraphobic, she’s always home. The rednecks don’t know this and what they thought would be an easy payday suddenly escalates into “shit, now we’re gonna have to kill somebody.”
I think the fact that Intruders didn’t try to be this groundbreaking film is what made it so successful. There’s a point where Anna attempts to flee her attackers but freezes at the door, literally unable to move because her fear of the outside world outweighs her fear of the dangerous men in her home. It was refreshing to see in a home invasion flick that the victim actually can’t leave the house because she’s a prisoner in her own mind as opposed to the typical victim being unable to leave because they’re a complete moron and the writer forces them to make the worst choices on earth. The other great thing is that not only do we get what we think might be the “victim emerges the victor” trope, but it’s presented to us in what I thought was quite the entertaining way.
The synopsis states “what the intruders don't realize is that agoraphobia is not her only psychosis.” Like I said earlier, the twist is given to us in plain sight. We know something isn’t right with Anna. She clearly suffers from a myriad of mental health issues, but what we don’t know is just what’s in store for the intruders. And even when we get just a taste of the crazy, it’s just that, a taste. As the story unfolds and we’re let in to Anna’s sad, sick world, one step at a time, you don’t know who the hell to feel sorry for anymore.
I’m sure there are those out there that watched this film and feel differently, but I truly felt that this was a fantastic take on the home invasion subgenre. Our leading female (Beth Riesgraf) played the protagonist/antagonist roles well, blurring the lines of victim and villain. My only complaint was that the ending was quite tame. I was expecting to really see Anna’s psychosis turn up to 200% but instead of an intense horror sequence at the end, it was kind of “meh.”
Overall, Intruders impressed me more than I thought it would. I truly enjoyed the story and I think most fans of home invasion horror will be glad they watched.
Stevie Kopas, HMS
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