#Intruder 1989 movie

Reviewed as part of Dim the House LightsвЂs Ten Days of Terror.Intruder was a minor B-budget film.

#Intruder 1989 movie

With IntruderВ he transforms what could have been a conventional kill count picture into a horror movie that is, refreshingly, kinda funny lookinвЂ™. Like best bud Raimi (and RaimiвЂ™s best buds the Coen brothers), Spiegel is a filmmaker with a pleasantly offbeat eye and he is more than happy to apply it to a genre framework in order to morph the mundane into something a bit more madcap.

At times the film feels like a living, breathing cartoon in the Itchy and ScratchyВ tradition which I consider a lofty compliment to SpiegelвЂ™s ghoulish tone. Spiegel also has the foresight to deliver on the gore ensuring that it stands up against even the most straight-faced of stabathons. Like a banana peel discarded into a pool of blood, the comedy goes a long way to heighten the film from a mere stalkвЂ™nвЂ™slash into a screwball bloodbath. ThatвЂ™s a lot of trustworthy names to slap on a DVD cover meaningВ that IntruderВ has just enough star-power to be passed down from one generation of slasher fans to the next.ДЄs far as B-grade slasher movies go, not many are as fun and kinetic as Intruder. And letвЂ™s not forget that the filmвЂ™s producer is none other than Tarantino right-hand-man Lawrence Bender, and even he appears in a small role. Evil Deadalmuns Bruce Campbell, Sam Raimi and Ted Raimi all crop up in addition to RenГ©e Estevez and future writer/director Burr Steers. ThereвЂ™s such glee in their execution, you can feel the enthusiasm of the sick minds behind the camera enjoying every second of wiping out their cast in the wackiest way imaginable.ДЄnd how about that cast? IntruderвЂ™s body count is filled out by an impressive mix of faces ranging from genre faves to future Hollywood heavyweights. Blood is spilled by the gallon and, thankfully, anyone who dies rarely does so in one piece.В The effectsвЂ“which should only be experienced in the 88 minute uncut versionвЂ“hit that sweet spot between being rubbery, splashy and cheap as hell, but completely practical and satisfying. Spiegel doesnвЂ™t waste any of the sadistic opportunities offered up by the supermarket setting and everything from a hydraulic press to a buzz-saw is utilized for maximum carnage. IвЂ™m honestly surprised he wasnвЂ™t headhunted to direct episodes of Breaking Bad, a show that prided itself on sticking cameras in seemingly impossible corners and crevices.Д®laborate carnage is the bread and butter of any half-decent slasher movie and IntruderвЂ™s inspired murder sequences, courtesy of now-legendary FX house KNB, are a big part of the filmвЂ™s lasting appeal.

Spiegel shoots through trolley bars, bins, phone dials and glass bottles ensuring the visual style is always punctuated with some unique perspectives. If you thought youвЂ™d seen every POV shot imaginable, IntruderВ is the film to make you reconsider. Fans of RaimiвЂ™s skewed eye and rollercoaster camerawork will also get a kick out of SpiegelвЂ™s approach. In Intruder, one worker spends the first half of the film chopping melons in half, so naturally he gets a knife plunged into the middle of his cranium but not before noticing a nearby safety poster declaring вЂњKnives are sharp. Like Raimi, Spiegel has a penchant for combining slapstick with splatter (splat-stick?) and every drop of blood comes with a gag. Spiegel got his start making Super 8 horror movies in backyards with friends Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell and itвЂ™s easy to see why the group gravitated towards each other. IntruderВ is neither scary or unnerving but it is entertaining and inventive. After closing, the night crew are restocking the shelves and itвЂ™s business as usual, that is until (you guessed it) a mysterious intruder appears and starts dispatching the workers one by one with increasingly bloody results. 1989вЂ™s IntruderВ is a zany splat-fest unfolding over one night in a supermarket. Scott Spiegel is best known as the co-writer of Evil Dead IIВ and for his cameos in various other Sam Raimi movies, but as a filmmaker in his own right he is responsible for one of the more interesting entries in the 80s slasher boom.