The Intruder (Movie Review)

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

PLOT: A beautiful young couple buys a home in the country only to find out that the prevoius owner refuses to leave.

REVIEW: When newlyweds Scott (Micheal Ealy) and Annie Russell (Meagan Good) make the transition from the city to the country, it seems as though their dreams to settle down and start a family in the fresh air are finally coming true. The couple has found a beautiful two story home in Napa, covered in moss, complete with a backyard that descends down into a charming little pond at the edge of the trail. In the eyes of two kids who have long survived the hustle and bustle of San Francisco, the serenity that comes with their new property seems ridiculously appealing, to say the least. Ther'es just one problem: the previous owner is having trouble saying goodbye.

The house used to belong to Charlie Peck, an older gentleman played by a very buff Dennis Quaid. Peck claims that once he sells his house, he's going to move down to Florida to be with his daughter, but for some reason, once the deal closes, he keeps showing up at Scott and Annie's door, swinging by unprompted and unannounced. Gradually, his vists become more and more unsettling, as he tends to arrive whenever Annie is alone, a widower showering another man's wife in various gifts. As Peck's happy composure gives way to subtler, more devious behavior, the young couple begins to realize that their new friend may not be the man he claims to be, and he may not be ready to give up the home he once so happily handed over.

There's something very special about late '90s to early 2000s horror that the genre seems to have lost since bidding its campy slasher crazed decade adieu. FIlms like CHERRY FALLS, DISTURBING BEHAVIOR, TEACHING MRS. TINGLE and I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER carried with them an air of similar trashy fun. A straightforward, oftentimes sleazy plot line bolstered by over-the-top yet admittedly effective performances from some of the era's most gorgeous young talent, always with an undercurrent of murdererous intentions. This special little subgenre of film isn't meant to win awards, it isn't necessarily here to relay valuable life lessons, unless they're fairly obvious ones the narrative can hammer home with some dash of melodrama. In a way, they're kind of like after school specials trapped inside of horror movies. In other words, they're extremely entertaining.

Here we have a long forgotten subgenre brought back to life by Deon Taylor. Instead of taking David Loughery's fairly simple and somewhat silly script and shooting it in equally silly fashion, Taylor directs the film with very serious intention, playing the story straight so that the lighter moments land with audiences in the best possible way. Taylor knows what THE INTRUDER is supposed to do, and he does it well. This is a movie that's best viewed in a theater, as its a communal experience, an exercise in tension with big jump scares and a collective effervesence of the exciting prospect of watching two people make every wrong decision in the book. In other words, it's the most fun I've had in a theater in quite some time.

Proving himself a master of his craft, Taylor does an excellent job of converting this rather one note storyline into a suspenseful peeping tom scenario. A surprisingly patient slow-burn, Taylor relies heavily on long panning shots and strategically placed luminescence, highlighting scary things in the dark by way of dancing lights and shadows, thereby pushing forward a classic style of horror filmmaking to the forefront of a more modern day exposition. It's thanks to Taylor's meticulous direction and fully committed performances from his gifted leads that THE INTRUDER is lifted from a pulpy thriller lacking substance to a tightly wound master class in over-the-top scary movie soapy drama. See it in a theater. Bring your friends.