Intruder (1989)

 Intruder is directed by Scott Spiegel, friend of Sam Raimi, Co-writer of Evil Dead 2, and guy who gets his pizza jacked in Spider-man 2.

I think he actually does a really good job considering the whopping budget of $130,000 bucks he had to work with. I like what he did with some of the camera work, getting some cool aerial shots of the supermarket making it feel really big and ominous.  

    Of course, it helped that he brought along his buddies the Raimi brothers and Bruce Campbell for a little star power (Campbell and Sam Raimi get top billing).  Spoiler alert though, Bruce makes a very short cameo that still had me popping way too hard. Sam Raimi is in it a decent amount (as is his brother) but probably doesn’t deserve top billing either. One more thing about the casting before we get into the ratings. They did manage to cast Renée Estevez who, as you probably guessed by the name, is the sister of the Mighty Duck man himself.

Story/setting

 So the story isn’t particularly interesting. There are pretty much two major plotlines going on. One, is the main character’s ex boyfriend coming to stalk her. He gets loose in the store after it closes and the teens go about their work while worrying about his lurking presence. The second part of the plot has a little Scooby Doo to it. The owner has sold the store and it will be closing for good. None of it is really spooky but the supermarket makes for a really awesome and fresh backdrop for a slasher movie. 

Music 

    There isn't really a special score for this movie. Much of the music feels pretty generic and from what I’ve read it was recycled from other various films, so that makes sense. One thing that keeps this from being an absolute zero is that they hit the ominous music at some pretty funny times. For that alone I’ll give it a knife.

Slasher fodder

    The characters aren’t really that interesting. Most of them aren’t fleshed out at all. None of the acting is good either. There is one kid that talks really funny, and again there is a Bruce Campbell cameo so for those things alone I give the Slasher Fodder half a knife (just the tip.)

Villain

     This movie has a fantastic slasher villain. When he is finally revealed he is funny, creepy, and resorts to some pretty fucked up tactics. Also, it is because of him the ending of this movie is so amazing and I assure you this movie’s ending hits different. There is such a great energy to the movie once he’s really let loose. He doesn't have a mask or an iconic look which is fine but he isn't really that scary, which I guess I will take off points for. 

Kills

    This is the bread and butter of the movie. The kills are excellent. They are gory as shit, which you aren't expecting because the movie does take a bit to ramp up. Greg Nicotero does the special effects and it’s no surprise that he absolutely murders it. Two kills in particular are just top notch, but even the more mundane kills still leave some messed up looking corpses. The kills and the killer are the reason to watch this movie. 

The Double Tap

(The double tap will be some random and closing thoughts on the film)

    
    This movie takes place in MI and has Rami and Bruce Campbell, therefore it is in the Evil Dead universe. I will hear no different.

    I touched on it earlier but I really like the way this movie ends. It isn't a crazy twist or anything like that, just something the killer does that makes you wonder why it hasn't happened before in this genre.

    So this movie scored an 11 ½ which is pretty solid. I definitely recommend giving it a watch. If the characters were more engaging the first half probably would have landed a little better which is what really hurts the film overall. That being said this movie will probably sit right in the middle of Slash Mountain and there is nothing wrong with that.