Film Review: Intruder (1989)

SYNOPSIS:

The night crew of a local grocery store goes about their jobs just like normal. Never mind the cashier’s weird ex boyfriend who seems to want to fight everyone; you see the employees are turning up dead. Well pieces of them anyway, scattered throughout the entire store.

REVIEW:

Directed by: Scott Spiegel
Starring: Elizabeth Cox, Dan Hicks, David Byrnes, Renee Estevez

“I swear to God. If my brother hadn’t hit him in the head repeatedly with a blender, he would’ve killed me!”

Before I even begin to tell you about this great little gem from the late 80’s there is something that you ought to know. According to the cover of this little nugget it stars genre favorites Sam Raimi and Bruce Campell; I hate to bust your bubble of a dream though. The two icons are bit parts in the film, Campells appearance is only a couple minutes long at most. Don’t worry though cause surely if you noticed the names Sam Raimi and Bruce Campell you also noticed the name Scott Spiegel right? Oh and the FX work is done by KNB. That being said you know you are in for a fun ride, and what a ride it is.

The movie takes place in a supermarket; it’s the night shifts time to head into work. Everyone seems to going about their business and we are treated to all kinds of fun camera tricks include a “cart cam” for all of those who ever wondered what it would be like to see the world through the eyes of a grocery cart, this is your flick. These camera tricks play out through the entire movie and even include a “phone cam”.

It doesn’t take long before cashier Jennifer’s mullet sporting ex boyfriend Craig shows up. He immediately starts to harass Jennifer which results in a pretty amusing fight sequence that ends with one of the Raimis being pushed into a diet Pepsi display, I told you this movie was gonna be fun.

Craig gets away from everyone and then is found again and locked outside of the store. It is during all of this that Jennifer shares with coworker Linda the story about her two month long relationship with Craig. A relationship that ended a year ago because Craig had to leave; where did Craig go? Craig has spent most of the last year in jail for an “accidental murder”.

Craig lurks around the windows for a few jump scenes here and there but when Linda gets off work is when the fun really starts. We see a dark figure brandishing a large kitchen knife stab at her, as the knife comes down we are treated to a cut away shot of Ted Raimi cutting a watermelon. Don’t fret though this is one of the only implied deaths in the film.

It’s a pretty fast pace from here with all of your typical slasher movie type fodder for the killer. You have your hunky stock boy, the stoner, the greedy owner and the geek. All of course are taken out and some of the deaths are pretty damn brutal. There is an eye impalement scene, so many stabbing and cutting scenes that I couldn’t begin to even count, a death involving a bone saw, and impalement on a meat hook through the eye socket.

Have I mentioned yet that the killer likes to cut off parts of the bodies and hide them throughout the store? There are various gags around this some are gross (an eyeball being stepped on) and some are pretty amusing (a severed head as a weapon). KNB does a good job with pouring on the red stuff here. Unlike most slashers from this era though, there is no nudity, so perverts will have to set their sights elsewhere.

I think the marketing campaign of the this film was obviously to push the names Bruce Campell, Sam Raimi and Scott Spiegal knowing that the fans of the Evil Dead series would immediately rush to pull this one off the shelves. I am sure that the gimmick worked too, but I for one was still pleasantly surprised by the film, even though I could see the twist near the end coming I still enjoyed myself. So take a trip back to the tail end of the slasher craze of the 80’s and enjoy one of its greatest entries.

Intruder is now availabe on bluray from Synapse Films

 

Features

• All-New 2K Digital Restoration of the Original Uncensored Director’s Cut
• Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Scott Spiegel and Producer Lawrence Bender
• SLASHED PRICES: THE MAKING OF INTRUDER – Featurette/Retrospective
• Never-Before-Seen Extended “Murder” Sequences from the Original Workprint
• Outtakes from the Now-Lost Short Film, NIGHT CREW
• Original Cast Audition Footage
• Behind-the-Scenes Still Gallery
• Original Theatrical Trailer

Intruder (1989)