It’s a dream of mine to build a house in the mountains and spend all of my time there watching movies and playing video games and sleeping and eating. But I watch a ton of horror movies, so I know very well that when you have an isolated house out in the middle of nowhere, it instantly becomes a psycho magnet. Murderers, thieves, slashers and crazies will be inexplicably drawn to it and will try to gain access to your sanctuary for one reason or another. What is a person to do?
Answer? Traps and a crazy-ass killer dungeon. That’s right. Ensnare your enemies, turn the tables, and show them who’s boss.
INTRUDERS offers a great plan of protection from pesky unwanted undesirables, wrapped in an entertaining thriller. It opens with Anna (Beth Riesgraf) painstakenly caring for her dying brother, Conrad (Timothy McKinney). When he finally passes away, she is left with her home, money, and no one to turn to. Anna and Conrad have lived together in their childhood home for years, with little contact with the outside world, in part because Anna has a crippling case of agoraphobia, and is unable to set foot outside the confines of the home without suffering severe attacks of anxiety. She hasn't left the house since their father died over a decade prior. But it was okay – they had each other, they existed happily. Her only other real companion is Dan (Rory Culkin), the delivery driver from their meal service. Though their interactions are limited to little more than a brief greeting and some light small talk, he is the closest thing she has in the world to a friend.
In the days following Conrad’s death, three men (Martin Starr, Jack Kesy and Joshua Mikel) break into the house, searching the house for a rumored stash of money said to be hidden somewhere inside. Anna, her phobia rendering her unable to escape, darts from room to room in an attempt to evade them. Before long, she lures them into the basement and springs a series of mechanisms that remove the staircase and lock them in. The hunted has become the hunter, and the audience is left to decide just who to side with in this pursuit, and what Anna’s true motives might be.
The film shifts the standard approach of the home invasion genre and places the assumed victim in the position of power against her assailants. Anna, seemingly helpless with little means of defense or escape, doesn’t spend very much time as the prey before she gains the upper hand and flips the situation entirely. It isn’t a question of what the intruders will do to her when they find her. Instead, the story builds tension by asking just what Anna’s motives are and what will become of the burglars, now trapped in her mysterious dungeon. And though the men are never painted in a sympathetic light, you do begin to feel almost sort of sorry for them as Anna begins to spring her traps. There is never a full role reversal, here, but Anna does start to take on shades of a villainous persona as the story progresses, all the while remaining sympathetic to the audience – quite a feat, and one carried well by Riesgraf.
Interesting is the way (Adam Schindler - co-writer of the awesome DELIVERY: THE BEAST WITHIN) chooses to unveil the various aspects of Anna’s home and history. Her trap is intricate and multilayered, and constantly evolving. This goes far beyond merely locking some bad guys in the basement – there are multiple steps here as she separates the group and begins to work on them, one by one. As this process continues, we begin to learn more about Anna’s backstory and how she became the character that we see onscreen.
Though you can see the seams from time to time, INTRUDERS comes together as a fun spin on home invasion, giving the invaders a worthy opponent and giving the victim the opportunity to do some glorious damage to those who dare enter her home. It’s a lot of fun to watch unfold, and I definitely recommend you giving it a watch as. And then start planning your own intruder basement. Mine is definitely going to have spikes in it.
