Hey guys! Horrorella here...
I had the opportunity to chat some of the team behind INTRUDERS, a thriller that bends the rules of home invasion and delivers an entertaining game of cat and mouse that devours the normal rules and lays down some of its own. Director Adam Schindler, producer Brian Netto and star Beth Riesgraf were kind enough to talk a little bit about this film, now out in theaters and on VOD.
The film sees an agorophobic young woman under attack in her home when a group of men break in, intending to rob her. They wind up getting way more than they bargained for when she turns the tables through a series of traps built into the house and traps them in a basement dungeon.
Beth, your character has a complicated backstory and state of mind - anxiety, phobias, etc. How did you prepare for the role, and was it difficult to be inside this character's head?
BETH: It was a very challenging headspace to live in. I did as much research as I could, spoke to professionals, watched interviews, and then had to sort of let all of it go and experienced life as Anna. Once we came together as a cast and started to work, the honesty and energy everyone brought to their performance made things come alive and it all clicked.
Adam and Brian, you previously worked together on the (awesome) found footage film DELIVERY: THE BEAST WITHIN. What brought you to this project?
ADAM: INTRUDERS (FKA Shut In) was a script we had originally read a number of years prior to making it. Our manager, Marc Manus, also reps the writers T.J. Cimfel and David White. Brian and I had done the rounds after DELIVERY came out, meeting producers, other writers, filmmakers, etc. and had forged some great new relationships. Flash-forward a few years and Brian and I were in a unique position of having producers wanting to find a project with which to work with us. They had the money and we just needed to find that perfect script. We like films that challenge the audience. Films that are not easily put in a box. We were scouring the heavens and earth looking for it and Marc mentioned Intruders was coming off option and was now available. It fit everything we were looking for, so of course we all jumped at the chance to make it.
BRIAN: It wasn't our intention to take on something we didn't write. We like building projects from the ground up, but this script was really clever. It was familiar in the best possible way: it led you down a particular path, a path fans of the home invasion sub genre might be familiar with and just when you think you've got it figured out, you don't. The script was constantly challenging your expectations, your allegiances and your sympathies and we immediately responded to that.
Would you ever consider developing a found footage film again? Do you prefer that style, or a more traditional narrative structure?
ADAM: I’d never say never, but DELIVERY was birthed with the format intact. It was intricate to the way that film was put together. And it was the only way that we could see a pregnancy-horror film having any interest to us. It was also born out of necessity. Making a film on a budget, with your own money, so it made sense. Moving forward, we want to stay with the more traditional narrative structure. Finding ways to flip genre constraints on their heads. Unique ways to get into a familiar subject matter. But doing it through a traditional narrative structure. That’s what interests us now.
This is a film where the location is certainly as important to the impact as the characters themselves. What influenced the design of the house?
ADAM: The house was a location we found about a half an hour outside of Shreveport, Louisiana. Our wonderful location scouts in Shreveport just stumbled across the house one day and knocked on the door. Since we were shooting the film in one location, it was important that the house be memorable. Interesting to look at for two hours. It had to feel lived in. A multi-generational dwelling. And this location had everything we wanted and needed. The drab wallpaper, would grain, dust… it was all there. The house just oozed history. Our production designer Wiley then came in and just did a phenomenal job of taking that history and making it Anna’s history. If people get around to a second viewing of Intruders, I think they’ll be pleasantly surprised by all the subtle touches to the production design that Wiley and his team added. What also made it special was the geography of how it was set up. It fit the script to a T. We had to do very little in the way of revising the script for location, just some consolidation really. It really is amazing how perfectly the house fit the script. I call it divine intervention.
Did the location present any specific shooting challenges?
ADAM: The only thing that comes to mind, were the cicadas. They were deafening. I’ve never heard anything like it. It was like a freight train of sound as soon as the sun went down. It drove our sound guys bonkers, but they were complete professionals and did a masterful job of tuning them out. I’m still amazed at what they were able to do.
BRIAN: The home was over one hundred and some odd years old. It had no air condition. And we shot this in Shreveport, Louisiana. In the middle of August. All that said, no stage could have ever replicated the just how “lived in” that place felt and it definitely showed in the photography. Plus it was haunted, so… there’s also that.
Were there any particular films that you drew upon for inspiration? Especially given the single, confined location?
ADAM: In prep for Intruders, I spent a ton of time watching and re-watching classics of the home invasion genre: STRAW DOGS, WAIT UNTIL DARK, DESPERATE HOURS, PANIC ROOM. There’s a little bit of everyone of these films in Intruders. Just figuring out how the masters were able to make one location interesting. I also drew inspiration from THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, which I think is one of, if not my favorite film. The sense of dread that permeates that film. Once we got into the story, we wanted that sense of dread palpable in Intruders. Also, our DP Eric Leach and I spent a lot of time watching Fincher’s THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. There’s specific sequences of drawn out tension in that film that we felt fit Intruders perfectly.
Anna is an interesting character given her development over the course of the film. She is our hero, but we eventually learn that she is a flawed hero. And when the men enter her home and she is threatened, she must take on a very assertive role, becoming predatory in her own right. Was it difficult to make her that harsh, while still making her sympathetic and relatable?
BETH: It was challenging, mostly because we shot the film out of sequence and only had a short time to get it done (15 days). I didn't want Anna to be perceived as a victim, but rather a survivor and we also wanted the audience to see her as someone they would root for.
The history of Anna's family and home is gradually revealed over the course of the film; what went in to deciding how the backstory would be revealed?
BRIAN: TJ and David crafted a very rich, very twisted history for Anna. Fortunately, the way the story plays out, as we're learning more about this house and it's purpose, we're also learning more about Anna so there were times when we could rely on visual exposition instead always having to rely on dialogue. Taking a page out of Nolan's book, we captured as much backstory on the set as we could, knowing that the editing process would allow us to nip and tuck away anything we felt was too overt or too much too fast. It's important to give the audience just enough information throughout to keep them asking questions. If the audience is too far ahead or too far behind, that can be death.
DELIVERY dealt with a supernatural evil and this one focuses on the dangers of people and the real world - do you have a personal preference when working within these two sub-genres of horror?
ADAM: No, not really. I feel like we can find horror in any situation. Hahaha.
BRIAN: No preference. Real world horror tends to unnerve me more than supernatural horror, which is why DELIVERY was so understated. But I love that we've had a chance to work in two distinct sub genres, because each requires you to flex different muscles.
The film represents a new twist on home invasion in that the main character goes from being a victim to being a predator rather quickly. The story quickly revolves more around what she is going to do rather than what the intruders will do. Was that an intentional bending of the subgenre? How do you feel the story is impacted by this addition?
ADAM: Yes, very much intentional. It’s actually what really attracted us to the script. The subversion of expectations. Brian and I talk about this all the time, but we both love films that do very unexpected things. That uncomfortable feeling of the familiar, yet unfamiliar is really exciting to us.
What are you working on next?
ADAM: Brian and I are writing a sci-fi script right now we hope will be the next project. Of course, it will challenge genre expectations and hopefully add something unique to the space.
BRIAN: There's also a book we're in the process of optioning and a TV series that we've just started to develop with a really great team. Both are firmly entrenched within the genre world and are different than anything we've done before, so we'll see where each of those ends up. And as always, we're reading a ton!
BETH: I just completed a film in Italy called, "In Search of Fellini" and that should be coming out this spring.
And the most important question: If you could make any alteration to your home to make it more defensible against burglars, psychos, or killers - what would it be?!
ADAM: ADT, baby! ADT!
BRIAN: Dogs. With bees in their mouths. And when they bark they shoot bees at you. Kidding… that’s a SIMPSONS reference, of course. I would probably just have Beth stand guard outside my house.
