Just to warn you all up front, there are spoilers in this review.
Plot Summary:
Anna suffers from severe agoraphobia (the fear of the outdoors) and hasn't left her childhood home in 10 years, since the death of her father. She takes care of her brother Conrad as he suffers through pancreatic cancer and gets her food delivered to her by a food delivery guy named Dan. Eventually though, Conrad dies, but before his death he tells Anna that she needs to forgive their father. What he should be forgiven fr isn't mentioned at that moment, we just get Anna's stern "no". After Conrad's death, Dan arrives with a food delivery but Anna, emotional and lonely, breaks down. After Dan expresses how he too feels trapped in his current situation, Anna offers him a bag full of money to help him, but he declines.
On the day of Conrad's funeral, Anna finds herself home alone, too scared to leave. That is, until 3 men break into her home in search of some money. The intruders (haha) soon realize that Anna cannot go outside, but also won't reveal the location of the money and they decide that she can't be allowed to live. Meanwhile, Dan shows up looking for Anna since she wasn't at Conrad's funeral. The thieves restrain Dan and go looking for the money. Anna (who has been either running from the thieves or hiding) is able to corner f of them and kill him. She dumps his body in the basement. This is where the movie takes a wild turn because after she dumps the body in the basement, she lures the other 2 intruders down there and then with the push of a button the stairs to the basement retract (!) and that leaves the thieves stranded down there.
Shortly after, she learns that Dan is friends with one of the thieves, and confided in him about the money but didn't know of their plan. Anna doesn't really buy this and pushes him into the basement as well.
Using a surveillance system, Anna lures one of the 2 living intruders into another room in the basement and locks him in. This room happens to be identical to Anna's childhood bedroom upstairs.
Outside of the room, living thief #2 attempts to escape, but Anna kills him by bludgeoning him in the head. Dan, snooping around, finds a body in a large freezer which prompts him to try to escape so Anna locks him in the spare room with thief #1.
Through an intercom system, Anna talks to Dan and the last surviving intruder. and they soon pry out the truth: that Conrad was a serial killer and Anna would watch the murders - but they didn't have any remorse because the people they would kill were child molesters, as was their father. Anna promises to free Dan if he kills the intruder and with saying that she reveals a gun. Dan refuses.
The intruder then picks up the gun and threatens Dan which prompts Anna to unlock the door. The thief and Dan escape. Suddenly, the thief returns and starts pouring gasoline over the house. Anna and he fight and she eventually kills him.
When its all over, Anna musters up the courage to go outside. She lights a match, and sets the house ablaze.
My thoughts:
So even though this movie got mediocre reviews and ratings, I actually kinda liked it. It wasn't a grand piece of film, or award winning, but it was a decent horror movie. Okay. On to my thoughts.
Even though the movie poster obviously hints at something sinister beneath the house, when she pushes the button and retracts the stairs, that was an immediate "Wait, what?" moment. It went from thriller, to murder basement in .01 seconds.
I love horror stories/movies that take place in a small amount of time, a couple of days or hours, and also like ones that are contained in a single space. It makes it feel more claustrophobic, and the danger more imminent. This movie had a lot of tight hallways, closets, and enclosed spaces. It feels tense, and I found myself holding my breath as if I too were hiding from intruders.
There isn't a lot of gore. One slightly graphic scene with a bird (I know. Sorry) and aside from a little blood during the fighting scenes and some broken bones, there isn't any gore. It was also pretty low on the jump scare scale.
The characters are....meh. The intruders are pretty one dimensional. Anna is sort of sympathetic. As a viewer you "get" why she's got this phobia, and you almost forgive her and her brother for what they did. Sure they killed people, but the people they killed were bad. It's not an original premise, but one that people love.
I liked Dan. He was such a "good guy". He never once seemed mad at Anna (even though she broke his fingers, and his leg, and left him in a murder basement), but at the same time when given the chance to escape he did, which seemed real to me, all other things aside. When she's standing next to her burning house you can hear sirens in the background. We are left to assume that Dan called the authorities.
Admittedly, I kinda wish he hadn't. I wish he would have shown up next to Anna outside with the bag of money and said something cheesy like "let's get out of here" and they rode off into the sunset together. But. I didn't write it.
Don't search for a deeper meaning in this film. But if you want just a "fun" horror movie that won't give you nightmares or makes you think too hard (review for "Mother!" later this week speaking of thinking too hard) then Intruders is a good one.
Plot Summary:
Anna suffers from severe agoraphobia (the fear of the outdoors) and hasn't left her childhood home in 10 years, since the death of her father. She takes care of her brother Conrad as he suffers through pancreatic cancer and gets her food delivered to her by a food delivery guy named Dan. Eventually though, Conrad dies, but before his death he tells Anna that she needs to forgive their father. What he should be forgiven fr isn't mentioned at that moment, we just get Anna's stern "no". After Conrad's death, Dan arrives with a food delivery but Anna, emotional and lonely, breaks down. After Dan expresses how he too feels trapped in his current situation, Anna offers him a bag full of money to help him, but he declines.
On the day of Conrad's funeral, Anna finds herself home alone, too scared to leave. That is, until 3 men break into her home in search of some money. The intruders (haha) soon realize that Anna cannot go outside, but also won't reveal the location of the money and they decide that she can't be allowed to live. Meanwhile, Dan shows up looking for Anna since she wasn't at Conrad's funeral. The thieves restrain Dan and go looking for the money. Anna (who has been either running from the thieves or hiding) is able to corner f of them and kill him. She dumps his body in the basement. This is where the movie takes a wild turn because after she dumps the body in the basement, she lures the other 2 intruders down there and then with the push of a button the stairs to the basement retract (!) and that leaves the thieves stranded down there.
Shortly after, she learns that Dan is friends with one of the thieves, and confided in him about the money but didn't know of their plan. Anna doesn't really buy this and pushes him into the basement as well.
Using a surveillance system, Anna lures one of the 2 living intruders into another room in the basement and locks him in. This room happens to be identical to Anna's childhood bedroom upstairs.
Outside of the room, living thief #2 attempts to escape, but Anna kills him by bludgeoning him in the head. Dan, snooping around, finds a body in a large freezer which prompts him to try to escape so Anna locks him in the spare room with thief #1.
Through an intercom system, Anna talks to Dan and the last surviving intruder. and they soon pry out the truth: that Conrad was a serial killer and Anna would watch the murders - but they didn't have any remorse because the people they would kill were child molesters, as was their father. Anna promises to free Dan if he kills the intruder and with saying that she reveals a gun. Dan refuses.
The intruder then picks up the gun and threatens Dan which prompts Anna to unlock the door. The thief and Dan escape. Suddenly, the thief returns and starts pouring gasoline over the house. Anna and he fight and she eventually kills him.
When its all over, Anna musters up the courage to go outside. She lights a match, and sets the house ablaze.
My thoughts:
So even though this movie got mediocre reviews and ratings, I actually kinda liked it. It wasn't a grand piece of film, or award winning, but it was a decent horror movie. Okay. On to my thoughts.
Even though the movie poster obviously hints at something sinister beneath the house, when she pushes the button and retracts the stairs, that was an immediate "Wait, what?" moment. It went from thriller, to murder basement in .01 seconds.
I love horror stories/movies that take place in a small amount of time, a couple of days or hours, and also like ones that are contained in a single space. It makes it feel more claustrophobic, and the danger more imminent. This movie had a lot of tight hallways, closets, and enclosed spaces. It feels tense, and I found myself holding my breath as if I too were hiding from intruders.
There isn't a lot of gore. One slightly graphic scene with a bird (I know. Sorry) and aside from a little blood during the fighting scenes and some broken bones, there isn't any gore. It was also pretty low on the jump scare scale.
The characters are....meh. The intruders are pretty one dimensional. Anna is sort of sympathetic. As a viewer you "get" why she's got this phobia, and you almost forgive her and her brother for what they did. Sure they killed people, but the people they killed were bad. It's not an original premise, but one that people love.
I liked Dan. He was such a "good guy". He never once seemed mad at Anna (even though she broke his fingers, and his leg, and left him in a murder basement), but at the same time when given the chance to escape he did, which seemed real to me, all other things aside. When she's standing next to her burning house you can hear sirens in the background. We are left to assume that Dan called the authorities.
Admittedly, I kinda wish he hadn't. I wish he would have shown up next to Anna outside with the bag of money and said something cheesy like "let's get out of here" and they rode off into the sunset together. But. I didn't write it.
Don't search for a deeper meaning in this film. But if you want just a "fun" horror movie that won't give you nightmares or makes you think too hard (review for "Mother!" later this week speaking of thinking too hard) then Intruders is a good one.
Comments
Post a Comment