Intruder (1989) review

INTRUDER 1989

Elizabeth Cox (Jennifer Ross), Danny Hicks (Bill Roberts), Renee Estevez (Linda), David Byrnes (Craig), Sam Raimi (Randy)

Directed by Scott Spiegel

"Don't you see? I'm just crazy about this store!!"

The Short Version: Many rabid slasher fans love it, but this mostly average, wafer thin plotted, late blooming slice and dicer has expensive gore offered at a drastically reduced price. Horror's Heroes at KNB let the blood flow in what is easily the most eye-opening, head crushing aspect of this picture outside of some inventive and impressive camera work. If you enjoyed THE EVIL DEAD (1981), this bargain bin budgeted slasherama has some of that films ingenuity as well as roles taken up by Sam and Ted Raimi and even an all too brief appearance by Bruce Campbell. Saddled with a reputation bigger than the film itself, the sheer love that has went into this recent DVD package is reason enough to shop at the Synapse store--just make sure it isn't after hours.


With news of its impending sale and layoffs, the third shift crew at the Walnut Creek grocery store receive an uninvited guest after hours. Stocking turns to stalking as the employees and managerial staff are gruesomely killed off one by one by an unseen maniac who has somehow gotten inside the locked establishment.


The writer of the classic 80s necronomical classic EVIL DEAD 2 (1987) and the exploitation throwback THOU SHALT NOT KILL...EXCEPT (aka STRYKER'S WAR [1985]) took the reigns of this blood-gushing, modestly budgeted cult item. It's a late bloomer in the slasher cycle and one of the best of an asylum packed number of similar pictures during the dying days of the 1980s. These decade closer slashers were mostly lifeless, forgettable, or minor footnotes in the cycle, but INTRUDER benefits from primo photography by Fernando Arguelles and one or two other points of interest that separates it from the splat pack making up these mostly malignant maniac movies.

I didn't listen to the commentary tracks yet to see if this was an homage, but this scene reminded me a great deal of Fulci's CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD (1980).

Unlike the uniquely fresh Italian 'Slice & Dicer' STAGEFRIGHT (1987), INTRUDER brings nothing new to the table aside from an original setting and a killer who "slashes prices" in a variety of spectacularly visceral ways. That's not to say Spiegel's love letter to a by then worn out concept isn't without merits of its own. While it took an Italian to (briefly) make the slasher fresh again (the slasher itself being the bastard child of the Italian Giallo), Spiegel's movie definitely comes alive in its cinematography (indicative of the Raimi style of the hyperactive camera) and a few of its performances most notably that of its killer. The motive and reasoning for the massacre to follow is pretty ridiculous and a bit hard to swallow, but the splashy effects from the rising grue crew KNB are ambitiously accomplished on what was a beyond meager budget.

I got out my copy of GZ#6 and noticed that the actual bandsaw death scene in the film differs from what's on the cover.

The film became the talk of horror film circles back in the day when photos of its carnage were judiciously splattered both inside and onto the cover of Fangoria's sister mag, Gorezone magazine. While the film lost nearly all its money shots to the scissors of the MPAA, horror magazines would become a hot button issue as well with a number of folks becoming seriously offended by covers and contents of these magazines. At this time, horror movies and cinematic ultra violence in general was a massive concern resulting in a serious backlash against the genre itself. News programs like 20/20 and even late night tabloid crapola like THE MORTON DOWNEY JR. SHOW were viciously pelting horror cinema with a constant stream of verbal assaults.


Brutal crimes had been on the rise (or at least had become hot media topics) and movies were blamed for the despicable displays of human monsters who were allegedly "commanded" to kill by what they saw in a motion picture. The MPAA was pressured to take a more responsible stance towards violence in movies, but a double standard was in practice. If you were a big studio, you could get by, or if your film was something other than horror, than the violence was generally passed with barely a slap on the wrist. But if you were a low budget horror flick, your wrist wasn't slapped, it was slashed. Such was the case with INTRUDER.

There's lots and lots of product placement in this movie. That Frosted Flakes box art is different from I am used to.

Paramount, arguably the single most loathed major studio in Hollywood where the release of horror films were concerned, haphazardly handled Spiegel and crew's movie as opposed to simply releasing it uncut, or in two separate versions--R and unrated. With the picture stripped of its "guts", it's baffling why they would have shown any distributional interest to begin with considering their contemptible treatment of the pinnacle of slasherdom, the FRIDAY THE 13TH series and one of the decades goriest examples of the form, MY BLOODY VALENTINE (1980).


From there, a fan uproar ensued when it was discovered that the recently released to video film was--to put it mildly--severely truncated. For the rabids gorehounds, it was the splatter that mattered and INTRUDER, a film that wore its gore like a bloody badge of honor was now stripped of its rank. The film did manage to sneak out in bad quality bootleg editions and said quality remained that way till this most recent Synapse DVD/Blu Ray combo. Also of note is that the INTRUDER workprint is included with the first 500 copies among an already loaded grocery cart of goodies. Those who have been used to the grainy imagery of past releases will be shocked by the bloody vibrancy of this new Synapse edition who have given the presentation a 'Mr. Clean' sheen.

Sam Raimi gets a hand in the meat department

Going back to the film itself, the plot is nothing new and some viewers may find their patience wearing thin as it's nearly 40 minutes before the first victim falls prey to the numerous devices of death under the killers employ (similarly, the opening credits seem to take forever to get on with it). This extra time spent with an already kooky clutch of characters does little to make you feel sorry for them when they begin to kick the proverbial bloody bucket. A far too obvious red herring complete with an angry, murderous backstory is thrown into the mix early on. Once the night crew is established, the fright is on as each individual gets their own designer death sequence. The die hard slasher fans don't watch these movies for exposition anyway, but for the gore, and in that respect, INTRUDER satisfies.

Blood & Beer make a dangerous combination. Please, don't Drink and Die.

There's a ghoulishly black comical air to the whole thing, but some of the extended death sequences will no doubt make some viewers wince in disgust. Still, by comparison, Joseph Zito's equally overlooked and similarly titled THE PROWLER (1981) featured gut wrenching scenes of human destruction made all the more sadistic by a voyeuristically lingering camera. INTRUDER adopts this "gore the merrier" approach, but the quirky semi comical touches lessen the impact overall.

Bruce Campbell (cop at front) makes an arrest

During the last 20 minutes when the scenery chewing killer reveals himself, the movie kicks into overdrive culminating in a fast and furious finale that features the funniest beatdown by a decapitated noggin, a would be hero who takes a laughably punishing amount of blows to the Cabeza (this movie is full of head trauma), and a late appearance by Bruce Campbell as a police officer. The music is good and some of the stock cues used here will be familiar sounds to the ears of some viewers. The final shot isn't very satisfying (it's kind of up in the air as to what happens next), but in total, this lovingly choice cut of meat is an essential purchase for serious indy horror fans not only for its historical significance, but for the wealth of background information and plethora of extras heaped onto this Deli Deluxe package. In terms of entertainment value, INTRUDER delivers the groceries, even if a few things are left out of the bag.

This review is representative of the Synapse DVD/Blu-Ray combo special edition #227 with work print. This particular release can only be bought at the Synapse website. Click HERE for more information.

The direct link to the page with the INTRUDER combo release (while supplies last) can be found by clicking HERE.

Vintage TV Guide Ads: Awesome 80s, Tough Guys, TV & Terror Part 3

As much as I have always detested the WWF and their four ring circus act, the 1980s wouldn't be the same without Hulk Hogan. He pretty much stank as a wrestler as far as I was concerned (he was certainly no Nature Boy--as in Flair), but he was an integral part of the decade and had oodles of charisma oozing off of his 24 inch pythons as he liked to say back in the day. Wrestling was on TV almost all day till past midnight down my way. McMahon Jr. could never stand anybody beating him, or being any sort of competition so one of his many entrepreneurial cash cows was this Saturday Night show for his big money carnival act.

An awesomely underrated and riotously raunchy R rated 1980 comedy starring Kurt Russell, Jack Warden (in a dual role), Gerrit Graham and Frank McRae. The film had an incredible pedigree behind the camera including director Robert Zemeckis and producer Steven Spielberg. The film failed to find an audience, but has since become a cult item, and deservedly so. It's one of the funniest comedies of the 1980s in my opinion. There was an unacknowledged remake in the form of the tirelessly unfunny THE GOODS: LIVE HARD, SELL HARD from 2009.

Seagram's 7 was still popular in the 1980s, but check out the Pac Man arcade game in the background! A choice bit of product placement for the product, wouldn't you say?

Here's the ad for the TV premiere for the semi exploitationer, BORN TO BE SOLD starring WONDER WOMAN Lynda Carter as a social worker attempting to bust open a baby broker ring. Directed by Bruce Brinckerhoff who was behind the bloody killer animal flick, DOGS (1976). In 1994 there was a similar TV movie entitled BABY BROKERS starring Cybil Shepherd.

This 1981 TV movie about the life of Playboy model, Dorothy Stratten starred Jamie Lee Curtis as the tragic title character. In 1983 a theatrical movie was released on the subject called STAR 80 which featured Mariel Hemingway as Stratten.

Here's an ad from my favorite television station as a kid, WGGT 48. They showed lots of monster movies, kung fu flicks, cartoons, Roller Derby and all kinds of great drive in style movies. The film in question is CABOBLANCO (1980) starring Charles Bronson, a sort of remake of CASABLANCA from 1942. This was one of many collaborations between Bronson and director J. Lee Thompson.

These things are extinct now. We've all gotten so used to our more efficient and faster computers, that if we were to go back to typewriters, it'd be like living in the stone age.

More Eastwood, this time some classic Clint from Italy with Sergio Leone's FISTFUL OF DOLLARS from 1964. Without his international success in three Eur-oaters, it's debatable if Clint's career would have turned out the way it did.

GIMME A BREAK premiered the week before this ad here. I remember really liking this series a lot, especially the plentiful charisma of the "well rounded" Nell Carter. She was a pleasure to watch on TV and a wonderful comedienne.

Bond has his hands(?) full in OCTOPUSSY (1983) in this ad heralding its Network Television Premiere. Connery may have been first, but Roger Moore will always be the best Bond to me and this is one of his best films under the guise of the British secret agent.

Another 80s staple were these things--Cabbage Patch Kids. I much preferred Garbage Pail Kids, but these happier looking, but no less grotesque dolls were big sellers back in the day.

Even more Clint and yet another ad for EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE (1978). This one here is from a 1983 airing. The artist rendition is really cute with Ruth Gordon putting the headlock on Clyde; something she never gets to do in either of the two movies.

KILLING AT HELL'S GATE (1981) was a TV movie variant of the backwoods hillbilly sub genre. It shared some similarities with movies like DELIVERANCE (1972) and SOUTHERN COMFORT (1981). Robert Urich and Deborah Raffin star in this Jerry Jameson movie who also directed BRUTE CORPS (1972) and THE BAT PEOPLE (1974).

If any ladies are reading this, I'm sure you remember THE CARE BEARS from back in the mid 1980s.

STREET HAWK was another short lived action-sci fi series. It was about a guy who was a police officer by day and a vigilante by night. He zipped around in a hi tech and hi powered motorcycle to fight crime and do what the police couldn't do. A box set containing the entire series came out in 2010.

A rich, white NY businessman adopts two orphaned black brothers after their mother--his former maid--dies. This once popular series lasted for eight seasons and helped make a media darling out of the cherubic cuteness of Gary Coleman, an actor who also made a splash in theatrical features such as THE KID WITH THE BROKEN HALO (1982) and THE KID WITH THE 2000 IQ (1983). Yet another famous 80s catchphrase was coined with the utterance of little Arnold's, "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

MAKO THE JAWS OF DEATH (1976) is possibly the weirdest of the killer shark movies. It follows the pattern of other killer animal-revenge movies such as WILLARD (1971), STANLEY (1972), KISS OF THE TARANTULA (1972) and KILLER SNAKES (1973). Richard Jaekel plays a typical shark loving guy who is given the telepathic ability to control the sharp toothed fishies to get revenge on those who've wronged him. I don't recall watching it on TV, but do remember my dad renting it from the video store and it not making much of an impression on me as a kid.

I was never all that fond of THE JERK, but the image featured in the ad above is about the only thing I remember about it. Bernadette Peters was also a featured attraction in the exploding testosterone actioner VIGILANTE FORCE (1976).

Phones have certainly come a long way since these dinosaur days. What some of us wouldn't do to go back, though!

Brandon Lee didn't necessarily want to be a KUNG FU guy wandering in the shadow of his famous father, but he made the most of it during his equally short career. His first was this Made For TV outing from 1986, KUNG FU: THE MOVIE that starred David Carradine. I haven't seen it since it premiered, but I remember it being pretty decent.

It's Clint again as Dirty Harry in 1976's THE ENFORCER wherein the DIRTY one goes after a terrorist organization made up of vengeful Vietnam vets. Tyne Daly of the popular lady lawmen series CAGNEY & LACEY co-stars.

One of the best (and one of my favorites) Charles Bronson movies is his version of WALKING TALL (1973). Charlie just wants to get his melon crop in but local mobsters just won't leave him alone. One thing you don't do is piss Charlie off. But if the bad guys didn't do that, we'd have no movie.

And finally, another revenge thriller--William Devane ignited the screen in the gritty Vietnam action thriller, ROLLING THUNDER (1977). That film has since went on to become a sleeper hit with the cult crowd, yet still hasn't been given the dignity of a legit special edition DVD in America outside of the recent On Demand DVD service offered my MGM. The above ad is for a similar type of thriller from 1981 entitled THE OTHER VICTIM.