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| Release: 2011, Rating: R, Runtime: 100 min. |
Part psychological and part horror, Intruders is entirely unique, but still stubs it’s toes a few times in the trek of making a good film…
Short nitty-gritty plot description from IMDb is as follows: Two children living in different countries are visited nightly by a faceless being who wants to take possession of them.
Things start up with a Spanish boy reading a story to his mother. After finishing the story, the boy heads to bed. During the night, he hears his cat outside meowing, so he goes out to check on him. While outside, he notices a strange floating monster going in through his window. Ladies and gentlemen, this is our first introduction to Hollowface. A being with no face, that is summoned when his name is called. His quest is to seek out a child to take their face as his own, which he’ll steal in the middle of the night.
As the nightmares continue for the boy, in a different country, a girl is experiencing the same nightmares from Hollowface, after finding a letter about said monster. The letter isn’t complete, so the daughter continues the story herself, which “summons” Hollowface. The father, John (Clive Owen), tells his daughter that there is nothing to be afraid of, as monsters don’t exist. In order to show his daughter this truth, he recreates the monster, using an old coat with a hood, some boots and gloves. He stands it up in the backyard and proceeds to burn the monster, hopefully destroying it, but in actuality, he makes things much worse.
The next night, an intruder appears in the daughters bedroom, wearing the same clothes as the burnt monster. John fights him off, but not before the monster steals the daughters voice. This isn’t the last time John has to face off with Hollowface though, as the nightmares and intrusions get worse and worse and his daughter becomes more and more terrified, as her psyche starts cracking. Things are already looking grim, but events still manage to take a turn for the bizarre, when revelations are presented to John, which causes his entire world to turn upside down.
Intruders piqued my interest right from the beginning, with a strange monster sneaking in through an open window and terrorizing a little boy and his mother and didn’t let up to the end. It wasn’t an entirely smooth ride, as there are a few questions left dangling in the air come the ending, but the good outweighs the bad with Intruders. The entire movie is built around the link between parent and child and shows you how powerful and scary the force of love can be.
Some may be disappointed with Intruders, when they realize that it isn’t entirely a horror film, especially when the revelations are revealed late in the film. Also, the film can drag a little, with parts making your mind wander. Some trimming could’ve be done to tighten things up.
Intruders surprised me in a good way. Yes, I was confused for a good portion of the film, but sticking with the movie made me realize that Intruders stands out as a unique and wholly different horror/psychological thriller. Recommended!
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