Intruder review by The Grim Ringler
You may be like many people and think that beyond Sam Raimi, and Michael Moore, there are no filmmakers in Michigan. Well friend, you’d be WRONG. And you wouldn’t be my friend, oh no, but a sworn life enemy whom I would have to kill with weapons made of cheese. Do you fear me? Do you?
Truth be told, there was a bit of a filmmaking collective that included Raimi, the Coen Brothers (who aren’t from Michigan but were close enough and were pals with Sam), Scott Spiegel, and finally Josh Becker. The last two names, while not legendary like the others, were still damn fine filmmakers in their own right and both had hands in helping Sam and Bruce Campbell become the icons they are today. Becker made a fun little killer hippie romp called Thou Shalt Not Kill… and Speigel went on to direct Intruder, the film I present to you now. Both directors have done other things, one of those being a terrific Bruce movie called Running Time that I beseech you to track down. But that’s neither here or there. It’s, umm, elsewhere.
Invader tells the sordid tale of murder in a grocery store after hours. The employees are locking up and getting the store in order before they head home on the eve of the sale of the place, which means all of them will be out of work very, very soon. And if that wasn’t bad enough, one of the girls at the store has a psycho ex who has been stalking his lady and has now decided to pay a late night visit to her work. After a nice bout of fisticuffs with his ex’s co-workers, the tough is laid low for a while but escapes their apprehension and runs off to hide in the dark recesses of the store. The night shift employees split up and search out the bonkers beau but instead of finding him they find dear Mr. Death in the guise of a crazed killer who is also in the store. Is it the ex? Is it an employee? Is it a random killer out for some late night macaroons? Can there BE only one? As we ponder these questions and more the bodies begin to pile up, each killed in ever gorier ways – as was the shtick of killer on the loose films of this era – one even having their head sawed in two by a meat slicer. Fun! The employees are cut one by one though until there are only three left, and it seems one of them has to be the killer…or are the? Who can say? But whatever happens, it’s bound to be bloody.
A wonderfully silly gorefest that is cheesy as hell but intentionally so, which is nice to know since you have to wonder about some of these movies and whether they get that their movie is bad. This ain’t art kids, it’s a grindhouse ghoulie. Lots of bad acting, lots of gore – and I mean LOTS, holy crap is this a gory movie – and lots of cheese. And hell, you can’t beat a movie which has Sam Raimi as a dopey clerk who gets killed and good. Yahoo! Another one that’s not really available (well, you can find it on vid, edited, as Night Crew or some such nonsense) but dammit, you have to think this one will get a release some day. It’s a bit of a cult classic in the bootleg rings. You can live without seeing it but it’s a damn fun movie, just don’t expect a particularly GOOD movie.
…c…
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