Movies
Intruders
“What begins as a masterfully crafted creature feature ultimately falls flat on its face knocking out all of its teeth…If you’re able to overlook a sh*t finale, and over used CGI, ‘Intruders’ is still a pretty OK film loaded with some freaky imagery and ghostly attack scenes. It’s sort of a psychological fairy tale that may deliver enough punches for a home video audience.”
What begins as a masterfully crafted creature feature ultimately falls flat on its face knocking out all of its teeth.
Directed by 28 Weeks helmer Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, the screenplay by Jaime Marques and Nico Casariego attempts something quite unique with Intruders. The film follows two separate stories, one about a boy, Juan (Izán Corchero), who is writing about being haunted by “Hollow Face”, while the other follows a little girl, Mia (Elle Purnell), as she’s also beginning to encounter this Frighteners-esque hooded creature. Juan’s story is already near its end, which interestingly builds tension for the viewer as they watch Mia’s encounters unfold. Things get interesting when both Juan’s mother and Mia’s father (Clive Owen) also see the so-called monster.
The first two acts are quite well done as they build on the mythology and really deliver on scares, although some unnecessarily heavy use of CGI hinders any of it from being believable.
And while most of the film is pretty entertaining, the third act twist is so infuriating that I could have sworn I saw a few theater patrons flick off the screen. The reason is that the filmmaking team breaks one of the cardinal rules of horror: make sure it isn’t “all a dream”. While that isn’t the actual twist, it may, as well, have been. It makes me want to pull out all of my hair simply because the movie is kind of awesome, but the ending pretty much negates anything cool that happens. It’s a shameful twist that unfortunately leaves me no choice but to advise against seeing it.
If you’re able to overlook a sh*t finale, and over used CGI, Intruders is still a pretty OK film loaded with some freaky imagery and ghostly attack scenes. It’s sort of a psychological fairy tale that may deliver enough punches for a home video audience.
Movies
‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts
In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.
The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.
But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).
Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.
That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.
Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.
Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.
In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
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