Movies
Intruder
“Prosthetic heads abound in ‘Intruder’, and KNB never met a prosthetic head they didn’t want to squash with a hydraulic press or run through a buzz saw. The body count may be low, but every kill practically glistens with gooey KNB love. Along with the outrageous violence, the film sports a cast that includes the Raimi boys and a don’t-blink-or-you’ll-miss-it Bruce Campbell cameo. It’s certainly no horror classic, but for stalwart gorehounds, ‘Intruder’ is sweet, sweet manna.”
Once a burgeoning young horror fan stumbles across the lesser-known genre films of the early ‘80s, discovering hidden treasures like The Burning and Hell Night, he will be inevitably drawn to the shitty slasher fringe dwellers of the era. 1981’s The Prowler serves as an easy example. It’s a lackluster slasher flick about an undead soldier who sneaks around a graduation dance, bayoneting obnoxious college kids. I realize that description makes it sound sorta appealing, but as far as horror films go, it’s suspense-free, and even boring at times. Still, The Prowler is worth watching for one reason, and one reason only––the preternatural make-up skills of a young Tom Savini. Sure the movie blows, but predictably, the kill scenes totally rock. Does that immediately qualify The Prowler as mandatory viewing? Of course not: the casual horror fan need not apply. But Savini completists are happy to tag the sign-up sheet.
Similarly, 1989’s Intruder completely sucks ass as a movie. The acting, dialogue, and plotting are unbelievably lame. Writer/director Scott Spiegel (a longtime friend of Sam Raimi who’s credited with writing Evil Dead 2) attempts maximum creativity when staging his scenes and the unfortunate result is film school amateur hour. His shot selection is frequently straight-up silly, with absurd perspective shots serving as the apparent core of his directorial skill set. But this shitty-ass little film has an ace up its sleeve––some early, jaw-dropping work from KNB, the unparalleled king of contemporary make-up effects.
Although Paramount scrubbed out all of the gore prior to its R-rated VHS release, a 2005 DVD reissue reinstated KNB’s beautiful latex carnage (and the recent Blu Ray from Synapse really seals the deal). The plot is frustratingly stupid: a handful of employees closing down a grocery store for the night are whacked one-by-one by an unknown killer. There’s an early red herring in the form of a lurking ex-boyfriend of one of the cashiers, but come on, any audience worth their weight in peanuts can see right through that shit. But obviously, that’s not the draw here. It’s all about KNB and their rubbery, blood-spraying goodness.
Prosthetic heads abound in Intruder, and KNB never met a prosthetic head they didn’t want to squash with a hydraulic press or run through a buzz saw. The body count may be low, but every kill practically glistens with gooey KNB love. Along with the outrageous violence, the film sports a cast that includes the Raimi boys and a don’t-blink-or-you’ll-miss-it Bruce Campbell cameo. It’s certainly no horror classic, but for stalwart gorehounds, Intruder is sweet, sweet manna.
A contemporary reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Herbert West: Reanimator is on the way, and Deadline has unveiled the first look at the new Herbert West and the pathologist drawn to his orbit.
The original screenplay and storyline come from Jade Sandberg Wallis.
Michael Grossman (“The Originals”, “Pretty Little Liars”) directs.
The new images introduce star Joseph Morgan (“Vampire Diaries“), who plays “brilliant surgeon and scientist Herbert West, who is obsessed with creating a serum to reanimate the dead.” Katie Cassidy (Speed Demon) stars opposite as the pathologist with a troubled past who joins his efforts.
Together, they prove that conquering death may be the ultimate sin against life itself.
The film’s official synopsis: “As a child, Herbert West watches his father Peter reanimate his dead mother Judith in a secret basement lab — only for Judith to mortally wound Peter and nearly kill Herbert before Peter shoots her. The trauma leaves its mark on Herbert, but so does one final image: his mother’s finger, twitching after death. Thirty years later, Herbert West is a brilliant, secretive surgeon still chasing his father’s obsession.
“Pathologist Kate Locke arrives in town and is drawn into his orbit — first through a spark at a hospital fundraiser, then through his secret lab, where he reveals a serum capable of reanimating severed tissue. Kate, hiding a dark past of her own, is thrilled rather than horrified, and moves into West’s mansion to work alongside him. Their early experiments on a cadaver succeed only briefly. West concludes that dead tissue is the problem — they need something fresher.”
Supporting cast includes Scott Aiello, Ira J Amyx, Randall Newsome, Emma Reinagal, James D. Bryce, Kathryn A Bentley, Jack Lancaster, Amy Holland Pennell, John Pierson, Mindy Shaw, Eric Dean White, Tristan Wilder Hallet, Adrienne Lamping, Aaron Crippen, and Drew Patterson.
Makeup artist Jeff Lewis (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and cousin Roger Lewis are heading the production via their newly established Woodlake Entertainment.
Lovecraft’s short story, first serialized in Home Brew magazine in 1922, is the first among his works to mention the fictional Miskatonic University. It was most famously adapted into a 1985 horror movie from Stuart Gordon, starring Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West.
Herbert West: Reanimator is set in Alton, Illinois, where production is now underway.
Herbert West: Reanimator. Photo credit: Matt Lief Anderson
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