Although Home Invasion movies are a dime a dozen, they are still surprisingly versatile in their subject matter and even genre placement. Sam Peckinpah used the structure to his advantage in his brilliant thriller, Straw Dogs, and yet these ideas still feel at home in modern slasher films like The Strangers and You’re Next. In Intruders, Adam Schindler attempts to tweak the popular formula by blurring the line between victim and villain, and making sure that escape is not an option.
The film stars Beth Riesgraf as Anna, an agoraphobic woman with a troubled past. After her father’s death, she’s left alone with a sizeable inheritance, which makes her a valuable target for a group of criminals looking for an easy job. Once they invade the house, however, they begin to realize that Anna may be a lot more dangerous than they could have imagined, despite her limitations.
With such a simple yet effective plot, one might hope that the filmmakers would present the story from a unique angle, or at least add in a new twist to justify some of the more familiar elements within the story. Sadly, that’s not the case with Intruders. While It’s apparent that some genuine thought was put into the production, there’s nothing here to set this apart from other, more entertaining thrillers.
That being said, Riesgraf is a delight to watch as the disturbed Anna, and adds some much-needed depth to the role. The other actors also do a serviceable job, but Rory Culkin’s character has the best interactions with our main character. The problem here is that, with no clear victim, it’s hard to root for anyone or to even have a sense of danger throughout the film. Even Anna’s crippling agoraphobia isn’t referenced much until the end, which is very disappointing.
Even though neither the script nor the direction were insultingly bad, there are many other films out there which did a better and less-predictable job at switching character roles and keeping the story entertaining. There were some genuinely intense, and even slightly scary, moments that did partially redeem the film, especially when the titular intruders initially show up, but most of these scenes are overshadowed by an unfortunate lack of finesse and originality.
As this is Adam Schindler’s first feature film, you can’t exactly call Intruders a failure, especially considering some of the good parts peppered throughout the movie. Even so, while it’s always nice to see a woman kick ass in a horror movie instead of just silently suffer through her ordeal, there is just barely enough here to justify recommending this film. However, if you consider the sea of awful slashers and mediocre thrillers that come out every year, you might have some fun with this overall decent movie.