Scott Spiegel’s Intruder has a reputation that has reached legendary heights among gorehounds over the years. Originally released in 1989, Intruder was distributed on VHS by Paramount, in a badly truncated form. What fans saw in the videotape was pretty enjoyable, yet most of us longed to see the real thing, uncut.
Charles Band’s Wizard Entertainment has brought this long awaited slasher film to DVD. And this time, in uncut form.
As usual, there are good and bad elements to the release.
First the bad: Intruder has been issued devoid of any extras. The cut in not in widescreen. Worse still, the picture looks as if I had dubbed it on my lousy old VCR. Like a second generation bootleg recording.
Now for the good: Inturder is a fun film, and it’s great to be able to finally see that grotesque meat cutting scene that was cut, yet shown on an old cover of Gorezone Magazine. The script is witty and filled with a lot of fun teen hi-jinx and a lot of gory violence. Plus, it’s great to see a pre-Spider Man Sam Raimi ham it up as a butcher. Sam’s brother Ted also has a role, and I always look forward to his presence in any movie. Also rounding out the cast as policemen are Alvy Moore (a bit long in the tooth for a peacekeeper) and Tom Lester. Better known as Hank Kimball and ‘Eb’, from Green Acres. Bruce Campbell has a tiny role and so does super-producer Lawrence Bender.
Scott Spiegel definitely borrows from Raimi’s style in his liberal use of shaky-cam POV shots. Yet Spiegel is no Sam Raimi. The use of ‘clever’ photography almost gets to be an annoying distraction, rather than the joyous use of innovative photography that Raimi employed so well in The Evil Dead films. Still, Spiegel gamely gives it his best and Intruder is much better than the average slasher film, as miniscule as that compliment may seem. For a film of this nature, Intruder is one of the best.
The story starts out on the night that a group of young supermarket employees are informed that the store is about to be sold and they will soon be unemployed. If that’s not bad enough, one of the cashiers gets a visit from an ex-con tough guy with a mullet. He is carrying a long-burning torch for the girl, but she wants none of him. Violence breaks out as he tries to physically bend her to his will. Then, before you can say Giallo in a Grocery Store, an off camera killer starts picking off the night crew in various effective ways.
I strongly recommend Intruder to fans of this sort of thing. Clocking in at the tail end of the slasher cycle, it never really got the appreciation or audience that it deserved. I just wish that it had gotten a more respectful DVD release. With the involvement of Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and the rest, this seems like it would have been a perfect choice for a big league company like Anchor Bay. Quite possibly there were copywrite issues involved in the deal.
I haven’t seen Intruder in any of the retail stores that I frequent, but it can be ordered from Amazon or from Band’s own company. I got mine from Wizard Entertainment and the DVD arrived quickly and safely. Check out the site and see if you can find Intruder amidst all the killer doll movies that Charles Band loves so much.
http://www.wizardentertainment.net/
Charles Band’s Wizard Entertainment has brought this long awaited slasher film to DVD. And this time, in uncut form.
As usual, there are good and bad elements to the release.
First the bad: Intruder has been issued devoid of any extras. The cut in not in widescreen. Worse still, the picture looks as if I had dubbed it on my lousy old VCR. Like a second generation bootleg recording.
Now for the good: Inturder is a fun film, and it’s great to be able to finally see that grotesque meat cutting scene that was cut, yet shown on an old cover of Gorezone Magazine. The script is witty and filled with a lot of fun teen hi-jinx and a lot of gory violence. Plus, it’s great to see a pre-Spider Man Sam Raimi ham it up as a butcher. Sam’s brother Ted also has a role, and I always look forward to his presence in any movie. Also rounding out the cast as policemen are Alvy Moore (a bit long in the tooth for a peacekeeper) and Tom Lester. Better known as Hank Kimball and ‘Eb’, from Green Acres. Bruce Campbell has a tiny role and so does super-producer Lawrence Bender.
Scott Spiegel definitely borrows from Raimi’s style in his liberal use of shaky-cam POV shots. Yet Spiegel is no Sam Raimi. The use of ‘clever’ photography almost gets to be an annoying distraction, rather than the joyous use of innovative photography that Raimi employed so well in The Evil Dead films. Still, Spiegel gamely gives it his best and Intruder is much better than the average slasher film, as miniscule as that compliment may seem. For a film of this nature, Intruder is one of the best.
The story starts out on the night that a group of young supermarket employees are informed that the store is about to be sold and they will soon be unemployed. If that’s not bad enough, one of the cashiers gets a visit from an ex-con tough guy with a mullet. He is carrying a long-burning torch for the girl, but she wants none of him. Violence breaks out as he tries to physically bend her to his will. Then, before you can say Giallo in a Grocery Store, an off camera killer starts picking off the night crew in various effective ways.
I strongly recommend Intruder to fans of this sort of thing. Clocking in at the tail end of the slasher cycle, it never really got the appreciation or audience that it deserved. I just wish that it had gotten a more respectful DVD release. With the involvement of Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and the rest, this seems like it would have been a perfect choice for a big league company like Anchor Bay. Quite possibly there were copywrite issues involved in the deal.
I haven’t seen Intruder in any of the retail stores that I frequent, but it can be ordered from Amazon or from Band’s own company. I got mine from Wizard Entertainment and the DVD arrived quickly and safely. Check out the site and see if you can find Intruder amidst all the killer doll movies that Charles Band loves so much.
http://www.wizardentertainment.net/
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