Intruders

It’s impossible not to walk away from Intruders feeling slightly disappointed, as the movie is ultimately far from the taut, visceral thriller promised by its gripping setup. The film, which follows Clive Owen’s John Farrow as he attempts to deal with the revelation that his daughter (Ella Purnell’s Mia) is being pursued by a mysterious creature known as Hollowface, admittedly boasts an absolutely enthralling opening that effectively sets the stage for an atmospheric chiller, as director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo kicks off the proceedings with a striking sequence revolving around a little boy’s battle with the aforementioned monster. (Fresnadillo subsequently does a fairly decent job of cutting between the two story threads, although it’s clear that the Owen subplot is much more compelling.) From there, Intruders segues into exactly the sort of slow-moving horror picture one might’ve expected, with the periodic inclusion of palpably creepy bits of imagery (eg characters without faces) sustaining the viewer’s interest and perpetuating the movie’s promisingly spooky atmosphere. (It doesn’t hurt, either, that Fresnadillo offers up a genuinely thrilling set-piece about halfway through involving John’s first encounter with Mia’s pursuer.) But there eventually does reach a point at which the whole thing begins to run out of steam, with the presence of a fairly stupid twist late in the proceedings compounding the movie’s padded-out atmosphere. It’s the inclusion of another twist a little bit later that resuscitates the viewer’s dwindling interest, although the movie’s anticlimactic finish ensures that the whole thing ends on a decidedly underwhelming note (ie I’m still not entirely sure what happened).

**1/2 out of ****