User Reviews

The perpetually frightening atmosphere of "Intruders" is continuously challenged and ultimately defeated by a confusing structure, gaps in logic, and a twist ending that raises more questions than it answers. Before we know the real secret of the film, we must blindly work our way through a plot that repeatedly blurs the line between reality, dreamscape, and pure fantasy. When the secret is revealed, we're somewhat disillusioned, as it forces us to reprocess the entire film and come to the conclusion that it could not have unfolded the way it did. That's assuming, of course, that I didn't miss something along the way, which is certainly possible given the difficulty I had sorting through facts, characters, and events. What really eats away at me is that, short of me issuing a spoiler warning, I can't be any more specific than that.

The film intercuts between two separate stories that will dramatically converge into one during the final act. What links them together during the first two acts is a shared brush with what appears to be a supernatural presence – a hooded, shadowy figure known as Hollowface, so named because he quite literally has no face. He can also "tear away" someone else's facial features so that the person is left with a head that looks like a blank flesh canvas. Even before the twist, we're left to wonder if such a physical mutilation is literal or figurative, but I'll get into that later. He's noticed by two characters, both young. One is a boy from Spain named Juan (Izan Corchero), who can't be any older than six or seven. The other is a twelve-year-old girl from England named Mia (Ella Purnell).

Hollowface enters their lives in rather perplexing ways. In Juan's case, Hollowface slips in through an open window in the middle of a rainstorm; he tries to strangle Juan's mother, Luisa (Pilar Lopez de Ayala), only to stop when Juan enters the room and try to, I don't know, consume him. This leads to a physical altercation between all three, which then leads to a confrontation on the scaffolding just outside the bedroom window. After that, I'm not really sure what the logistics are. Hollowface continuously reappears in Juan's bedroom in the most ghostly of ways, although most of the time, the scenes end with Juan waking up screaming. Complicating matters further is the fact that all this started with Juan writing a story for a school assignment, one that didn't yet have an ending.

Mia's situation is even more baffling. Whilst visiting her grandparents' secluded countryside estate, she reaches into a hole at the top of a tree and discovers an old matchbox. Within this box is a folded piece of paper, one that tells the fairytale-like story of Hollowface. After returning home, she claims it as her own for a school assignment, although she's not sure how it ends, as that part of it was smudged out after years of sitting within the tree. She will repeatedly write things down, as if, I don't know, willing Hollowface into being. Sure enough, he continuously manifests himself from within her bedroom closet. At one point, he attacks her and appears to "rip off" her lips. And yet her lips remain. She does, however, lose the ability to speak. She then cryptically tells – or, more accurately, writes down – to her therapist that she knows Hollowface doesn't exist, but he thinks he does.

The only other person who can see Hollowface is Mia's father, John (Clive Owen), a construction worker. The bond between father and daughter is strong, which comes into question as the film enters its final act. Indeed, we also question the bond between Juan and his mother, who's perpetually frightened. We don't know why until the end, and even then, it doesn't make much sense given the sequence of events that take place. The single most bizarre inclusion is that of Father Antonio (Daniel Bruhl), who keeps reentering mother and son's life, presumably because he's attracted to Luisa. She requests something of him, something that, given what we learn at the end, doesn't seem all that likely. What did she think she would gain?

I understand how maddeningly vague this review has been, but the plot is constructed in such a way that I can't get into detail. Not that the details matter all that much; they only make figuring this movie out more difficult. To give credit where credit is due, "Intruders" successfully establishes mood and, initially, keeps you on the edge of your seat in suspense. I would have appreciated it, however, if the story had a better grasp of an understandable plot and more easily defined characters. It might seem like the ending provides you with an explanation, but in reality, it only makes the waters murkier. It's one of those resolutions that isn't a resolution at all – a starting point for who, what, when, where, why, and how questions. The more explaining it does, the less sense it makes.

-- Chris Pandolfi (www.atatheaternearyou.net)

What caught my attention about this flick is the fact that it is directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo who also directed "28 Weeks Later". This is a pretty good psychological horror thriller that goes in a direction where it makes the audience think. It isn't the most intelligent psychological horror thriller but it's well crafted and entertained me most of the way through. The monster this time is reminiscent of the Boogeyman and goes by the name of Hollow Face. Clive Owen has been playing these badass father figure character like in the movie "Trust" and he does it well here. And brings out believable emotions and interactions while being a badass. Most of the way through in this film I wasn't sure if it's something supernatural or psychological until the end. Which is a good thing and they played that off well. Although the obvious CGI takes away from the scare factor although this movie isn't really scary and far from being terrifying. Overall this is a very watchable psychological horror movie that is worth a rent.

7/10

I have rarely seen such a poor horror film. Everything that 'Insidious' is, this is not. Forget tension. Forget rounded whole human characters. Forget carefully considered plot and deep human emotion. This is nonsensical, clichéd, 'screechy-music playing while the little girl looks into the closet'-type cobblers. I have never been so bored by something that is supposed to be scary. What a tired formula this film is. Lingering shots of dark alleyways, whispered conversations with priests in church, faceless CGI demons. What the heck did Clive Owen see in this film? Perhaps it looked like it had legs before they were cut off in the editing room. Boring. About as scary as a duckling snuggling a poodle. Just forget it, go and watch Insidious instead, that will keep you thinking for a few days about the afterlife - this film will simply keep you wondering how much money and time could be wasted on tripe like this.

Intruders (2011)

Wow, the best of this movie is really good. There's a basic plot of a person who is being pursued by a demon, and we see this person both as a boy in Spain and as an adult (Clive Owen) in England. So the pursuit, or call it possession, by this evil thing is carried out over a long period of time, and the movie rocks back and forth between the two zones.

What makes it further complicated, and in a wonderfully childlike way, is the connection of the two zones. It's not just that the same person is affected. Without giving too much away, the boy overcomes the evil with a kind of trick of trapping it with storytelling and he hides the key to this trap high in a distant tree where it won't be found.

Except that the boy grows up, becomes Clive Owen, and has a cute daughter who loves to hear her Dad's stories and also loves to climb trees. And the spirit is on the rampage again.

There are good, if somewhat clichéd, secondary aspects, like the young priest in the Spanish part of the story (and an elderly priest for a moment, too), leading to a brief echo of "The Exorcist." And there is the contemporary schoolgirl world in England with dad and mom and school and high tech house security systems, and eventually a psychologist and a cop.

I've never heard of director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, who is young and has only a few movies to his name. But I think he pulled off a really solid, complex movie in many ways. It has too many familiar tricks to be anything special, I'm sure, but it is well filmed and the pieces, while at first all over the place, do gradually fall into place. If you give it time.

But then it crashes to a convoluted, unnecessary, and sudden end. Blame the writing, for sure. And maybe some impatience in the editing room. In fact, they could have grabbed one or two brief scenes from the last fifteen minutes and had a sudden bright ending that would have been far better with some loose ends dangling. Instead, they (the filmmakers, collectively) decide to wrap up every aspect at once, including a meeting of the two halves of the story. Things get explained rather than shown. And it's all a mad rush with some evasive logic (to me). If the truth was going to set everyone free, why did it take so long? Or if storytelling, by itself, was so powerful, why hadn't the father invented some better stories for releasing them all from the terror?

As good as it is in spots I'm not positive I'd recommend seeing it. If you don't mind an improbable round up finale, go for it. There is also the nice bilingual aspect that is confused by having the story written, in the Spanish part of the movie, in English. Owen is terrific--he seems to be a fuller actor with every year--and the scenes and basic plot are interesting. Just don't worry about making good sense of things. Enjoy the ride.