Editor's Note: This was originally published for FANGORIA on January 15, 2016, and we're proud to share it as part of The Gingold Files.
Intruders opens with a scene that plays like it’s going to be revealed as a dream—but it isn’t, an indication of how the movie, for a while at least, doesn’t always play to expectations.
Until the title was taken by an upcoming Naomi Watts-starrer, Intruders was known as Shut In, after its heroine Anna (Beth Riesgraf). Afflicted by extreme agoraphobia, she can’t even bring herself to walk out the front door of the expansive, isolated home (filmed in Louisiana) where she cares for her cancer-riddled brother Conrad (Timothy McKinney). He provides Anna both comfort and a reason to never leave the house, but he succumbs early in the film, leaving Anna to deal with a persistent lawyer (Leticia Jiminez) anxious to get her to sign off on Conrad’s will. There’s quite a bit of family money lying around—and that’s what a trio of local thugs are after when they break into the place, believing Anna to be at Conrad’s funeral.
Considering their source for the info about the cash, you’d think these guys would also be aware that Anna is unlikely to be anywhere but home, but then J.P. (Jack Kesy), Perry (Martin Starr, a film/TV comedy regular making an effective 180 to viciousness) and Vance (Joshua Mikel) are motivated more by easy greed than smarts. Taken by surprise, and unable to call the cops before the thugs cut the line, Anna is quickly captured, as is Danny (Rory Culkin), her regular food deliveryman and apparent only friend who stops by shortly after the baddies do. Things look bad for these two, as it’s clear that the invading trio will do anything to get the money and eliminate the witnesses. But as anyone who has seen Intruders’ promo material knows, Anna turns out to have some surprises up her sleeve, and plays a good emotional and physical manipulation game (not for nothing is her last name Rook).
The home-invasion basics of Intruders are familiar, as is the makeup of the criminal bunch (J.P is the ruthless but comparatively clear-minded leader, Perry the volatile hothead and Vance the reluctant one), but the beats in T.J. Cimfel and David K. White’s script don’t always follow the usual playbook. The tone and timing of the story turns hold occasional surprises, and debuting feature director Adam Schindler paces them well, making the most of the messily detailed production design by James Wiley Fowler (when Anna hides under a table, cobwebs are visible on the underside of a chair). The house’s architecture also contains some unexpected elements once Anna gets the upper hand, and Schindler milks the give-and-take violence for a few cringeworthy moments, employing the right amount of onscreen blood.
Riesgraf successfully maintains sympathy for her troubled heroine once she becomes the aggressor and torments the would-be thieves, who are all persuasively portrayed; Culkin effectively handles Dan’s transition from nice guy to questionably culpable victim. As the film gets deep into its second half, we learn that Anna has good reasons to be mentally and emotionally unstable, tied to an unpleasant family history hinted at in the early going, and the story loses some of its grip as they’re laid out. Anna’s motivations are largely told, not shown, and the telling is done by another character in big gobs of dialogue that are meant to challenge her, but can’t escape the whiff of overwrought exposition. And once the claustrophobic conflict is resolved, the movie ends just the way you expect it to.
Still, for a good portion of its running time, Intruders sustains a tense and credible scenario, and makes good use of its limited location while not always going where you think it will. There are many worse films to be trapped with for an hour and a half.
