Review – The Intruder
I can’t say my expectations were high for The Intruder. I generally try to have a level head when going into every movie, for fair judgement, but this one was leaning on the, “why am I seeing this?” side. But I have to tell you, I had a ball watching it. Sure there are some issues with some of the story beats and some of the “scary” scenes made me chuckle rather than jump, but this has the makings of a modern B-movie gem, with tons of thrills, a wild ending, and a performance from Denis Quaid that is out of this world.
Scott and Annie Russell (Michael Ealy, Meagan Good) are a young, successful couple living in the city looking for a home in the quieter countryside. On their search, they stop at the home of Charlie Peck (Denis Quaid), a large, gorgeous home sitting on acres upon acres of stunning forest. Annie immediately falls in love with the place and the two decide to buy it, even if it seems Charlie isn’t ready to give it up quite yet. As Scott and Annie are beginning to make the house their own, they are constantly visited by Charlie, who is always offering advice on the house, like when to mow the lawn. Though they might seem like seemingly nice gestures, Scott gets a weird vibe from Charlie and asks him to not come back on his property. Charlie is not a fan of this and continues to show up unannounced, getting more and more threatening each visit.
This movie rides on Quaid’s performance and his character of Charlie Peck. The first time we meet Peck, he guns down a deer and almost takes out Scott and Annie at the same time. From this point on, you never trust Peck. Quaid’s intensity and unnerving smiling makes us never feel safe when Charlie is around, even when he’s joining the family for Thanksgiving or helping Annie put up Christmas lights. We are constantly waiting for Charlie to do something to Scott or Annie, which changes the film from a “is he going to kill them?” movie to a “when is he going to kill them?” movie, which isn’t as interesting as the former. With a less intense actor in a less intense performance, you might buy the generous acts of kindness from Charlie, which would have made the film all the more shocking when he does eventually snap. But with Quaid, he is a rubber band being pulled and pulled until it finally breaks, and when it breaks, it is rather horrifying to watch. Quaid turns it up to eleven in the film’s climax, taking his intensity and creepiness to a whole new level. This could come off as campy or weird, but Quaid makes it terrifying.
Ealy and Good are fine actors and do solid work here, as their characters are the perfect amount of stupid to make the film enjoyable. The dumb decisions they make, particularly Annie, caused the audience I saw the movie with to audibly yell at the screen. Numerous “what are you doing?!”‘s were blurted out from the back of the theater, as Annie constantly allows Charlie in their home and is always giving him the benefit of the doubt, even at his ultimate creepiness. One of the film’s sub-stories is that Scott cheated on Annie at some point, thus making it hard for her to trust him in every aspect of life. A dumb sub-story, as it is only really talked about in one of two scenes, though one that surprisingly works here, as Scott sees right through Charlie and continuously tells Annie to avoid him and not allow him in the house. Due to Annie’s trust issues, she doesn’t listen, and thus, the Russell’s have a problem. The stupidity of Scott and Annie are perfect for this schlocky B-movie. They hit all the beats their characters should to make the movie move. I don’t care if they kill Charlie or get killed by Charlie, they are just placed perfectly for Quaid to go to town.
The Intruder is a movie you can’t really take seriously, but one you’ll have a lot of fun with. There are moments that will scare you, make you laugh, intentional or not, and surprise you. There are a number of stupid lines of dialog and our two main characters are incredibly dumb, but in the best way. And Denis Quaid is pretty great in the weirdest performance of his career. The Intruder has B-movie fun written all over it.
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