The Intruder: Film Review

Synopsis

The Intruder follows Scott and Annie Russell (Michael Ealy and Meagan Good, respectively), a married couple that has just moved into a new house in the country. The man that they bought it from, Charlie (Dennis Quaid), is having trouble letting the house go. He starts interfering with their everyday lives by showing up unannounced. When his strange behavior becomes obsession, the young couple soon find themselves caught up in an non-ideal situation: they have a stalker.

Review

The film has too much setup and not enough payoff. To that point, it feels a little long; could’ve been a tight 85 minutes, runs about 20 minutes too long. The film cannot build and keep suspense effectively. There are too many jump scare fake outs. It's also very formulaic because of the script and the "setup, then 'scare'" structure. The film is very tonally mixed. There are two disparate tones (symbolized with day and night) that don't merge together well. Dennis Quaid is a bad mutha... (shut yo mouth). His compulsively watchable performance is the best part of the film. I really liked his villain. The story is not very believable. It's just damn stupid. It takes Annie WAAAAY too long to become suspicious of Charlie's actions (no black woman should be that trusting of an old white man). The film never commits to itself and it’s own craziness. And, this might sound contradictory, but I like the craziness (it makes it campy but in a fun way). I think if they committed to the ludicrousness of the plot, it would have made it more enjoyable. Something that is revealed in third act, while it adds to the silliness, also adds to the craziness and makes the story interesting. As an aside, there is no epilogue, so ending might leave you dissatisfied. However, it ends on a high point.