This film could’ve been so good but unfortunately it had a few too many things wrong with it.

The Intruder follows Annie and Scott, a couple who want to buy their dream home and find it in a country mansion, however the house comes at a price and that is its current owner Charlie, who even after selling the house to the couple seems to refuse to leave.

Charlie is constantly seen turning up at the house uninvited, bringing them gifts that they didn’t ask for, and even mowing the lawn when he doesn’t live there anymore. But there are a lot of deeper issues with Charlie that are yet to be uncovered…

Charlie and his storyline was the main issue for me with this film. The actor that played him made Charlie quite cartoonish and it’s very obvious from the get go that Charlie is going to be the bad guy. However how over the top this is played is a bit ridiculous and it isn’t helped by the sound cues that constantly go off whenever something eerie happens, because it just makes the whole thing seem very artificial.

I also would’ve liked Charlie to be a bit of an odd ball and not the deranged killer that he turned out to be. Of course he can be that in the end, but I feel throughout the movie I’d love to see him gaslight these characters and almost gaslight the audience too into thinking that he’s just a bit strange but harmless. Then all of a sudden when he flips and does kill certain characters it’s much more of a shock than something that we expect.

I feel that’s the main issue for me with this whole film is it’s not very subtle. It’s very on the nose with what it’s trying to tell you and how it’s trying to make you scared and unfortunately that just doesn’t work for me. I feel it could’ve been so much more fun and psychological if they kept things hidden and if they kept things to be revealed later and it wasn’t just immediately ‘look this guy is crazy he’s going to be bad’.

I really like the premise of this film, the idea that you buy a new house and do everything you can to make it secure and yet the previous owner is still there causing you distress is really interesting, and I would love for that to be built on more just not in the way that this film was. I can imagine if you’re wanting to buy a house and you get bad vibes from the current owner then this movie will just exacerbate those vibes and it can really affect you in the real world which is what you want from a horror film.

I do wonder if people could enjoy this film but I don’t think I would recommend it to them. It might be something they stumble upon and think it is really good and has an interesting premise and a good storyline, but for me unfortunately it just wasn’t something that I could fully enjoy because it was just a bit too weird and a bit too cartoony with this sort of story. I want it to be a slow burn, I want it to be gaslighting me and giving me this false sense of security so that when the big reveal happens it hits me so much harder than this movie did.

What do you think of The Intruder?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding