Most Horror films attempt to capitalize on natural human fears in order to invoke nervousness, discomfort and terror in the audience. While many focus on the fears of our 'inner children' (ghosts, monsters and loss of security-inspiring figures), others focus on more 'mature' fears like fear of the unknown and/or not understood. Shut In (Intruders) is of the latter kind, attempting to use the uneducated's fear of mental illnesses while utilizing the fear of potential home invasion as back up. Anna (a very nice performance by Beth Riesgraf, delivering a convincing and realistic paranoid and phobic woman) is agoraphobic, and has not left the comfort of her home in 10 years. One of her only human contacts (wouldn't be accurate to call him a friend) is Danny (Rory Culkin, in my opinion the best performance among the cast), a delivery boy bringing her meals and groceries.
When Anna's brother dies, she wholeheartedly offers Danny an extremely generous tip so he can quit his dead end job and follow his dreams. Embarrassed of course, Danny politely declines, and later tells a friend about the experience. Little does he know his friend and his friend's brother mean to break into Anna's home during her brother's funeral, and rob her blind. However, the burglars had no clue about Anna's agoraphobia, and when they break in and find Anna at home - things become complicated. The story involves two coinciding plots. The first revolves around the three burglars, who are no more than petty thieves and did not set out on this endeavor with intentions of physically hurting anyone.
The characters are quite stereotypical. JP (Jack Kesy) is the leader of the gang, attempting to balance out the situation so it turns out in their favor. Vance (Joshua Mikel) is his brother (Danny's friend) who lives in his shadow, and has brought him the information that has made the operation possible in hopes of earning his respect. And then there's Conrad (Timothy T. McKinney), JP's psycho sadistic friend, who's in it for the thrill as well as the payout.
Nothing too fancy or original, but it manages to capture the viewer attention and add to the suspense. The second and more central plot revolves around Anna. In order to avoid any possible spoilers, let me stick to what the trailers already reveal - Anna is not as helpless as she appears to be, and her being home turns out to be the least of the robbers' problems.
The way the story plays out is not nearly intense enough to qualify as a revenge flick, and (in my opinion) not remotely frightening or even discomforting enough to be considered Horror. All in all, Shut In isn't anything fancy. Yet while being mediocre and almost mundane, it succeeds in being interesting and entertaining enough by eliciting curiosity and sympathy.
Directed by Deon Taylor. With Michael Ealy, Meagan Good, Dennis Quaid, Joseph Sikora. A young married couple buys a beautiful house on several acres of land, only to find out that the man they bought it from refuses to let go of the property. A young married couple buy a beautiful house on several acres of land only to find out that the man they bought it from refuses to let go of the property.
You could obviously find a better film to watch, but should you not - give this a try, you might enjoy it more than I did.
The Intruder follows the story of Scott Russell and Annie Russell, a young married couple who dreams of buying house where they can raise their future children. However, when they finally bought the house in Napa Valley, they thought they have found the perfect home. But unfortunately, their peaceful life changes when the strangely attached seller (Dennis Quaid) continues to infiltrate their lives, they begin to suspect that he has hidden motivations beyond a quick sale.The film also stars Michael Ealy ( Barber Shop) as Scott, Meagan Good ( Think Like a Man, ) as Annie and Joseph Sikora. It is directed by Deon Taylor from a script written by David Loughery.
Roxanne Avent, Mark Burg, Jonathan Schwartz and Brad Kaplan are the film’s producers along with Taylor.
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March 2023
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