Intruder (1989)


Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell get a lot of the credit, but, besides Raimi's brothers Ivan and Ted, there was another person responsible for bringing us the Evil Dead franchise.  That was writer, director and producer Scott Spiegel, a friend of Raimi's who helped him with his early short films and has appeared in some form in most of his movies.  He was also the one who may or may not have taken a few plot films from the rarely (at the time) seen movie Equinox and inserted them into The Evil Dead.  With Sam and Ted in tow, along with a quick cameo by Campbell - all of which are overplayed on the current box art - Spiegel made his own feature directorial debut with the 1989 slasher Intruder.

Jennifer (Liz Kern) is working the night shift at Walnut Creek Grocery Store with her friends Linda (Renée Estevez) and Dave (Billy Marti).  Around closing time her ex-boyfriend Craig (David Byrnes) comes in and starts a violent altercation, leading to the store's staff forcing him out and calling the police.  Soon after, owners Bill (Dan Hicks) and Danny (Eugene Robert Glazer) inform the crew that the store is closing and that they will be out of work in a month.  They are asked to spend the night pricing everything half off to get ready for the eventual closing.

Problem is Craig is still hanging around outside, calling Jennifer and waiting for her to leave.  That is when a series of murders begin with the employees being dispatched in gruesome ways until Jennifer finds herself the only one left, locked in the store with the killer.

It pretty much is a typical run-of-the-mill slasher, just without any nudity and a bit more creativity when it comes to dispatching the cast.  Spiegel has some of the same ideas as Raimi when it comes to directing, using interesting angles and shots to make a simple story more entertaining.  Sam himself plays the store's butcher, while Ted is the produced guy and Bruce Campbell shows up as a cop at the end. 

Like a lot of lesser slashers the ending leaves a lot to be desired as does some of the acting.  Liz Kern does her best, but sometimes her line delivery is way off and often one can tell she is acting scared rather than actually scared.  I do give it credit for hiding the reveal of the killer - that is, until someone at Full Moon decided to put it all over the DVD box. 

That said, despite having a feeling of retreading old ground, the makeup and special effects are good and there is a nice bit of comedy thrown in to keep things moving.  There are even a few characters one feels sorry for, as well as another cast member - Burr Steers - who would go on to be a successful director as well.  Best yet, it comes at a time when anything these guys did still felt like just a bunch of friends getting together to make silly movies.

Intruder (1989)
Starring: Liz Kern, David Byrnes, Billy Marti, Dan Hicks
Director: Scott Spiegel

 

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