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Review: The Intruders

Miranda-Cosgrove-The-Intruders-DVDGhost stories are a dime a dozen at this point, but I felt the need to pick up a copy of The Intruders because it stars one of my favorite actresses from childhood and young-adulthood. I watched “Drake & Josh” all through middle school and “iCarly” throughout high school. I even remember countless Friday mornings during my first two college years waking up hung over as Hell and watching re-runs of both Nickelodeon shows with my roommate. So, when I saw Miranda Cosgrove was headlining a horror flick, I knew I had to see it just for the fact that it was a pairing I never thought would happen.

The Intruders is written by Jason Juravic and directed by Adam Massey. Cast members appearing alongside Cosgrove include Donal Logue  (“Gotham,” “Grounded for Life”), Austin Butler (“Arrow,” “Zoey 101”), former Golden Globe nominee Tom Sizemore (Black Hawk Down, Saving Private Ryan), Janessa Grant (“Reign”), and Michael Luckett (“Bitten”).

“Every town has its secrets, as college student Rose Halshford (Miranda Cosgrove) learns when she and her father (Donal Logue) move into a musty, old house. When Rose discovers that the previous tenant mysteriously disappeared, leaving her possessions behind, she suspects her unfriendly neighbor (Austin Butler) may know more than he lets on. When Rose reports strange noises coming from inside the house, no one, not even her father, believes her, insisting that it’s all in her head. As Rose’s suspicions grow, she begins to fear that she may be the next victim of whomever or whatever has infiltrated her new home.”

First, I would like to say that I’m shocked that The Intruders didn’t receive a bigger or more publicized release than it got. It basically went straight-to-DVD without anyone really knowing it existed. The only reason I found it was because it came up in the suggestion boxes on my Amazon account. The film stars two men who are currently on hit television shows, a former Golden Globe nominee, and a former teen queen, gold certified singer. The cost it took to book all of them for this movie had to be pretty high and it’ll be hard to make the investment back without a marketing plan. This movie should have at least received a modest theatrical run. From the talented cast, to the great production value and cinematography, to the clever script – The Intruders turned out to be much more of a solid flick than I thought I was going to be!

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Speaking of the script, at least from my perspective, it was great because it kept you guessing until the very end. There are a lot of false flags aimed towards who could be the killer while also exploring the possibility that strange things are happening due to a supernatural presence. Although it started off pretty slow, it managed to focus and regain its grounding by mid-movie and became a story worth following. It switches gears genre-wise near the end, too. Throughout the majority of the movie I would describe The Intruders as a mystery and suspense movie with slight supernatural elements. I mean, nothing frightening actually happens. It’s just a lot of dialogue, character building, and story progressing which I actually would describe as “two notches above a Lifetime Original Movie” in terms of scariness. As it nears the end, though, it flips the script and becomes a full fledged horror film. It was interesting to see and a nice cap off to the movie.

I’ve hinted at it several times, but I would like to go in depth into how much I enjoyed the cast here. Miranda Cosgrove has been acting since she was 8-years-old and has been lucky enough to transition from child star to teen queen. Now the goal is to transition to an adult actress that critics take seriously. Since “iCarly” ended in 2012, Cosgrove hasn’t done much of anything except providing a voice over for Despicable Me 2 due to her majoring in film at University of South Carolina. So, The Intruders is her big welcome back to Hollywood and I think it went off without a hitch. This was the perfect adult role for her to play, one that stretched her out of her comfort zone and introduced her to a new audience. In this movie she even goes to a party and drinks beer from a solo cup while wearing a bikini. While retaining her integrity and playing the part in a respectable way, Cosgrove can start the difficult task of shredding her childhood/teen image. There are ways of doing it without coming off as a total drug addicted whore (side eyes the fuck out of Miley Cyrus) and I think Cosgrove succeeded here in showing that she’s ready for more adult material as far as film and television are concerned.

This is also one of the first things I’ve seen Donal Logue in outside of “Grounded for Life” and it was great to see him tackle a role outside of horror so professionally. I didn’t know he had it in him! Tom Sizemore brought in a decent performance, but I don’t think he was challenged here. Finally, I’m a huge fan of the werewolf drama series “Bitten,” so it was good to see Michael Luckett (who played Santos on “Bitten”) pop up in this movie, too. I’m glad to see him getting more work and I hope he continues to do well.

Now, since I’m reviewing The Intruders as a horror movie, I have to be overly negative towards the final “chase scene.” The lack of common sense and fight of flight instinct written into the scene was astounding. I found myself yelling at the screen like, “Really? What the fuck are you doing?” If this is my only criticism, then by all means this was an above average movie. Let me be clear, though, this movie is not going to be for everyone. Some of the cast members’ target audiences, the slow nature of the script and complete lack of blood and gore, and PG-13 horror elements… This movie is only going to be appeal to certain kinds of audience groups – the youngers, the teen audience, people who don’t like “in your face scary” horror films, and people who rent/buy it only because of their admiration for a specific cast member. As a feature film, it’s fantastic. As a horror film, it’s lacking in some places. So to be fair I’m going to give it two scores.

Final Score as an overall film: 8 out of 10

Final Score as a horror film: 6 out of 10

Michael DeFellipo

(Senior Editor)

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