Critic Reviews
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Eric D. Snider, Film.com
Gets disappointingly literal with what proves to be a goofy psychological story.
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Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger
This is ... an intelligent, scary little movie. Because it's smart enough to know what's really scary is what's inside us.
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Lou Lumenick, New York Post
"Intruders'' looks great and has a promising opening, but this atmospheric Spanish psychological thriller is otherwise pretty underwhelming.
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James Berardinelli, ReelViews
Why do so many horror movies that begin with promise fall apart in the final act?
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Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle
If you don't guess the big twist in the first 30 minutes, "Intruders" is half of a good movie. If you do, it's about a third of a good movie.
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Manohla Dargis, New York Times
It's a pleasure to find that Mr. Fresnadillo has assumed the mantle of horror classicist to make "Intruders," using shadows and directorial sleights of hand to coax forth its slow-building scares rather than just pouring on the usual guts and gore.
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Meredith Borders, Badass Digest
I could think of a half dozen things that INTRUDERS almost says, but the film doesn't take the time to actually say any of them.
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Jeremy Lebens, We Got This Covered
Intruders is a complete failure. Clive Owen's performance is off-balance and out of focus, while Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's direction is full of overused horror shots, which elicit not a single scare.
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Billy Tatum, We Got This Covered
Intruders is a thriller hybrid that goes a long way and it is definitely worth the watch.
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Jeff Beck, Examiner.com
"Intruders" is a horror film that has absolutely nothing memorable or noteworthy about it.
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Paul Chambers, Movie Chambers
The story jumps back and forth between the two countries and quickly becomes tedious and only mildly scary. The ending might surprise you if you manage to stay awake. A compelling story with more chills and a clearer plotline could have helped.
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R. L. Shaffer, IGN DVD
Intruders is a slow-going psychological thriller with very few thrills and little intrigue.
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Andy Klein, Christian Science Monitor
Owen is always at least good, and here he's perfectly cast.
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Matt Singer, ScreenCrush
Intruders was either the victim of reshoots and postproduction meddling or it desperately needed some.
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Jeffrey M. Anderson, Common Sense Media
Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo has created a fascinating hybrid -- and a moody, spooky movie besides.
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Frank Swietek, One Guy's Opinion
Treats a molehill of an idea as though it were a mountain of fright.
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Dan Kaufman, Paste Magazine
With Intruders , Fresnadillo has made a small but quality film that will make you furrow your brow as much as bite your nails.
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Andrea Chase, Killer Movie Reviews
Defying science and religion both and striking at the darkest places in the psyche, it exposes the fragility of both life and of sanity.
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Kelly Vance, East Bay Express
Proves conclusively that not all Spaniards make good horror movies.
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David Noh, Film Journal International
One more bummer supernatural thriller, all too easy to figure out and with an arty overlay that mitigates pulpy enjoyment.
Read all 24 critic reviews
Featured Audience Ratings
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Intruders did strike me as an pleasant surprise when i first saw it. Here is a film which is genuinely scary and disturbing as it is beautiful and touching. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's film begins as a dark horror fantasy but quite soon turns into something much more… More
Intruders did strike me as an pleasant surprise when i first saw it. Here is a film which is genuinely scary and disturbing as it is beautiful and touching. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's film begins as a dark horror fantasy but quite soon turns into something much more psychologically richer and therefore thousand of times more interesting that i would have never guessed.
It is a bit shame to see that Fresnadillo and his team has made a decision to create an literal boogeyman with heavy use of cgi, while this would have been a quite scary film without any monster. I am not saying that the monster of this film is sloppily created but it is certainly a distraction and belongs more into the world of Lord of the Rings than this kind of domestic horror film. Nicolás Casariego's and Jaime Marques's screenplay follows two different stories which in the end comes together as a one and same story. I liked how smoothly these stories actually transformed into a one big whole and the huge revelation in story is quite a shock at first. It certainly has echoes of Shyamalan's greatest twists and changes completely the way we look this film. But the screenplay is not a bulletproof by an mile and actually has quite a many holes in it. It just does not stand up for an closer observation, but i admire the ambition behind it.
Intruders has many strenghts and one of the best of them are Clive Owen in one of his most impressive performances to date and young Ella Purnell who is very natural in front of camera. Their chemistry as a dad and daughter feels very authentic. Other impressive element here was Enrique Chediak's atmospheric cinematography. He certainly knows how to rise tension with his camera and some images here are truly breathtaking. When it comes Juan Carlos Fresnadillo as an director i do think that he is someone with great potential. Intruders is by far his most accomplished work to date. I didn't like his Intacto and find his 28 Weeks Later as another cliched zombie-film, but this film has more ambition and originality in it than both of his earlier work together.
There are flaws to be found here, but overall i did find Intruders as a creepy and surprisingly emotional experience to sit through. For people who like horror-films this is quite possibly an welcome surprise.
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One of those movies that started out with a lot of promise, but by the end I was like "huh?". Too bad, as par for the course for most horror films these days...
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Back in the VHS boom of the eighties I spent way too much time watching horror movies. You see, back then horror was the genre of choice for straight to video productions and my local rental stores would get about five new genre titles a week. The most anticipated tapes were those… More
Back in the VHS boom of the eighties I spent way too much time watching horror movies. You see, back then horror was the genre of choice for straight to video productions and my local rental stores would get about five new genre titles a week. The most anticipated tapes were those featuring a recurring villain, Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, Chucky, The Critters etc. The current cycle of horror has been lacking a franchise with such a character but "Intruders" may just have given us one. His name is Hollowface and his schtick is lurking in kid's closets, awaiting the chance to steal their faces. He's a pretty good addition to the horror villain roster, almost a cross between Candyman and Freddy Krueger, but sadly doesn't get the movie he deserves here.
Fresnadilla previously helmed "28 Weeks Later" and didn't do a very good job but at least here he eschews the rapid editing that butchered that movie. He instead goes for brooding atmosphere but lacks the skill to create any real tension.
For a genre film this has a lot of quality acting talent but it's Purnell as Owen's victimised daughter who really shines here. Last year she showed Kiera Knightley to be average at best by playing her younger self in "Never Let Me Go" and the Waffler predicts a big future for her.
The main problem with this movie is that the film-makers take it too seriously and just don't have the skill to aim so high. If they focus more on their villain this could potentially become a fun little straight to DVD franchise.
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What starts as an intense and thoughtful exploration into the nature of fear turns into a poorly constructed thriller that half heartily examines post traumatic stress disorder.
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Really, really, really dumb. One of the worst "scary" or "thrilling" movies I've seen because it is neither.
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