As if working in a grocery store wasn’t a thankless job already, this 1989 film asks what it would be like if we added a deranged slasher to the night shift. Whenever my wife mentions how much she hates doing the shopping, I remind her that it could be worse, but Intruder is kind of a worst-case scenario for grocery store employees. After all of these years, has the product spoiled, or is this a surprisingly fresh pearl that someone hid in the back of the genre?
It’s a simple yet excellent concept of staging a horror movie in the grocery store, using it as the killer’s playground. The night crew of a local shop has just been told the owners are selling their store, which means the entire staff is in to help slash prices, but those aren’t the only things being cut. Throw in a jealous ex-boyfriend, some ineffective police officers, a little romance, and now we have us a movie.
The setting and practical effects are what make this project stand out mostly. It was filmed in a real grocery store at night over two weeks, and tons of discount food was brought in to be used as props for the shoot. This is great because we get to see many real products in the background, and some are even used as weapons, but there are also generic brands – like cans that just read BEER – to help fill out the store.
Actors in the film have said some of the food spoiled throughout production and made certain scenes difficult. The crew acquired use of the store on the cheap, they were also lucky enough to have KNB (Robert Kurtzman, Greg Nicotero, and Howard Berger) for their special effects before they truly broke out. This trio is responsible for some remarkable work across multiple films, and they didn’t phone it in for Intruder, even if the pay was low. We see some excellent use of body parts and wax models, but my favorite is the killer beating a victim down with someone else’s severed head.
Okay, so one other thing that might entice certain fans to this film is a few names in the cast list. Sam and Ted Raimi both have small roles as employees, and Bruce Campbell has a brief cameo at the end as a cop, but none of them are the main characters. This didn’t stop the production company from putting their names front and center on the home releases, however, and Renee Estevez, who looked like a rising star at the time, was even given top billing on some materials, but it’s actually Elizabeth Cox (also known as Liz Kern) playing our lead character. We also have cameos from notable actors who were in The Three Stooges and Green Acres, but I was here for Eugene Glazer of La Femme Nikita fame.
Those first few names are all close associates of director Scott Spiegel, who helped them with several short films and even received a writing credit on Evil Dead II. There are some fantastic choices he made with Intruder, like cutting away from the first couple of kills so that we’re less suspicious when the killer is supposedly taken out by one blow, and so viewers aren’t expecting the gnarly kills later, which makes the gore feel more earned. It isn’t just about interesting slaughters, but camera angles as well.
We are shown several raised shots of the entire store, attacks through obscuring objects like a green bottle, he uses mirrors and almost nutty perspectives. Not everyone is a fan, though, especially of that one looking out from inside the rotary phone. It comes across as someone who paid perfect attention in film school but didn’t have the experience to know when to pull it back yet. Rumor has it Tobe Hooper of Texas Chain Saw Massacre fame almost directed this one, and I can’t imagine him doing a floor-sweeping cam (okay, maybe).
Several things don’t quite work in the movie. Not all of the acting is solid, there is some seriously questionable stage fighting in the beginning, and a few goofs that are hard to forget once spotted. Mostly I just hate the character of Bub and any time he speaks. The script has a few quirks that feel either genius or groan-worthy, but a lot of the problems come from terrible character motivations and reasoning. Not that I think anyone was expecting a suspenseful thriller here.
There are still a few wonderful bits of odd humor, some darker comedy, as well as missed opportunities for gags that may have seemed too easy, but it all leads to a beautiful ending where the remaining cast realizes they survived only to still be screwed. The soundtrack is mostly ominous tones in spots and some quick stingers, but the composer went ham with an almost whimsical piano for the final act chase scenes.
The movie faced production issues also. Although it was only 87 minutes long, the pacing is a problem in the first third, and the five minutes the studio cut was from the parts people wanted to see, filing down the violence and gore to a soft R rating. The marketing materials and some trailers for the home release also blatantly revealed who the killer was, even if no one was buying that red herring with the ex-boyfriend. Not that the mystery is too hard to figure out, but I enjoyed my experience with Intruder more, not immediately being aware of who was hiding in the shadows. There was also an issue with the title.
Originally, this was a short film called The Night Crew and so one of the advertised names was Night Crew: The Final Checkout, which is spectacular. It was also apparently named Nerve Endings briefly (according to IMDB), but the studio opted for a more generic title that might draw in more curious parties in the video stores, so we were stuck with Intruder.
I’m not sure what they were thinking, but this movie manages to push past a lot of baggage and deliver. It’s an easy film to pick apart but an incredibly enjoyable one to sit back and just experience. In a genre full of similar scenes, Intruder does its best to stand out just a bit and be a good time. This is a late-night shop worth checking out, whether it’s just to see some familiar faces, watch someone’s passion project about their time working in food retail, or see an old genre in a fun setting.
