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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A forgotten 80s slasher gem gets new life, November 13, 2011
I ordered mine from the Synapse Films website,for the work-print exclusive. Got it a whole month early. YAY!! This was a good blind buy for me, as I just discovered it when it was announced a month or two back. And when I saw it was made by Sam Raimi's old crew from Evil Dead, and Sam Raimi in a starring role, with a cameo by the Great Bruce Campbell, it was immediately an instant blind-buy. A group of employees in a grocery store/supermarket works their final shift overnight,as the store is closing permanently. The main protagonist has a borderline ex-boyfriend obsessed with her. In a little while, people start dying in violent and graphic ways. The kills in this film are top-notch. Not all of them are creative, but the best ones, CAUTION:POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!!,like an employee getting crushed by a trash compactor,and another getting his head sawed in half,are the stuff of a horror and gorehound fanatic's wildest dreams,or uhh,nightmares. The movie moves along at an adequate pace, the kills start shortly after the half-hour mark, and does not let up soon after. Both Sam and Ted Raimi of EVIL DEAD fame have roles, and Bruce Campbell makes a cameo at the end. By the time this movie was made, the MPAA was already on their crusade against horror, esp. slasher movies, and were very strict, demanding severe cuts for so much as a few drops of red blood, at the risk of the old dreaded X-rating(now NC-17,same thing). And this movie was no exception. About 4-5 minutes were sliced out of this movie, rendering it neutered. It wasn't until many years later, that Wizard Video/Full Moon released this uncut in the U.S. on DVD, some more recent years back. I've never owned that, so I can't speak for the quality of that release. Anyway, as always, Synapse Films has pulled out all the stops on this baby. The DTS-HD 2.0 Mono is clear, and about as sharp as any of the knives and gadgets in the flick. High volume is not needed to hear this well. The 1.78:1 Anamorphic picture is sprinkled with natural film grain throughout, but nothing that would deter enjoyment. In fact, it looks better than it probably ever has. Detail is accurate and on the mark, revealing a little more than seen before. Colors are vivid without being too bright or dark, just right. In other words, this may not be the best-looking blu-ray, but for a low-budget movie made in the 1980s, this is impressive. Very well done. The extras are equally astounding. First, we got a fun audio commentary with writer/director Scott Spiegel and producer Lawrence Bender. It's not overly informative, but it's a good listen, as they recall their memories and enjoy and laugh with each other and the movie. They comment on little details in the movie, such as POV shots, how times have changed(price of cigarettes etc),filming etc. A good fun listen. Next, is a half-hour retrospective featurette, interviews with Bruce Campbell, Ted Raimi, Scott Spiegel, Lawrence Bender, Elizabeth Cox, Danny Hicks and some others. Sam Raimi,is sadly,MIA. Some cool behind the scenes photos in between. The Outtakes from the lost short-film, Night Crew are def. worth a look. Then there's a brief interview with filmmaker and fan Vincent Pereira, it's brief but informative chat about how he discovered the movie through GOREZINE mag, and was let down by the censorship. And cast audition footage, worth a look. Now the work-print footage comes from the bonus work-print DVD-R that I got with this set. Some slightly extended kills, that is very interesting and some other scenes and dialogue not in the final director's cut. The work-print version as a whole is very much worth a watch, as some other scenes and dialogue bits cannot be discovered in any other version. But for those who didn't get the bonus disc, the extended work-print kills are on on the BD and DVD as an extra. Another slam-dunk release from Synapse. They are on a roll, and I hope they keep up the great work. Recommended to all horror/slasher/gorehound and Sam Raimi/Bruce Campbell fans. Cheers!
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"I'm just CRAZY about this STORE!", September 6, 2005
This review is from: INTRUDER (DVD)
Intruder is a "love story" about one cashier at a po-dunk supermarket and her ex-boyfriend/ex-con that still loves her. Sadly, she doesn't love him anymore. Maybe it has to do with the fact that she broke up with him a year ago and he just can't say goodbye? Its possible. That doesn't matter to him though. He goes to such lengths to prove he still loves her that he calls her repeatedly and gets in a brutal fight with her boss and co-workers while she is working...but not before socking her across the face. Ahh, young love.
On top of all of this she and her fellow employees find out their much loved place of employment is being sold to another company and the store will be shut down indefinitely within a month. While nowadays this would be met with as much concern by a supermarket employee as finding out your much hated enemy has contracted syphilis apparently jobs were so scare in 1988 that the girl's boss offers to give her a "recommendation for a job at another supermarket". As if this idea wasn't scary enough...somebody is stalking around the inside of the store killing each one of them off. Is it the ex-boyfriend???
Intruder is far from a masterpiece but is a good enough slasher flick to elicit shocks and laughs in abundance. While the "plot" isn't all that original there is a lot in Intruder that is. It is obvious that the director (Scott Spiegel, good friend of Sam Raimi and co-writer of Evil Dead II) was heavily influenced by Raimi. Some of the shots that he uses are totally bizarre (including the first ever shot up through the dial of a rotary phone!) and absolutely does not skimp with the gore. At least in this uncut version that is.
In many ways though this film is also a spoof of the slasher subgenre itself. 90% of the victims in this movie are male and I challenge anybody not to laugh as the "Mystery Killer" slowly drags off the screaming, writhing men to their ghastly fates. It also illustrates how nobody in slasher movies ever seems to attempt to defend themselves (except of course, for the heroine) even though their life is quite obviously about to be snuffed out in the grisliest way possible (a trash compactor and infamously, a band saw to name a few). If the movie played in total seriousness it would be funny enough as it is and just plain sad...but due to the over-the-top quality of the movie it all comes out as just plain funny. It is obvious the filmmakers just want to have a bloody good time and you can't help but be infected by it about halfway through the film.
The stand-out performance in this film belongs to Dan Hicks (and on a smaller scale The Brothers Raimi). Many of you will probably remember him for his role as Jake the redneck tow-truck driver in Evil Dead 2 ("BOBBY JOEEEEEEEE!!!"). After watching his totally goofy/fun performance it is an honest to god crime that he hasn't had bigger parts in more movies.
If you like absolutely ridiculous slasher films (and you can make it through some initial bloodless corniness) then Intruder shouldn't disappoint.
(NOTE: The back of the DVD refers to an "Ex-cop trying to figure out why these killings are going on" or something along those lines. This is totally false and I have no clue why this is there. The whole movie takes place in its entirety within the confines and surrounding areas of the supermarket and there is no ex-cop subplot. Also, on the back of the DVD there is a "still" of Bruce Campbell in one scene that is an obvious facsimile to make you think he is in the movie for more than 60 seconds. If you buy this movie because of any of the previous two misnomers you will be a tad ticked off. Other than that however...watch it.)
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Generic, but with good kills/gore, June 14, 2005
This review is from: INTRUDER (DVD)
Since this is a slasher movie, I'll keep this short. Suffice to say, this film is utterly generic in all ways except that which I'm about to mention: Odd camerawork, and particularly gruesome violence. This isn't a great film, or even a great slasher film, but it's worth seeing.
This was directed by Scott Spiegel, famed for his connection to Evil Dead II. Clearly, some of Raimi's directorial tendencies have rubbed off on Spiegel, as he inserts lots of senseless, unusual camera-angles. He's not as kinetic, or as big on moving it around, but he actually tops Raimi in terms of sheer gratuity, as exemplified by the stangest shot of the film, which is within a telephone, looking up at someone through the holes in the mechanism.
This movie is most famed for it's gore, and not with out good reason. Though it's got a fairly low-body count, it's makes almost all of them matter, including a horrific eye-skewering, head crushing by trash compactor, a gruesome hook the the face, and a truly brutal scene of one character having their head sawed in half. The gore isn't up to modern, mainstream standards of realism, but it's really quite impressive for a very low-budget film from the 80's. Sadly, the kills are clustered together too closely, as they often are in slasher movies. Still, they deliver, even if they could be spread out a bit more.
This DVD is in fact available now, though I won't say where as this would doubtless be against Amazon.com policy. (It ain't at all tough to find, however. You don't need my help.) It looks more or less like crap, but it is uncut, so it's a vast improvement over any other legitimate American VHS releases.
Definitely a reasonable way to pass 85 or so minutes.
Grade: C+
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