Intruders (2012)
Average Rating: 4.9/10
Reviews Counted: 66
Fresh: 21 | Rotten: 45
Intruders has a fantastic first act but then settles into a bland plot and scare tactics that aren't all too scary.
Average Rating: 4.4/10
Critic Reviews: 16
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 13
Intruders has a fantastic first act but then settles into a bland plot and scare tactics that aren't all too scary.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.6/5
User Ratings: 4,761
My Rating
Movie Info
Intruders tells parallel stories of two families whose lives are disrupted by menacing apparitions: in Spain, a mother tries to protect her son from a faceless stranger, while in Britain, a young girl has terrifying dreams of a demon who becomes a real danger to her and her family. -- (C) Universal
Watch It Now
Cast
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Clive Owen
John Farrow -
Carice van Houten
Sue Farrow, Susanna, Su... -
Daniel Brühl
Antonio, Priest -
Pilar López de Ayala
Luisa -
Ella Purnell
Mia -
Izan Corchero
Juan -
Kerry Fox
Dr. Rachel -
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Intruders Trailer & Photos
All Critics (67) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (21) | Rotten (46) | DVD (6)
Gets disappointingly literal with what proves to be a goofy psychological story.
Top CriticThis is ... an intelligent, scary little movie. Because it's smart enough to know what's really scary is what's inside us.
"Intruders'' looks great and has a promising opening, but this atmospheric Spanish psychological thriller is otherwise pretty underwhelming.
Why do so many horror movies that begin with promise fall apart in the final act?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Intruders is a thriller hybrid that goes a long way and it is definitely worth the watch.
"Intruders" is a horror film that has absolutely nothing memorable or noteworthy about it.
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.
Intruders is a slow-going psychological thriller with very few thrills and little intrigue.
Owen is always at least good, and here he's perfectly cast.
Intruders was either the victim of reshoots and postproduction meddling or it desperately needed some.
Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo has created a fascinating hybrid -- and a moody, spooky movie besides.
Treats a molehill of an idea as though it were a mountain of fright.
With Intruders , Fresnadillo has made a small but quality film that will make you furrow your brow as much as bite your nails.
Defying science and religion both and striking at the darkest places in the psyche, it exposes the fragility of both life and of sanity.
Proves conclusively that not all Spaniards make good horror movies.
One more bummer supernatural thriller, all too easy to figure out and with an arty overlay that mitigates pulpy enjoyment.
Joins the crowded subgenre of childhood boogeyman scare-fests that fail to find the spine-tingling power of what we think may be under the bed.
The mildly incoherent script simply doesn't generate enough suspense or provide enough scares to allow viewers to invest in its outcome.
More adventurous viewers will discover a challenging picture that bends reality in a subtle matter, taking an alternative path to sniff out some scares.
Never compels the viewer to buy into any of this or to invest emotionally. And the scary stuff is only frighteningly bland.
Audience Reviews for Intruders
Super Reviewer
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- John Farrow: Sue. Tell them!
- Susanna: I didn't see anything.
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- John Farrow: Monsters are cowards. You stand up to them they run away.
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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.