Intruder is a Creative, Fun Slasher with Brutal Kills

Intruder was created by Sam Raimi, the director known for bringing the Evil Dead franchise to life. He even stars in his own film, including with his brother Ted Raimi, and Bruce Campbell, who played Ash Williams in the original Evil Dead trilogy. Intruder follows the story of a small crew of people working in a supermarket, that becomes the target of a bloody massacre. 

The movie begins with the crew preparing to close up, until one particular customer, named Craig, shows up to the store. He confronts the main character, Jennifer, who was his ex — girlfriend. She rejects him, and he gets pissed off, punching her in the face, that leads to a massive beatdown from the other employees. They swarm Craig, failing to beat him up the first time. They eventually catch him later within the store, and they kick him out. 

The crew later finds out from the two store owners, Bill and Danny, that the store is going to be sold. The team is upset over this realization, knowing that they are all going to have to look for another job. Bill appears to be the most upset, and he walks away from Danny during a meeting, leaving both men sad over this unfortunate conclusion. 

Craig continues to harass Jennifer through phone calls, and she gives in to telling her best friend, Linda, about Craig’s past. They only dated for two months, and he ended up killing someone by accident, leading to prison time. 

Linda leaves the store early, telling Jennifer that her boyfriend is going to meet up with her later for a night out. She buys stuff from the store, and then leaves for the night. Linda is then confronted by a stranger, who wields a knife. 

The rest of the staff is stuck working late, preparing to put everything off half, since the store is going to be closed. 

The staff is unaware that an intruder has entered the store, that is only there for a bit of dangerous fun. 

Everyone present in the store is brutally slaughtered with the store equipment, leaving only one last person, Jennifer. She was busy cleaning the cash registers, as everyone around her was getting slaughtered. She ends up finding the bodies of all of her co — workers, including Danny, who was left alive for a brief moment before death. She is attacked by an unknown person in the meat locker, who turns out to be the killer, and she is able to get away when she stabs his hand with the hook. 

She runs into Craig, and believing that he is the killer, she knocks him out with the hook. She reunites with Bill, who is shockingly still alive. He tells Jennifer that Craig knocked him out, and he believes that he was the one who killed everyone. Jennifer is relieved to find someone alive, and she stays with him as he makes a phone call to the police. Jennifer realizes that she is covered in too much blood, and when she looks up, she spots a wound on one of his hands, that looked like it had been stabbed by a hook. 

Jennifer makes a run for it, and Bill chases after her. He reveals that he killed everyone, because he did not want to lose the store. He was only supposed to kill Danny, but he wanted to kill everyone else, not wanting to risk leaving any witnesses behind. They get into a scuffle for a long time, and Craig comes to Jennifer’s rescue. He gets into a fight with Bill, and Jennifer escapes through a bathroom window. Bill catches up to her, prepares to kill Jennifer, and then she gets the upper hand, taking the knife he used on her best friend, Linda. 

She stabs Bill in the chest, finishing him off. Jennifer makes a phone call to the police, and Bill comes back from the dead, pushing over the telephone booth. Craig comes to her rescue again, attacking Bill with a cleaver. The cops arrive, but once they see Craig holding the bloody cleaver, they instantly assume that he is the killer, and that Jennifer was his accomplice. The cops arrest both of them, and they plead with the police, telling them they didn’t do any of this. Bill is still alive, telling the cops Jennifer and Craig were the ones who killed everyone. 

The movie ends with Jennifer screaming as Bill clings to life, leaving the fates of the two survivors and the killer unknown. 

I loved how ambiguous the ending was. The funny thing about the ending, is that I had a feeling it was going to have a bad ending. This massacre took place in the supermarket, and there were no cameras, and I’m sure this is a small town. People are going to instantly believe that Craig had something to do with the murders, and who knows what the fate of Jennifer will be like?

I did struggle to feel sorry for Craig, because he did hurt Jennifer, and he attacked the rest of her co — workers…but Bill is definitely the real villain here. 

Intruder is an entertaining slasher with a lot of heart, and it’s one of the best B — rated horror flicks of the 80s!

Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn