User reviews

INTRUDERS is a pretty good exploration of the alien abduction phenomenon, based on a book by real-life abductee Budd Hopkins. As a three hour TV movie it holds the attention throughout, boasting an excellent turn from Richard Crenna as a psychiatrist who gets drawn into the unusual reports from one of his patients and ends up leading a crusade against government cover-ups.

The only real negative thing about INTRUDERS is that it was made in the 1990s, where all such TV movies inevitably look cheap and ramshackle to modern audiences. Indeed, there's an often cheap and cheesy look and feel to the production, which saps the realism. But there are also many reasons to tune in, as this is a drama that narrowly predates THE X-FILES and handles an outlandish subject matter in a surprisingly mature way.

The film is also rather frightening for its time, focusing extensively on the abduction scenes; there are lots of nightmarish moments involving the "Greys" here, and the spooky atmosphere is understandable when you find out that Dan Curtis (proponent of many a 1970s TV horror flick) is the guy who directed it. Crenna was always an underrated actor and I can't help but feel this might be one of his greatest late stage performances.

At last something true about aliens that surround the mankind since the primitive era of cave men, presented as TV mini-series based on Budd Hopkins's novel where he gathered on several sources and solid evidences to write this book, Michael Apted is one of executive producers lending credence to the project.

The storyline focuses in the four characters only, the skeptic psychiatrist Dr. Neil Chase (Richard Crenna), the housewife Mary Wilkes (Mare Winningham) from Nebraska who has been abducted since the tender age, Lesley Hahn (Daphine Ashbrook) from California has a sudden pregnancy managed by the aliens at spaceship, and finally Mary Wilkes's sister Leigh Holland (Susan Blakely) who was linked with Dr. Neil aimed to make a bridge with his half-hearted sister to applying the retrocognition process.

Also appears a whimsical Ufologist Addison Leach (Steve Berkoff) to introduce Dr. Neil in this new ground, aside the movie touch in hard subject that cause distrust in all scientific community, stays clear that US's government tries by all means cover-up such events, whereof it is common knowledge of the military.

Dealing a TV series this a overlong presentation, thus the screenplay was done to insert all major key scenes to got to whole picture, starting that point the picture slows down, some sequences were fully disposable, due I'd watched the shortest version on TV in 1996, actually the casting didn't help too much, Richard Creena seems so symphathetic somewhat bellitles the character, in other hand the aliens sequences is quite amazing and improving the presentation.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 1996 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7.5.

Dan Curtis directed this TV movie based on the book by Budd Hopkins that stars Richard Crenna as Dr. Neil Chase(based on real-life Dr. John Mack) who becomes involved in regression hypnosis involving two women(played by Daphne Ashbrook and Mare Winningham) who are troubled by nightmares and blackouts that seem to be the work of aliens who abduct them for medical experiments involving harvested DNA to create a half-human/alien hybrid for unknown reasons. The military knows about it, but is determined to cover it all up, and Dr. Chase finds that his career and reputation are on the line, but these two women still need his help... Marginal film has a fine cast(especially the sturdy Crenna) but goes on far too long, dissipating any dramatic impact.

"The X-Files" would perfect this subject matter when it premiered a year later...

Intruders, an over-long made for television movie, ranks as my third favorite film made on the topic of ufo's and alien abduction. Only Communion and The Interrupted Journey ranks ahead of it.

Richard Crenna, the film's protagonist, is a therapist who must deal with the reality of ufo's when one of his patients thrusts an "alien abduction" account onto his plate. His initial reaction is to brush her off as a nutcase. Soon, when other people with similar accounts journey into his life, he begins to take a serious look at the possibility of ufo's actually abducting people.

His investigation begins to uncover a certain amount of evidence and a government involvement(pre-X-Files) that forces him to take a 180 degree turn in his feelings about the subject.

Richard Crenna, as pointed out by another commenter, does seem to be a composite of artist and author Budd Hopkins and Harvard professor John Mack. Crenna is very good in his role. I especially enjoyed watching his characters transition from non-believer into believer.

The film is frightening in its depictions of abductions and encounters with aliens. There are several sequences featuring abductions and several scenes on board ufo's. Where Fire In The Sky seemed to tease the audience, Intruders wants to bombard it.

Very, very frightening! A must see!

Hard to believe there are actually backers who put up good money to produce this nonsense. Well there must be an audience for it. I personally will bow out after the first episode. Does it really run for another three episodes? I preferred Richard Crenna in Our Miss Brooks and The Real McCoys.

I watched this around 1995. I was a teen, it was very late in the night, I was in the country. The alien experimenting scenes were marked in my memory. I couldn't sleep for days and I still can see the scenes when I close my eyes, more than 20 years later.

I remember seeing this movie on VHS rental and I immediately liked it. It started me on reading Bud Hopkins' books on alien abduction. As stated here time and again, the acting is very good and the story very involving. I remember especially enjoying reading the book after viewing the movie. This way I had a visual reminder every time when reading. On all accounts Intruders is a convincing and scary movie that should please all lovers of the genre.

@dunneboy from Sweden: I'm not sure which version DVD you got, but the movie's listed run time is 163 min. The R2 DVD of Intruders runs for 162 min.(And that's without factoring in PAL speedup:-)

This is by far the scariest and most realistic alien movie ever. This is the only alien movie to deal with aliens implanting a fetus in a human and showing hybrid alien and humans. This movie is based on the book "Intruders" in which Budd Hopkins uses hypnosis to reveal the blocked memories of alien abduction. You must see this movie.

Definitely one of the better "UFO-epics" out there. BUT, the version released on DVD is much shorter compared to the version showed on TV, and that's a shame. One of the most prominent and important scenes, when Dr. Chase have found a circle of burned grass at Leslie's back yard and two neighbor children is sitting by and waiting "for the moon to come down again" is totally missing. There are also several more key scenes edited out. For example the scene where two government agents "visits" Dr. Chase and tell him not to waste his time on this "abduction" rubbish.

We can only hope for a proper DVD release in the future, with all material from the network version inserted again.

If you like this one, you should give "Fire In The Sky" (1993) a try.

"Intruders" is in my opinion the most underrated masterpiece when it comes to the topic of UFOs, alien abduction etc.... I gave this movie a well deserved 10!

Of course, a lot of mistakes where made in the movie which you can clearly see, but no other movie has ever come this close to put down a realistic feel concerning alien abduction.

The special effects used in the movie are stunning for it's time and for it's budget.

I rediscovered this movie after 20 years, and as a kid, this movie truly got to me, and 20 years later it still does.

"ET" or "Close encounters" never had that effect on me.

This is one of the best treatments of this subject available, far more accurately reflecting its (non-fiction) source material than "Communion," for example, or "Fire in the Sky." The way in which Crenna's character (probably a composite of Budd Hopkins and the late Dr. John Mack) slowly comes to believe his terrified and bewildered "patients," in spite of a healthy skepticism, is quite persuasive. The human dramas associated with witness reports are the focus here (as they are in the excellent "The UFO Incident"), and the visual effects, though gasp-producing, take care not to distort those reports. All the performances are first-rate. One of the three writers, incidentally,Tracey Tormé--the son of the later singer-songwriter, Mel Tormé--is also one of the writers of "Fire in the Sky."

This entertaining and informative adaptation of Budd Hopkins' book by the same name originally aired on CBS where Canada and The US watched in suspense. After seeing the first of two episodes, I just had to know what would happen in the next one. I have LOVED this movie ever since I saw the first fifteen minutes of it when I was twelve years old. Today it remains near the top of my favorite films/shows/whatever. Gray aliens, creepy abductions, UFOs, suspense, action; what's not to like.

My question and the point of this message is as follows

Why does the UK have this TV movie released on DVD, but Canada and the US, where the show aired, are still waiting for this title to be released?.

A petition may be needed.

Shawn

This is one of the best stories based on true experiences from people all over the world about UFO's and abductions which is made into a movie. Good book from the initial author Budd Hopkins who is a specialist about the subject. It is in line with other movies like "A Fire In The Sky" from Travis Walton and "Communion" from the author Whitley Strieber which are also based on true stories. Luckily the filmmakers did have hired good actors. Richard Crenna and Mare Winningham are very persuasive. A must see for everyone who have interest into the subject. I would like to buy this film on DVD (widescreen if possible), but unfortunately it is still not available on DVD.

Wow holy cannoli, this film was absolutely amazing, mind-blowing, just an absolute masterpiece in every sense of the word, from start to finish, the film never gets boring all through out, it leaves you wanted more, this film was really well done. I Wish it was on blu-ray.

Dan Curtis is one of the most underrated directors of his generation and this solid alien abduction film is another example of his ability.

This is a great film in the alien abduction genre and considering it was done with a TV movie budget, it's practically a masterpiece. Well done.

It should only be seen in its unedited form, as there were edited versions on DVD that were just bad. Only see the 2hr 41 min full version.