Intensity
- TV Movie
- 1997
- 3h 6m
IMDb RATING
7.1/10
2.3K
YOUR RATING
A woman spending Thanksgiving at the home of her friend's family in the rural Pacific Northwest finds herself in the clutches of a disturbed serial killer.A woman spending Thanksgiving at the home of her friend's family in the rural Pacific Northwest finds herself in the clutches of a disturbed serial killer.A woman spending Thanksgiving at the home of her friend's family in the rural Pacific Northwest finds herself in the clutches of a disturbed serial killer.
- Director
- Writers
- Stars
- Awards
- 3 nominations total
Babs Chula
- Mrs. John Q. Citizen
- (as Babz Chula)
Alf Humphreys
- George Jespersen
- (as Alfred E. Humphreys)
BJ Harrison
- Carmen Trevaine
- (as B.J. Harrison)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
This film may give assumption that it's a corny thriller but people thinking this would be easily mistaken!. This film is INTENSE!!!!. I know thrillers that capture you for the most part of action scenes, but this film captures you throughout the entire ordeal. And it is an ordeal. Even the ordeals each character experiences... it's suspenseful, extremely thrilling, 110% capturing, and when it comes down to it... just INTENSE. It fit's it's name to a T.
Not ever have I seen a thriller that is a TV movie ever be so intense. This is a trillion times worse than your American Psycho... this murderer is a mass slaughterer with the most insanity I've ever seen a human have in a thriller film. You sometimes wonder if this person is human. A glazed insane gloom look inside the eyes of this murderer is enough to make your hair stick up off of your arm. John does a BRILLIANT job!.
A brilliant thriller... check it out if you haven't already.
Not ever have I seen a thriller that is a TV movie ever be so intense. This is a trillion times worse than your American Psycho... this murderer is a mass slaughterer with the most insanity I've ever seen a human have in a thriller film. You sometimes wonder if this person is human. A glazed insane gloom look inside the eyes of this murderer is enough to make your hair stick up off of your arm. John does a BRILLIANT job!.
A brilliant thriller... check it out if you haven't already.
I just watched this mini TV-series a few days ago. A friend of mine recommended seeing it. So I did. And I wasn't disappointed.
The story was pretty ok, but what really caught my eyes were the two main characters: Chyna (the heroine) and Mr. Vess (the bad guy). Chyna is insecure but determined young woman who has been neglected as a child and thus she suffers from recurring nightmares and repeating flash backs from her miserable past. Mr. Vess on the other hand comes from a good loving family or so he states when Chyna tries to use inversed psychology with him (with no obvious luck) when she's being held captive at his house of horrors, aiming to save a missing girl named Ariel.
Well coming from a good background or not, Vess is not the man you wanna mess with. But what we also get to know very soon after seeing Mr. Vess for the first time in action, that he is in fact a genuine psychopath who likes to hunt not just game but also people during his morbid little trips on the road with his big bad VR in order to bring home some trophies to 'his' sweet Ariel.
He's handy with his knife and careful with his life... But not enough that his extremely sensitive senses and trained dogs will get him of the hook this time. _Intense_ suspense. Thrilling moments guaranteed and even some mysticism. I especially liked Mr. Vess' performance. Particularly his facial expressions and deep sighing and quiet murmuring when playing with his knives added some chilling effects on the character.
Now it's my time to recommend this great mini TV-series to all you people who haven't seen it. It's based on Koontz novel, but I can't make any comparisons with the book and the TV-series since I have never read any of his books. Maybe I ought to...
The story was pretty ok, but what really caught my eyes were the two main characters: Chyna (the heroine) and Mr. Vess (the bad guy). Chyna is insecure but determined young woman who has been neglected as a child and thus she suffers from recurring nightmares and repeating flash backs from her miserable past. Mr. Vess on the other hand comes from a good loving family or so he states when Chyna tries to use inversed psychology with him (with no obvious luck) when she's being held captive at his house of horrors, aiming to save a missing girl named Ariel.
Well coming from a good background or not, Vess is not the man you wanna mess with. But what we also get to know very soon after seeing Mr. Vess for the first time in action, that he is in fact a genuine psychopath who likes to hunt not just game but also people during his morbid little trips on the road with his big bad VR in order to bring home some trophies to 'his' sweet Ariel.
He's handy with his knife and careful with his life... But not enough that his extremely sensitive senses and trained dogs will get him of the hook this time. _Intense_ suspense. Thrilling moments guaranteed and even some mysticism. I especially liked Mr. Vess' performance. Particularly his facial expressions and deep sighing and quiet murmuring when playing with his knives added some chilling effects on the character.
Now it's my time to recommend this great mini TV-series to all you people who haven't seen it. It's based on Koontz novel, but I can't make any comparisons with the book and the TV-series since I have never read any of his books. Maybe I ought to...
Great Acting all around. Great Direction Excellent TV Movie
A troubled young woman agrees to stay with a girlfriend at the girlfriend's parents' home in a remote location. A maniac breaks into the house and kills the girlfriend and her parents. The troubled young woman escapes from the house but finds a captive girl in the killer's van. She decides to do something about it, and this leads to a confrontation between the woman and killer. Sound vaguely familiar? It should. A few years later, the basic plot was reworked for the French fright flick, HIGH INTENSITY. John C. McGinley is the deranged killer, and he's quite persuasive as a homicidal maniac. The rest of the cast is pretty much unknown, as this was shot on the cheap in Canada for TV consumption. It is intense, indeed, and I would not recommend it for anyone under the age of 14 or thereabouts.
When I read Dean Koontz's "Intensity", I thought it was the most exciting book I'd ever read. I was thrilled to find the movie on TV and delighted to have been able to catch it on tape.
Although there are some holes in the plot, it is so consistently riveting that I barely noticed those indiscretions. I do wish there had been more mention of Chyna's motivation for so boldly risking her life. The book explains (very well, I think) what drives her behavior, but if you see the movie before reading the book, you're left wondering if she's even crazier than her adversary.
Flaws in the plot or screen writing aside, I thought the acting was superb, especially McGinley's chilling portrayal of the ultimate adrenaline junkie. He manages to paint him not as the deranged nutcase that we'd expect, but rather as an evil and sadistic, yet perfectly sane and sensible sociopath. And THAT is the scariest aspect of the movie.
I would highly recommend this movie for anyone who likes a good thriller. It's well worth the 4 or so hours that it runs, if you can find it on TV. You may catch a flub or two, or even not like it at all, but I bet you'll never forget it!
Although there are some holes in the plot, it is so consistently riveting that I barely noticed those indiscretions. I do wish there had been more mention of Chyna's motivation for so boldly risking her life. The book explains (very well, I think) what drives her behavior, but if you see the movie before reading the book, you're left wondering if she's even crazier than her adversary.
Flaws in the plot or screen writing aside, I thought the acting was superb, especially McGinley's chilling portrayal of the ultimate adrenaline junkie. He manages to paint him not as the deranged nutcase that we'd expect, but rather as an evil and sadistic, yet perfectly sane and sensible sociopath. And THAT is the scariest aspect of the movie.
I would highly recommend this movie for anyone who likes a good thriller. It's well worth the 4 or so hours that it runs, if you can find it on TV. You may catch a flub or two, or even not like it at all, but I bet you'll never forget it!
Did you know
- TriviaThough not explained in the movie, the novel goes into further depths about Vess and his background, namely that as a young child, he developed sociopathic and sadistic tendencies and began torturing and killing animals. When he was nine, Vess' parents caught on to his violence and attempted to seek help for him. In response, he set fire to their home, killing them both. The fire was ruled an accident and Vess was assumed to be a traumatized survivor.
Vess was then placed in the custody of his grandmother, where he stayed for two years before stabbing her to death in a fit of anger. After this, he was placed in a youth home for just over a year before his record was expunged and he was adopted out to another family, who had no knowledge of his crimes. Vess lived with this family until he was twenty, at which point he killed them in another arson fire for their inheritance.
- GoofsWhen Chyna throws herself down the stairs to break the chair she's chained to, you can see both of her hands come free as she's falling. But when she lands at the bottom of the staircase they are connected again.
- Quotes
[repeated line]
Chyna Shepherd: Chyna Shepherd, untouched and still alive.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Cabin by the Lake (2000)
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