Deadly Intruder

The Deadly Intruder is just about everything you'd expect from an 80's slasher movie with none of the fun. The whole thing is a bit of a slog with no suspense or scares to speak of. One would think that, if you were going to make a tension free slasher, you'd sprinkle in some gore or some element of fun camp to liven things up. Unfortunately, The Deadly Intruder gives us nothing to work with.

The characters are paper thin, the actors try their best, the cinematography is impossibly dark, and the only pleasure to be found throughout the run time is when Danny Bonaduce shows up. Even then, we're just excited because someone else we know has been duped into being associated with this movie.

Maybe this is one of those movies that a cleaned up Blu-Ray transfer would help, but I highly doubt it. It's long OOP, but not really worth finding.

I'll admit this movie isn't original or special, but it has stuck with me since I saw it a long time ago (back when I was watching every horror movie available, so I have seen a lot). Basically, a girl is being stalked by a serial killer that is loose in a small town. There is a drifter wandering around, engaging in violent behaviour, as well as a mysterious newcomer that may be too nice. All in all, it's passable fair if you like the old 80's horror films (although this is more of a thriller than a horror). I must say, I really enjoyed the ending, and the very last shot of the film before the credits roll is excellent.

My review was written in March 1985 after watching the movie on Thorn EMI video cassette.

Deadly dull sums up "Deadly Intruder", an underdeveloped horror picture made last year and too weak for theatrical use, going directly into the home video market.

Stale premise and predictable twist concerns a psycho, escaped from an institution, on the rampage in a small town while local cop (Stuart Whitman, in for a couple of scenes wearing a beard) and his men haplessly try to catch him. A drifter (played by screenwriter and co-producer Tony Crupi) kidnaps the heroine (Molly Cheek), and is mistaken for the real psycho.

Relying on the stalker formula, pic repeatedly sets up situations of gore and mayhem yet tastefully avoids showing the carnage on screen. However, homevideo fans will appreciate the inclusion of several nude scenes, including one of the heroine that is photographed (head always out of frame) as if a body double was being utilized.

John McCauley's direction is mediocre, offering little style and relying upon a self-written musical score heavily indebted.to the repetitive keyboard figures favored by Italian rock group Goblin and America's John Carpenter.

The usual nutcase escapes from the usual mental hospital, and the usual Mayberry cops do their usual bumbling as the usual idiots are massacred in the usual style while the usual blonde in the usual peril screams her head off.

The only remotely UNusual distiction of this love-crazed-maniac throwback is the false-protagonist "twist" near the end, and you'll probably see it coming by halftime. There aren't even any especially potent kills in this supplementary, cliché-ridden offering from the high tide of the 80s slasher epoch. The fact that it reaches to Danny Bonaduce for star power should be telling enough that you'll keep your expectations low.

A forgettable, but yieldingly watchable side-dish. 3.5/10.

Remember the 80's? Stop pretending you don't. Back when having a VCR was still such a novelty that you'd practically rent anything to watch on it? Back when you still had time to watch movies? Back when you were on a first name basis with the staff at the corner video store as you went for your daily fill of six tapes a day? Back when you made more money on unemployment insurance while sitting home on your duff with a pack of cigarettes and bottle of Jack Daniels than any minimum wage "customer service representative" job that Manpower offered you? Remember? Yeah, me neither.

Anyhow, DEADLY INTRUDER is a passable horror-thriller that still strangely lingers in the memory, even though I haven't seen it in well over fifteen years. Yes, this was another of the countless films I watched in that dark winter of 1987 when I was living on pogey and a six-film-a-day habit after being laid off from my warehouse job. I find it funny in that reflecting on that miasmic year of obsessive movie watching, that the ones which I remember with most clarity were mediocre or just plain terrible. I wonder what Freud would have said about that?

At the time of this film's making, the slasher genre was thankfully drawing to a close (even though the movie-going public knew that about four years prior to when film producers wised up)-- so much so, that I doubt this even got a theatrical release, yet went straight to the video stores. This is not a bad fate, really, and for a 99 cent rental, you really can't go wrong with this antiseptic, nearly bloodless, cardboard, yet somehow engaging, and rather tasteful genre effort.

Remember in the 1980's when veteran stars were still alive and able to find work? Remember in the 1980's when stars of any stripe could probably find a couple of days on a B movie in exchange for some ersatz marquee value? Hence, for the former, Stuart Whitman once again phones in his performance as his usual sheriff, whose role in films of this ilk acts as a needless venue because they always show up too late to blow the killer's brains out. For the latter, we have former child star and (then) current Betty Ford denizen Danny Bonaduce in a supporting role, who hangs around long enough to get his head smashed through a TV screen in a scene which is pretty darn satisfying.

All right, so this generic film has something going for it after all. Otherwise, this by-the-numbers production features a rather bland, obsessively jealous psycho who kills anyone whom he fears may be endangering his relationship with his current girlfriend, who lives in a typically rural pad, antiseptic to a fault, replete with wood paneling and shag rugs. Hmmm... wonder what Freud would've said about THAT? In the opening scene, we've already discovered what the film's criminal of passion did to his last paramour.

With the commercial world's mindset to do countless retreads of the same formula, I guess one cannot fault DEADLY INTRUDER for being much more than that, as that's all it was created for, and that's all we should expect to pay for, I guess. Thinking of this film out of the time for which it was created, it almost seems quaint to think about its "HALLOWEEN-on-the-brain", right down to the blue slick cinematography and the pretty cool electronic score that is not a little reminiscent of John Carpenter's tenure as a musician (so cool in fact that I held my little Radio Shack tape deck up to the TV's speaker to make myself a copy of it). And where would an 80's slasher flick be without leaving the door open for a sequel? For such a throwaway yet genial flick, this seems preposterous I'm sure, but hey, it worked for SLEEPAWAY CAMP, didn't it? Roger.