Deadly Intruder

THE DEADLY INTRUDER (1988)

The setup is fairly simple as a group of friends are stalked and murdered by a mysterious killer before and after a dinner party. It all leads up to a predictable but well done twist and finale. There's not much new here but it's done pretty well. I'm not gonna lie the movie is very low budget and suffers from its constraints but still offers some decent, retro genre fare.

6/10

This movie was made back in the early 80's, and while it has elements of Halloween, it does not measure up to the standard Halloween set in the slasher/horror genre. But I'm not going to compare this movie to Halloween, because it is an altogether different movie in its own right, with its own atmosphere and tone.

The first 15 minutes are all you really need to see of this movie, and really, it is because of the first 15 minutes I remembered this movie to begin with. A psycho escapes from the sanitarium in the middle of the night to begin what psychos do best - stalk. Early the next morning, he slips into a woman's kitchen while she is getting her breakfast ready at the sink, and proceeds to kill her by drowning her in the sink. This scene alone is among the most violent and realistic drowning scenes I've seen in any movie, and - let this be a fair warning - the woman's bathrobe becomes undone during the attack and her breasts are exposed. Honestly, this scene is really the only memorable scene in the entire movie. After that, the movie is rather slow and boring, with an attempt at character development and an interesting ending. As far as slasher movies go, this is a bit slow moving and doesn't really have much suspense. And for all you gore fans out there, don't bother with this movie, as there really isn't any notable gore.

I gave this movie 7 stars out of 10 only because the first minutes contain some of the most disturbing, cold-blooded, and violent attacks toward women I've seen in film. It was meant to grab your attention, and it certainly did.

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.

"Deadly Intruder" errs dangerously close to becoming the dullest slasher movie ever made. It sort-of redeems itself with some twists on the tired formula at the end of the movie, but these are too little too late, and are handled so badly that you might miss them, even if by some miracle you are still paying attention.

The movie's opening is singularly underwhelming. The entire thing is filmed at night, and so dimly lit you can't really understand what's going on. I got that we are witnessing an escape of some kind, but beyond that, you're on your own. It looks like one of the easiest escapes I've ever seen in a movie, but maybe I just couldn't make out the difficulty.

We then see some murders in suburbia, where people don't lock their doors. We see a woman drowned in a sink, her bathrobe coming open to show one of her breasts.

Then we get some random scenes of suburban activity, filled with people who make no impression on the audience whatsoever. If the ridiculous lighting didn't lose you, these boring scenes probably will.

One of the women we have been introduced to has a mysterious vagrant show up on her front door and scare her a little bit. Is he the escaped man from the beginning of the movie?

The movie does have one kill that actually brought out feelings in me other than boredom. A man is shown working on a car, lying underneath it. The killer lowers the car onto the man, crushing him. This actually disturbed me a little bit, so credit to the filmmakers for that one, I guess.

The movie strays from the typical slasher path toward the end, after giving us one of the lamest body-double nudity scenes I've ever seen, where a naked woman plays the lead actress from the neck down and there is little attempt to convince you that you're looking at the same person. It just leaves you wondering how much they paid the naked lady to do that... and why they really bothered.

Where it gets different is when the lead actress is taken hostage. I'm not sure if I've seen that in a slasher before. There is also a surprise ending that is more confusing than anything. The characters aren't drawn well enough for you to really be surprised. It feels like an interesting ending squandered by a filmmaker with no idea how to use it.

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.