Without a doubt, the 1980s were the strongest decade for slasher movies. In addition to the fact that the genre was practically at its height at the time, most films of the era emphasized the gore on show. Having said that, there are many slasher films that, despite their enormous potential, have not received much attention. In today’s video, we will discuss one such movie that served as Scott Spiegel’s feature-length directing debut.
Intruder, which Spiegel also directed, was a remake of the Super-8 short Night Crew and, to some extent, was based on the director’s experiences while working at the Michigan market’s Walnut Lake. The film was originally titled The Night Crew and was made over the course of 14 days inside a genuine grocery store.
To give its audience a more slasher vibe, the movie was instead distributed under the title Intruder. Prepare for today’s video, in which we will walk you through the slasher film from 1989. Remember that this will be a thorough study of the film, so please do not be hesitant to share your opinions in the comments area.
Do this now!
He’s Just Crazy Bout This Store – Intruder (1989)
An announcement is heard at the Walnut Lake Market stating that the store will be closing in the next fifteen minutes and requesting all shoppers to make their final selections and proceed to the billing counter. Cashier Jennifer is heading outside to round up the shopping carts when the audience gets to see a guy in a leather jacket observing her. She does not notice him and heads back inside.
The rest of the workers are seen restocking and arranging the shelves inside for the following day. The same guy appears inside and greets Jennifer. We get to know him as Craig, the cashier’s ex-boyfriend. With Craig asking her why she hasn’t returned his calls, Jennifer tells him that she hasn’t checked her answering machine in the past two days.
Their conversation soon escalates into an argument followed by a fight of course and fellow cashier Linda hits the panic button. Co-owner Bill Roberts is seen trying to intervene along with the rest of the workers but it only leads to Craig fleeing their sight. Jennifer is asked to call the police and the rest of the crew starts looking for Craig, who appears again and is finally thrown out of the supermarket.
With the crew getting back to work, co-owners Bill and Danny assemble everyone and inform them that they are selling the store. They further tell the crew about a bonus cheque that all of them will be receiving as a token of appreciation and that they will be more than happy to recommend the crew to a place of their choice. Shocked, the crew goes back to work and Jennifer starts receiving calls from Craig.
His calls make her agitated enough to talk to Linda about her history with him. The police are seen arriving at the store after a while and enquiring about Craig who is currently out on parole. One of the officers hand Bill his card and tell the employees not to hesitate to give a call if they find Craig there. Shortly after, Linda is done with her shift and is seen heading out towards her car when she suddenly gets attacked by someone with a knife.
Back inside, Bill is seen having a discussion with Danny. He is clearly not happy selling the store unlike Danny, and is asked by the latter to sign the contract. He does so and heads downstairs but upon figuring out that someone is trying to gain access to the supermarket through the backdoor, he decides to check things out himself. Bill heads outside with a hammer and discovers Craig peeping through the bathroom window, busy observing Jennifer. This results in a brief scuffle between the duo before Craig hits him unconscious with the hammer.
Coming back to the unseen attacker, he begins stalking the employees one after the other. His first victim happens to be Danny, whom he strangles from behind and punctures his eye using a bill fork. Joe is the second victim when the killer stabs him with a knife straight through his head and drags his body along. As for Tim, he gets brutally stabbed in the stomach and his blood is seen splattering all over the beer cans.
Bub is the fourth victim; he’s not only grabbed by the killer but also has his head placed under a box crusher and no points for guessing what happens to him. Trust us when we say it is a bloody sight. Also, in case we have not mentioned this before, the killer has simultaneously been scattering his victims’ dismembered body parts all around the store. After impaling Randy on a meat hook and splitting Dave’s face with a meat cutter, the killer aims for Jennifer and starts stalking her.
Of course, she is absolutely horrified when she first discovers Randy on a meat hook. Very soon, she encounters the others or should we say her colleagues’ mutilated body parts all across the store. It’s a close call between her and the attacker when she manages to evade him initially.
After hearing a car stop by at the supermarket and a shopper at the door, she tries her best to let him know of the situation but before she can reach the main door, the shopper thinking that the market is close, leaves. As she turns around, she sees Craig behind her but she is fast enough to wound him with a meat hook that she has been carrying around all this while. She breaks down and is comforted by Bill, who is seen to be alive. He tells her how Craig attacked him outside the store and that he will call the police right away, and everything is going to be fine.
But it doesn’t take Jennifer long to spot the blood on Bill’s hands and realize that it is Bill who has been killing everybody. She screams and starts running only to have Bill grab her by her hair. Bill admits to slaughtering everyone and cites the store as his sole reason.
He tells her how Danny always bossed around and called the shots on all the business deals. Bill could not possibly have let Danny take away the store from him so he ended up killing him first. As for the rest of the crew, he confesses to getting a little carried away. He attacks Jennifer and tells her how it will be Craig who will be blamed for all the killings at the end of the day.
However, Jennifer hits him with a bottle and runs away looking for places to hide from Bill. She even tries breaking the main door of the supermarket using a fire extinguisher but to no avail. Just then, a delivery guy is seen knocking at the door outside but before Jennifer can alert him, he is stabbed to death by Bill, who also shows her that he is in possession of the keys to the locked door. Bill is easily able to enter the supermarket and is shown to toy around with Jennifer using the severed head of Danny while taunting her saying that she is next.
As Jennifer runs away from him, she is grabbed by an alive Craig, who tells her how he saw Bill kill Linda and that he has been framing him for all his murders. He tells her how he came inside through the bathroom window and that it’s their only escape. Suddenly, Bill appears and starts clubbing him with his decapitated head of Danny. Jennifer is able to evade him and crawl out the bathroom window.
She makes it to her car but finds her body of Linda inside. By then Bill had already followed her outside and is seen seizing her by her legs and pulling her under the car. He is about to stab her when she startles him instead by pulling out a knife from Linda’s body and fiercely stabbing him with it. While she is able to inform the police calling them from a telephone booth nearby, she is ambushed by Bill, who topples the cubicle. Craig intervenes the situation and using Bill’s very own meat cleaver, he strikes him continuously.
With the police arriving later, they hold the duo accountable for the killings. They pin them down despite their protests and handcuff them. Bill, before dying, tells the police that it was the duo who killed everyone at the store and the cops decide to believe the dead man. The movie ends with Bill opening his eyes all of a sudden and Jennifer letting out a terrified scream.
Why Should You Watch Intruder?
This 1989 stalk and slasher flick has an effective dark sense of humor along with some jaw-dropping gore FX, one that literally takes this movie notches above the regular slasher style. The gore on display categorically happens to be Intruder’s biggest selling point – there are heads chopped off and played with, faces sawed into half, eyes getting punctured, bodies on a meat hook and blood splattering everywhere.
Now, take all of these scenes and imagine them shot in a close-up sequence, you get what we are talking about here, right? What is truly remarkable is the perpetual atmospheric sense of dread that runs throughout the runtime of 88 minutes. It is sad how this movie, one that had so much potential truly got lost in the sands of time.
If you address yourself as a true fan of the slasher genre, then you definitely need to watch it. And, oh, in case you did not know, the movie also stars Bruce Campbell in a cameo. Not divulging any more information, it is time that you go and give this a definite shot!