Intruders (2011)

Directed by: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo | 95 minutes | horror, thriller | Actors: Carice van Houten, Clive Owen, Daniel Brühl, Ella Purnell, Kerry Fox, Pilar López de Ayala, Ella Hunt, Lolita Chakrabarti, Imogen Gray, Mark Wingett, Izán Corchero, Héctor Alterio, Adam Leese, Craig Stevenson, Raymond Waring, Matthew Hodgkin

Two children who are visited at night by a faceless entity bent on stealing their faces. Do you already feel the urge to look under your bed? Do it, because the old sock you find there is probably more fun than the sleep-inducing ‘Intruders’.

The film begins by destroying any subtlety by opening directly with a swelling violin-soaked action sequence in which one of the two children gets into a fight with ‘Hollowface’ (the name the writers give their monster). given). This Hollowface walks around in a long cape that disguises his appearance, but at the same time gives him a more shabby than terrifying appearance. Anyway, Hollowface appears in the boy’s bedroom and what follows is a struggle between mother and monster that is effortlessly stretched to a few minutes and is full of overwhelming sound effects. You soon get the feeling that you are not dealing here with a scary ghost, but with a game of fighting as you are used to from Freddy, Jason or any other slasher. Very tangible and without any form of illusion.

For a while there is hope that this is really a false start when the pace of the film slows down considerably after this scene. At that point, you’re still tempted to forgive the producer’s bow to the studio bosses. After all, those people have the task of making their films suitable for the popcorn-eating audience that has an attention span of only a few seconds. Then a little ramming with loud sound effects will always work to grab attention.

However, it turns out not so and time and again Hollowface is portrayed as a bad burglar. Someone who enters the house with a lot of fanfare and who is then violently thrown down the stairs by Dad, while the golden retriever of the family is hanging in his leg. In fact, this ‘ghost’ even manages to set off the alarm system (!) of the terrorized family. Hollowface is therefore hardly elusive and also knows little to evoke fear. Then those Asians would have taken a better look with classics like ‘Ring’ and ‘The Grudge’: untouchable spirits that get under your skin precisely because of their elusive and constant threat. Not so Hollowface, which for lack of its own caution is also amply announced by the thundering orchestras on the soundtrack.

Perhaps some praise for Carice van Houten then? Not really either. While it’s nice to see her in an international production, the role of a stay-at-home mom doesn’t seem right for her. Although she plays a mother who seems to have a somewhat apathetic bond with her daughter, even that cannot hide the fact that the role of a dowdy, middle-aged housewife does not suit the youthfulness of someone like Van Houten.

Was there anything else? Oh yeah! The film has a twist, but one that is very reminiscent of a bad detective: one where the culprit turns out to be someone you haven’t seen for a long time. You should have known it by now, had it not been for someone who went out of their way to cut all clues from the script. In short: make sure that this film does not enter your DVD player and go and watch the beautiful ‘Zwartboek’ or ‘Minoes’ again.