Intruders

They live in different cities, even different countries. But one thing connects children Juan (Izàn Cochero) and Mia (Ella Purnell): both are haunted night after night by terrible nightmares that seem to manifest themselves in the form of a faceless attacker. While both Mia's parents John (Clive Owen) and Sue (Carice van Houton), and Juan's mother Luisa (Pilar López de Ayala) initially don't believe that their children are actually being threatened by a ghostly entity, the apparitions take on increasingly menacing forms. But even as John and Luise take up the fight to save their children, the danger doesn't seem to be averted. But what connection exists between the two children that they, of all people, are haunted by the same nightmare creature - and does this connection perhaps hold the key to defeating the ghostly intruder?

Intruders is a mysterious horror thriller that manages to build up enormous tension, especially in the first third, and thus secures the audience's interest. Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) deliberately relies on subtle shock effects, on ominous images of the locations in Spain and England, as well as on an oppressive atmosphere, which actually transfers well to the audience. But unfortunately, especially towards the end, the film can't deliver what the beginning promises.

Even though there are some decent moments of suspense, Fresnadillo can't hide after some time that the story actually doesn't offer enough material for a 100 minute feature film. Some scenes that are dragged out too much and unnecessarily false leads depress the already rather slow pacing in the second half of the movie. Here the director should have countered with original plot twists and a strongly tightening suspense curve. Instead, this drops drastically the closer the story gets to its disappointing resolution.

Because the explanation for who or what is behind the dangerous dream creature robs the film of any atmosphere that was successfully built at the beginning. Intruders more or less turns here from a straight horror-griller to an arguably thin mystery-thriller. It doesn't help that the cast, most notably Clive Owen and up-and-coming actress Ella Purnell (All We Had to Give) turn in absolutely solid performances.

Visually atmospheric, decently acted and with a few effective moments of suspense - so Intruders actually would have had what it takes to be a really exciting genre representative. But the rather weak basic idea and the so tough and tension-poor second half of the film leave the viewer rather disappointed. Not a complete pipe-drain, but unfortunately also not the exciting ghost film, which could have been expected from Juan Carlos Fresnadillo after his previous films.

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp