[Review] ‘Intruders’ Invades Your Home on DVD

Released earlier this year in theaters and VOD “Intruders” is finally making it’s way home on DVD today.  This home invasion thriller puts an interesting spin on the old formula, but will it be enough to welcome it into your home?

The Movie:

“Intruders” comes by way of director Adam Schindler who makes his feature film directing debut.  Schindler previously co-wrote the baby-themed horror flick “Delivery” with Brian Netto who serves as Executive Producer on “Intruders.”

In “Intruders” a young woman named Anna (Beth Riesgraf) has her home invaded by three would-be-burglars.  The burglars seems to have the upper hand as Anna suffers from severe agoraphobia and can’t leave the house.  However, it soon becomes apparent that she isn’t trapped with them, but that they’re trapped in the house with her.

“Intruders” starts off strong with a solid premise that bends normal home invasion conventions, but it doesn’t bend things far enough and, by the end of the film, it straightens out into a recognizable shape.  That being said, it’s still a solid story throughout that hits the right notes to keep things well paced and interesting.

What helps to elevate the story a bit is the impressive cast they assembled for the film.  Beth Riesgraf does an amazing job of portraying Anna as an emotionally complex character.  Anna’s story requires her to transition from vulnerable to sinister and Beth guides the audience through those drastic shifts.

The film also features Martin Starr who most might recognize as Gilfoyle from “Silicon Valley.” Here Starr trades in his dry sarcastic humor for a vicious sadistic streak as a home invader.  It’s a startling contrast to what I’m used to and it took me a while before I finally realized it was him.

Also turning in solid performances are Rory Culkin who plays the seemingly kind-hearted Dan, a food delivery guy who acts as Anna’s only contact to the outside world.  Then there’s J.P. (played by Jack Kesy) who plays the lead antagonist.  And while being the “bad guy” of the film, they still keep him grounded and human, which is important for when the tables start to turn.

Despite an intriguing premise, “Intruders” doesn’t subvert the home invasion sub-genre in the way “You’re Next” did, but it’s still a well-crafted and entertaining entry for fans of these movies.  If you’re really aching for a new home invasion thriller, this would be worth watching.

Special Features:

The special features are a little sparse on this DVD.  There’s a short behind-the-scenes featurette that has a few of the cast and crew talking about how wonderful the production was.  It doesn’t really have a lot of depth to it.

There’s also an audio commentary featuring Brian Netto, Adam Schindler, Beth Riesgraf, and producer Erik Olsen.  This is where the good behind-the-scene stuff is at as they go into pretty good detail about how certain elements of the film changed during production and they give a fair amount of insight into the “movie magic” side of things.  I thought it was pretty insightful and entertaining, which is all I ask of my movie commentaries.

The only bad thing I have to say about the DVD itself is that the menus look pretty bad.  They feature this weird generic blood font that give the film a bargain bin look. It’s really odd.

“Intruders” is out on DVD March 1, 2016 and available on VOD as well.