To my knowledge, there were no slasher films set within a supermarket before this devilish debut for Scott Spiegel and later Tarantino collaborator Lawrence Bender came along. It's such a great setting for the subgenre, and the store used in Intruder is especially effective on account of its omnipresent dark corners and looming industrial machinery.
As far as the plot goes, you've seen it all before, and not even the "twist" is surprising. However, the film is so well-made that it doesn't matter. It makes up for its lack of originality with some good performances and a helluva lot of style, including unconventional camera-work (which Spiegel is clearly in love with) and brutal gore.
Intruder is especially good considering its late entry into the slasher pantheon, and actually manages to recapture a lot of the stylistic and structural panache of its early '80s predecessors. It graciously avoids the klieg-drenched, hackneyed, and tongue-in-cheek approach of its contemporaries and instead uses murky tints and plays it straight and without airs. This is easily one of the better slasher outings of the entire decade.
Also, the Final Girl wears some killer straight-outta-1989 pleated khakis.
As far as the plot goes, you've seen it all before, and not even the "twist" is surprising. However, the film is so well-made that it doesn't matter. It makes up for its lack of originality with some good performances and a helluva lot of style, including unconventional camera-work (which Spiegel is clearly in love with) and brutal gore.
Intruder is especially good considering its late entry into the slasher pantheon, and actually manages to recapture a lot of the stylistic and structural panache of its early '80s predecessors. It graciously avoids the klieg-drenched, hackneyed, and tongue-in-cheek approach of its contemporaries and instead uses murky tints and plays it straight and without airs. This is easily one of the better slasher outings of the entire decade.
Also, the Final Girl wears some killer straight-outta-1989 pleated khakis.