Juan Carls Frensnadillo is one of those Spanish genre directors that rode into the American film industry in the early 2000s on a wave of interest in Spanish horror. Like a lot of those directors, he quickly fizzled out. "Intruders," similarly, starts out extremely promising before being derailed by a kind of lame ending.The film is rooted in childhood fears, which is extremely fertile ground for horror. A girl, while visiting with her grandparents house, pulls a matchbox out of a tree. In the box, is a fold-up piece of paper telling the story of a boogeyman named Hollow Face, a creature that snatches children's faces. Soon, the girl is haunted by the spectre. Despite this juicy premise, the film actually focuses on her father, played by Clive Owen, and how he deals with the mysterious intruder in his home, violating the privacy and sanctity of the child's bedroom. With the focus on childhood fears, the girl's twelve birthday, her desire to grow up, her relationship with her father, and some growing animosity with her mom make me think this was going to be a story about childhood, coming of age, and night terrors. It's not really about that. There's a parallel story about a Spanish child similarly being haunted by the same entity, his single mother helpless to do anything about it. The film ties these two story threads together in the least interesting fashion position.As I said, "Intruders" has so much potential in that premise and set-up. As the two frightened, hapless parents, Clive Owen and Pilar Lopez de Ayala both give excellent performances. Sequences of a black, shadowy figure, intentionally recalling the shadow people concept, emerging from a closet proves deeply creepy. The subtle score helps builds these thrills, even if they are sometimes undermined by some sketchy CGI effects.The mystery and intensity of the situation builds to a high pitch… To the middle of the film. At which point, the story is revolved in a really uninteresting manner. I mean, it tries to be interesting. The film handles the trite twist in a way that builds into the story's themes. But it still can't overcome the inherent lameness of the twist. Especially when we get to the story's proper climax, which tries to keep playing it for supernatural thrills even though we know the truth now, feels a bit tedious.All of this is a real bummer because the beginning really is promising. There are the building blocks here of a thrilling, original horror film playing on real life fears and tensions. Faceless people are almost always creepy and this movie plays into that well. So I still don't know what to make of Fresnadilo as a talent, since "28 Weeks Later" also left me with a mixed reaction. Maybe eventually he'll make an awesome horror movie that doesn't compromise its own premise.

After Juan Carlos Fresnadillo directed the blood-soaked romp "28 Weeks Later" I looked forward to another entertaining gore-fest. I was very wrong. In the style of "splat pack" directors like James Wan and Alexandre Aja (somewhat) he has gone in a completely different direction. Intruders is at once very creepy, but completely devoid of gore. It is filmed in a style that feels reminiscent of a child's psyche. For some, this will be a slow and un-involving technique. For others, it will be the movie's winning factor. The concept is essentially what scares all of us when we're young, a monster lurking in the closet. Having nightmares of a character similar to the antagonistic presence in the film, I connected with the characters' fear. The best way to watch this movie is sit back, relax, and turn off your "adult" prejudices about things. Just lose yourself in the movie, and you'll have a spooky good time. It's a children's horror movie for adults.

A boy in Spain hears a cat so he does what every other kid would do, climb out the window in the middle of the night and during heavy rain. He sees a hooded man climb in and attack the mother so he screams at him and goes back out the window with the guy in pursuit.Now in England, a girl celebrating her birthday follows a cat up a tree, finds a giant hole and a box with a paper in it. She reads the paper. It's about "Hollowface" who appears when called and because he has no face no one loves him so he steals the face of a kid. Now she starts seeing Hollowface and so is her dad, who tries to protect her.Meanwhile the boy in Spain is also seeing Hollowface, who comes out of rot on the ceiling. The mom does what every young mom would do, call a a priest. The priest is more interested in her and consults with an older priest who doesn't see any major problem with the kid. Scenes taking place in Spain are interspersed with scenes from England.The authorities decide to separate the father from her daughter when they see on cameras he installed that there's nothing but him acting all crazy. They diagnose them with a psychosis that affects two people at the same time. Eventually, when he reads the paper the girl found about Hollowface, he knows what he has to do.Intruders (the title is rather misleading) is your typical Spanish horror movie, which means ghosts, children, the supernatural, and monotone coloring. And indeed the Spain scenes are filmed in gray, while the scenes in England get more color so much so that during scenes taking place in the girl's bedroom with Hollowface orange light shines through the curtains even though it's the middle of the night. Like most Spanish horror, people's behaviors make little sense. The music and sound effects in Intruders is ludicrous and insufferably loud. When are DVD/BR players finally going to get some sound level stabilizers so that we can enjoy movies without having to tinker constantly with the volume? Intruders is most obnoxious in this regard. Every motion and gesture is accompanies with a full orchestra and jarring sounds at max volume. While Hollywood has this figured out exactly, the director doesn't know how to deal with pauses and his sound effects. The pause before something scary happens (or not) is drawn out for a few seconds too long, just as the some the sound effects are. The audience just gets no break from the noise.On the positive note, Ella Purnell who plays the girl is beautiful and talented. I'm surprised she hasn't gotten more work. I liked how they brought the two stories together, which if you paid attention isn't much of a surprise but I was too distracted by the noise and dumb script to care so it did come a bit as a surprise. This is the kind of movie that explains everything in the end. I'd say it even went too far in that regard. They just didn't want it to end. There was a point were an end would have been ideal, but the movie goes on, and on, always with pompous and melodramatic music. I guess overall the story was alright for the genre but certainly not as grandiose as the director and scriptwriters thought.

This one tries to be somewhat complex as it turns up the Think Volume, and that is hardly a prerequisite in the Genre. Going for an interwoven Storyline of two different but connecting events, this is a challenging Movie and maybe just a little too heavy for its own good.It is creepy and manages to involve through some good Cinematography and fine Performances. But confusion may set in at times and it detracts from some of the scariness and causes some questions and unnecessary interpersonal quibbling about events.The ending is an all or nothing affair that will have some saying, oh Cool, and others scratching their heads with a, oh come on, reaction. It is clever but rather annoying and not very well handled Cinematically. It is a wrap that is satisfying enough but ultimately tries to fit a lot of information into little Screen Time and fails somewhat in its denouement.Worth a view for its ambition and some tense moments and suspenseful Scenes. Just a bit more substance than necessary, if that's possible, because it becomes more murk than mystery.