Disclaimer: This article reveals twists and important details integral to the plot.

The Intruder was an interesting and thrilling movie, at least I thought until I saw the movie reviews. Rotten tomato gave it an abysmal 30% while Metacritics gave a 39%. IMDB was not kind to the movie either, rating the movie 5.4 out of 10.

The movie was not horrible. I thought it was a pretty entertaining two hours. Why then are the ratings so low? Personally, I thought the build up and the frightening elements of the story were amazing. The film was not convention in that it was just scary or blandly defined by jumpscares, although it did have plenty. It was that the movie was creepy. Even when it was not scary, the movie always had a creepy atmosphere. The actor, Dennis Quaid, does a fantastic job portraying a mentally deranged loner with innocently nefarious intentions. The twist at the end where it is revealed that Charlie lives inside the house added to the creepiness of the film. Where I think the film failed is in the consistency of the storyline.

In the beginning, the film portrayed Charlie, Dennis Quaid, as being morbidly obsessed with the house. When Scott’s friend threw the cigarette on the ground, the next day he found a cigarette burn in his poultry. Charlie was angry when the security cameras were drilled into the walls. Then, as the movie progressed the obsession shifted from being obsessed with the house to being obsessed with Annie, the wife. The shift in the plot makes the movie slightly confusing.

At the end, Charlie walks through the house putting holes in doors and walls and breaking the chandelier. This contradicts his initial obsession with the house. If he loved the house enough to claim that the walls have “integrity,” then it would not make sense that he would run through the house with a shotgun shooting everywhere.

Jeff Tran(12) thought the movie was “scary in a way different from normal horror movies. For one, the movie is not one of paranormal activities. The movie was nothing special, but [Jeff] like it and thought it deserved better than a 30%. However, it was one of those movies that was frustrating and angering in that the characters were so stupid”