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Intrusion (2021)

With so much time spent inside our homes these last few years, it's only natural for the horror to turn these safe havens on their heads. Is it too much for it to be done well? Those who watch Intrusion will either find it predictable or roll their eyes at the protagonist's illogical behavior. Maybe even both.

Soon after moving into their custom-built dream home, Meera (Freida Pinto) and Henry (Logan Marshall-Green) are the victims of a burglary. Oddly, the intruders didn’t seem to be interested in any of the valuables. Suspicious, Meera begins investigating.

This is a frustrating film due to the characters’ baffling leaps in logic and overall stupidity, predictable storyline, and some dodgy acting. It also gets a couple of things right. The score is extremely effective at building tension. The camerawork too. Meera feels vulnerable physically having recently overcome cancer, and emotionally following the burglary. Her search for answers makes her increasingly paranoid, a frame of mind effectively mirrored by the camera's tilts and twirls during particularly strenuous moments.

Not everyone will decipher what’s going on as easily as this big brain; probably because they're too distracted by details director Adam Salky gets wrong. At one point, Meera becomes distrustful of her husband when she finds a photo of a missing local on his computer. The thing is, that photo isn’t really of the girl. It’s just some random picture that happens to have the girl in it. It's no reason to become suspicious. Same for the lock on his filing cabinet that holds work-related blueprints. If it weren’t for Henry looking like an amphibian with glasses, she’d be completely unreasonable.

In a scene that brands Meera as “too dumb to live”, she discovers a hidden door leading to a creepy basement in her husband's office. Initially, I thought she showed some intelligence by choosing a night with a half-dozen guests in the house to continue her obvious snooping - the lady’s so bad at subterfuge it's infuriating. Except she doesn’t let anyone know where she’s going, doesn’t bring anyone to look with her. Once in the chamber of horrors, the movie grants Henry the ability to move silently and become invisible as long as the camera isn’t looking at him. We’re supposed to be horrified when the missing teen is found chained in the basement. I was wondering where she was going to the bathroom. The chair she’s sitting in doesn’t even have holes in the bottom for liquids to drain out. It's a wonder the smell didn't give this funny business away...

Even the performances aren't great. Though she convincingly plays a woman so rattled and broken she can barely function, Freida Pinto struggles with her American accent in every second scene. Unfortunately, Intrusion is competent enough (impressive considering this was shot during the pandemic) that by the time you give up on it being good, you're compelled to keep watching just to see how it ends. (September 28, 2021)

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