Horror falls short

STORY-TELLING is an art form and when it’s done properly it can be just as titillating as the latest bit of celebrity gossip.

When it comes to films like Intruders, building suspense is a key factor. To do that successfully you need more than just a talented cast, you also require a tight script with a clever twist.

Sadly, this movie failed to tick all three boxes and my biggest complaint is that when a great story has a weak end it spoils everything that leads up to it.

To set the scene, two children in different countries are haunted by the same terrifying dream. A demon, known as Hollowface, who tries to steal children’s features because he craves contact with the outside world, is out to get them.

John lives a lovely life with his family – wife Susana and 11-year-old daughter, Mia. However, all that changes when Mia pays a visit to her grandparents.

As she explores their garden she finds a handwritten story inside a tree that tells the terrifying tale of a ghoul. She later takes the story to school and reads it to her terrified classmates and she takes great delight in scaring them.

However, all that changes when she begins to have nightmares that the ghoul is now after her. The nightmares soon become more and more real and she calls to her dad for help.

Initially, John thinks his daughter is being stalked by a real person and goes security crazy, setting up a load of cameras and other surveillance equipment.

One night John hears Mia’s cry and rushes to her aid to discover a hooded creature trying to snatch her away. After a scuffle the intruder gets away and when he checks the security footage … there’s no one else in the room!

The evidence bewilders John and his wife and they enlist the help of a child psychologist to figure out what’s wrong with their daughter. The psychologist believes that John and Mia are sharing a psychotic episode and recommends that they be separated … leaving poor Susan to question who to believe, her husband or the doctor.

Meanwhile, across the world, a similar situation is affecting a young boy named Juan in Madrid. Juan’s mother takes a more religious approach to the situation and enlists the help of a local priest to exorcise the demon.

Creature features are a delicate formula to get right and, more often than not, directors will have all the right ingredients but simply have no idea how to put them together.

When Clive Owen plays a concerned father, you can’t help but believe him. He is so impassioned and convincing that you really empathise with his character, even if the plot is somewhat unbelievable.

The young Ella Purnell does a remarkable job with her role as Mia, bringing a sense of maturity to a less than sage-like character. She is one to watch for in the near future.

In terms of building suspense this movie does it quite well … for a while, at least. The juxtaposition between Juan and Mia is very clever and I enjoyed the way that as one story seems to come to an end, a new story begins elsewhere.

Some of my favourite horror/thriller movies, including Psycho and Alien, were successful not only because they have great scripts and strong casts, but also because they use the formula that ‘it’s what you don’t see that’s scary’.

In my opinion this film falls short because it makes too much use of CGI (computer-generated imagery) special effects to compensate for a lack of genuine terror.

However, all things considered, Intruders has a fairly original concept that manages to deliver enough scares to keep you interested ... until the conclusion lets it down.

Showing in Cineco, Seef I and Saar Cineplex