Movie Review: The Intruders (2015)

The movie stars Miranda Cosgrove, Donal Logue, Austin Butler, Tom Sizemore, Janessa Grant and Michael Luckett.

My oldest daughter was invited to go to the homecoming game with one of her friends last night and, while waiting for her to get home, my wife and I decided to watch a movie together. My wife had stopped by the library yesterday afternoon and, in addition to a couple books, had picked up the movie "The Intruders" and that was the film we ended up watching.

We had not heard of this movie before but my wife recognized Miranda Cosgrove from her shows on Nickelodeon and Donal Logue from the television show "Gotham." Unfortunately, while we were familiar with the main stars of the movie and it did, admittedly, turn out to be a little better than expected, it honestly wasn't anything overly special.

My biggest problem with this movie is the fact it is very predictable. As soon as it is revealed the previous occupants had "moved away" under mysterious circumstances and the house had been remodeled so large rooms and passageways were hidden behind walls (a detail that is revealed a few minutes into the movie) it isn't that hard to put the pieces together. And, once again, predictable never equals scary.

The movie also seems to borrow cliches from just about every other B-rated thriller in existence. Cosgrove's character, like most young female characters in these movies, is resentful about having to move to a new house and, like most horror movie parents, her father (Logue) quickly assumes she's either lying or imagining things when she tells him what she's witnessed.This, in turn, made the movie even more predictable because many of the scenes seemed to be borrowed too. For example, when she's cooking and turns the stove off, I correctly predicted someone would turn it back on as soon as she left the room simply because the movie took the time to show her turning the burner off.

To be fair, Cosgrove did a surprisingly decent job in this film as did Logue. And, because of that, the movie did prove to be somewhat watchable. Unfortunately, the weak  plot, which, in all honesty, has been done before, prevents this movie from being anything memorable.

Other than a couple familiar faces, there just isn't anything overly unique about this movie and the predictability does prevent it from being as intense as it probably could be. It's probably worth watching on a rainy day but not a movie that I would recommend going out of your way to see.

My Grade: C