Black Friday sales can get a little messy.
"Don't you see? I'm just CRAZY about this store!"
— The Killer
In a market after closing hours, a bunch of employees are working late. Then one cashier's abusive ex-boyfriend starts harassing her, and soon everyone around the store are being killed gruesomely one by one.
Even though it is a by-the-book Slasher Movie, the film gained cult status after its release in 1989 for having a plenty of Sam Raimi regulars present (including the man himself), director Scott Spiegel's camerawork and its gorntastic kills.
The kill scenes were cut severely by the producer for its initial release, but they are restored in the 2008 DVD-release.
Has no relation to the 2019 multiplayer video game of the same name. It is equally unrelated to the BBC series Intruders, the 2006 novel The Intruders, or the 2015 films Intruders and The Intruders.
Prices for these examples were cut:
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: One of the killer's first kills is slamming a knife halfway through and down his victim's skull. Note that this is a cutting knife, not a cleaver (he picks that up later), and he doesn't stab with it, he chops, and it STILL goes halfway through the skull.
- Accidental Murder: Craig got into prison prior to the events of the film when he accidentally killed a man after Jennifer broke up with him.
- An Arm and a Leg: Severed hands and feet are discovered by the cast.
- Barehanded Blade Block: When Jennifer tries to attack the killer with a knife, he grabs it by the blade and throws it aside.
- Big "NO!": Dave when he sees the table saw.
- Blood Is Squicker in Water: The killer drops a chopped hand into a lobster tank, which quickly turns red with blood.
- Broken Record: Joe's headphones play exactly one song for the first hours of working.
- Cassandra Truth: The police arrest Jennifer and Craig in the end, ignoring their pleas for innocence.
- Character in the Logo: Done in the VHS releases, with its killer in the "I" of the logo.
- Chekhov's Gun: The knife used to kill Linda. Jennifer tears it from her chest and attacks the killer with it.
- Chekhov's Skill: Bill impersonating Danny. He uses it to lure Jennifer into a trap.
- Closed Circle: The store, as the killer has the keys.
- Covers Always Lie: Some stylized VHS covers show the killer with an axe. He never uses one.
- Creator Cameo: Scott Spiegel appears as the guy delivering the bread, who is then killed off as the Final Girl watches helplessly from inside the store.
- Double Take: Randy does it when he sees a severed hand wrapped in meat packaging.
- Downer Ending: Bill is dead, but Jennifer and Craig end up being accused and arrested for the murder spree.
- Dutch Angle: When Bill notices a doorknob turning, the shot of him looking at it slowly turns into a tilted angle.
- Eye Awaken: Used twice by Not Quite Dead characters.
- Eye Scream: Danny's eye is pierced by a spike.
- Final Girl: Jennifer is the last surviving, and thus is left to fight the killer. In an interesting twist, she gets help from Craig.
- Giggling Villain: The killer after his identity is revealed.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: Used twice against the killer.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: A severed head is used as a bludgeoning instrument.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: One of the victims is found cut in half.
- Headphones Equal Isolation: Joe's Walkman drowns out the approach of the killer as he's chopping up meat for the deli.
- Hooks and Crooks: Jennifer defends herself with a hook.
- Hope Spot: The couple trying to visit the store after closing hours, and the bread guy.
- Locked Out of the Loop: After he puts on his Walkman, Joe has no idea what is going on. This leads to his death as the music drowns out the approach of the killer.
- Not Quite Dead: Craig after Jennifer attacks him, and the killer in the ending.
- Off with His Head!: Dave gets his head severed offscreen.
- Offscreen Teleportation: The killer manages to get outside in record time to kill the bread deliverer in front Jennifer.
- Once is Not Enough: Jennifer manages to jab Craig in the throat, apparently killing him. He later turns up alive, and is not actually the killer.
- Subverted at the end, where Craig attacks Bill, the real killer, with a meat cleaver, ferociously hacking at him over and over until he drops. Then Double Subverted when it turns out that STILL wasn't quite enough to kill him.
- Peek-a-Boo Corpse: Jennifer is surprised by Randy's corpse.
- Police Are Useless: When the cops come after Craig's troublemaking, they just ask the cast to call them again if he shows up. Taken further in the ending, as a different pair of cops arrest the surviving characters for the murders.
- Red Herring: Craig's behavior early in the film makes him seem like his responsible for the killings.
- Screaming Woman: Understandably, Jennifer becomes this when she finds the remains of the killer's victims.
- Shout-Out: Bill's story about the guy in the fire rescue who "had the head in one hand, sandwich in the other", is lifted from Raising Arizona.
- Spiteful Spit: Jennifer spits at the face of the gloating killer, who just licks it off.
- The Stoner: Bub. To drive the point home, he speaks like a surfer.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: The killer uses his woundedness to implicate the surviving characters for the murders.
- Your Head A-Splode: Bub getting his head forced into the activated box crusher.
