The tagline is more accurate than the trailers.
The Intruders is a 2015 Canadian suspense-thriller film by Lee Adam Massey, starring Miranda Cosgrove, Donal Logue, and Austin Butler.
After the death of her mother, Rose Halshford (Cosgrove) and her dad Jerry (Logue) relocate to a new home. After noticing strange elements around the house, Rose uncovers a sinister history regarding its previous owners, much to her father's disbelief.
Not to be confused with the BBC series Intruders, the 2015 film, Intruders, or the 2006 novel The Intruders.
Spoilers beware!
This movie contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Cheri Garrison was very authoritarian. When she did not like her son Marcus's girlfriend, she forced him to kill her.
- Attempted Rape: Marcus tries to rape Rose. She escapes by stabbing him with a shard of glass.
- Ax-Crazy: And he's living deep inside the house!
- Basement-Dweller: Marcus was known to leave the house only for church. He stayed in the basement when the Halshfords moved in.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Cheri Garrison (Marcus's mom) is a famed member of their community church, but she did not approve of her son's relationship. Cheri locked Rachel in the basement and later forced Marcus to kill Rachel while being videotaped.
- Cassandra Truth: Rose insists to anyone who'll listen that there is something/someone inside the house behind the unusual things going on, including the disappearances of a young woman and the previous owner. She's right. Her father just dismisses her as developing the same illness that plagued her mom, while her new love interest thinks it's the grief over her mom's death psychologically manifesting itself, though he does try to help her find the truth anyway.
- Catapult Nightmare
- Chekhov's Gun: The hidden passage that Rose's love interest Noah finds while working on the home and informs her about kicks off the final act of the film when she goes to check it out, leading to her finally discovering Rachel's fate and encountering Marcus, thus vindicating herself, and finding an abducted Leila in time to save her.
- Combat Pragmatist: Rose first fights off Marcus by stabbing him with a shard of glass. When he removes the offending shard and continues his assault on her, she digs her fingers into the wound to make him stop.
- Go-Go Enslavement: Marcus orders Rose to change her clothes with a revealing white dress, since he's planning to turn her into Rachel's substitute.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: Marcus captures Rose at the climax and intends to force her to become Rachel's substitute.
- Married to the Job: Jerry, most especially after his wife's death. Rose calls him out on this several times.
- Minimalist Cast: Excluding three posthumous characters, there are two main characters, one villain, and three supporting characters for a total of SIX. Surprisingly, all of them are still alive at the end of the film.
- Missing Mom: Rose's mother died of schizophrenia. Since Rose was closer to her mom, this caused a rift between her and the workaholic Jerry.
- Ms. Fanservice: Rose has her moments, particularly when she wears just a bikini at a pool party with Noah.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The trailers mislead you into thinking that Leila (Rose's female neighbor) and Noah (due to his creepy introduction) are potential suspects. They're not.
- Nothing Is Scarier: For most of the movie, it's not clear who or what is really causing the strange events, which makes it all the creepier.
- Psychopathic Man Child: Marcus is one as the result of his mother's cruel treatment.
- Red Herring: The movie. No one in the trailer is the villain.
- Room Full of Crazy: The hidden basement is full of mangled dolls, a dress of a deceased girl, and messages etched on dilapidated walls.
- Satellite Love Interest: Noah's entire character is centered on his interest in Rose.
- Self-Made Orphan: Marcus fought and killed his mother after she forced him to kill his own girlfriend.
- Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: The main villain Marcus was never in the trailers and, despite being discussed beforehand, only appears come the third act.
- The Peeping Tom: Since he knows the entire house's layout, Marcus watches over Rose with voyeuristic obsession.
- White Shirt of Death: Rose watches a video where Rachel (in a white dress) was killed. Marcus catches Rose and forces her to wear that same dress.
