Intruders kicked off the 59th San Sebastian Film Festival in a bold way. It's unusual enough for a major festival to start with a genre film, but then Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's third feature is not the usual genre film. For one thing, it stars Clive Owen, who, until recently was not to be associated with matters of a pulpy nature (his co-lead in the upcoming Killer Elite with Jason Statham suggests a thawing of principles on that front). For another, it isn't really a horror film in the accepted sense. Unlike Guillermo Del Toro, Fresnadillo is not on a mission to frighten us and explore the subconscious cave of primal childhood fears. Rather, the director is using the classic ghost story as the framework for a human and even rather sentimental story about a less literal kind of ghost – the metaphorical skeleton in the cupboard.
Owen plays John Farrow, a construction worker on one of London's major new skyscrapers. His job takes him away from his family a lot, and he especially misses his daughter Mia (Ella Purnell, who played the young Keira in Never Let Me Go), with whom he has an especially close bond. An accident at work distracts him even further, but Farrow is snapped out of his melancholia when Mia starts complaining of an evil presence in her room. Significantly, Mia is not the only person to be tormented by visions of a shape-shifting, faceless monster. Over in Spain, a young boy is visited nightly by a similar creature, a wet, dripping humanoid blur that tries to yank him his bed. His terrified mother consults a local priest (Daniel Bruhl), but his kind assurance are not enough.
In terms of atmosphere, Intruders is pretty light, and should not be approached as a continuation of the same wave of Spanish horrors that yielded The Orphanage, Hierro, Julia´s Eyes and The Devil's Backbone. The performances, from Owen and Carice Van Houten as his wife, are also low-key and strong, with a special mention for the young Purnell. I wasn't too convinced by the editing at times – the jerky, jagged, neurotic style that worked so well in 28 Weeks Later, didn't sit so well here and obscured many of Hollowface´s early appearances. But what I did like was the overall style and assembly, particularly in the early, almost Hitchcockian scenes of Farrow at work, high above London's skyline.
Annoyingly, I'd been on set for this movie and knew a little too much about it, both in terms of what the film would look like (the interiors of Farrow´s London house were filmed on a sound stage in Madrid), and where it would go (Fresnadillo assured me the film was not really about the supernatural, even though, in a way, that's not strictly true). So I was on tenterhooks for the twist, and when it came I was surprised to note that there was more than one.
Intruders might be a tough sell in the UK, since it is too emotional and plenty bloodless for the horror crowd, while the title and premise aren't exactly going to sell it to a non-genre audience. I enjoyed it, though, and its final reel does explore some interesting ideas about ancestry and secrets. It's also recognisably the work of the same man who made Intacto, another smart film about destiny and the way people's lives unexpectedly entwine.
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