The 5 craziest things about The Intruder

Dennis Quaid stars as the creepy villain at the center of the new Screen Gems home invasion thriller, The Intruder. Here are the five craziest things about it.

Have you ever had a neighbor who was just too nosy? That’s the basic premise of the new Screen Gems thriller, The Intruder. Dennis Quaid stars as Charlie Peck, a man who isn’t as ready to give up his house to homeowners Scott (Michael Ealy) and Annie Russell (Meagan Good).

The Intruder is the perfect guilty pleasure movie for a date night. It’s absurd and totally over-the-top with some fun, almost B-movie, camp thrown in for good measure. I decided to compile a list consisting of five crazy things about the film.

If you haven’t watched The Intruder yet, stop reading now! This is a spoiler-heavy article.

5. A whole sub-plot goes unresolved.

In the past, Scott cheated on Anna and apparently, it was the one time he texted instead of calling. So now whenever Scott sends a text message instead of calling, Anna automatically assumes he is cheating on her again. I guess. They must have unlimited minutes then. This fact serves zero purpose in the movie though.

At one point we do see him flirting with a girl in an ice cream shop. Scott’s client makes a move on him at a bar and kisses him. You would think the story would play out with Charlie catching Scott in an act of indiscretion and using that to put a wedge between his and Anna’s relationship, but Anna never finds out about it. In fact, it’s never even brought up again beyond a brief argument in the middle of the movie.

4. Charlie’s obsession with Anna.

Let me get this straight. Charlie is extremely attached to his house, known as Foxglove, to the point he murders his wife and makes it look like suicide because she threatened to divorce him and take the house away.

Okay, well why even sell the house to begin with? Because he had legal troubles…? Fine.

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Then come Anna and Charlie thinks he can kill Scott, move in with Anna, and get his life back to how it once was! Of course, he also fails to mention he doesn’t talk to his daughter at all anymore because she cut him out after figuring out he had murdered her mother.

Charlie’s entire “arc” is about his attempted seduction of Anna. It’s super creepy. There is one scene where he does manage to grab her and attempts to rape her. Before doing so, he licks her from her stomach to her face. Who comes up with this stuff!?

3. Dennis Quaid’s growling.

As far as movie villains go, Quaid is pretty dang creepy in The Intruder. Something about him is primal. Perhaps his penchant for hunting and wielding guns around like a mad man contributes to that but it’s also because of all the weird growling he does.

Seriously, Quaid wasn’t afraid to get freaky to deliver on his villainy. It appears he has fun with it though, as if trying to create his own demented slasher flick. I kind of want to see a sequel where Charlie makes a Michael Meyers-style return.

2. Charlie’s bunker.

This is one twist I didn’t predict. I felt there was something strange about the linen closet because there was a scene mentioning it specifically and we saw Anna use it multiple times. Yet I wouldn’t have guessed Charlie is basically a grown-up version of Brahms from The Boy.

That’s right, Charlie was living in Foxglove the entire time in a secret underground bunker. The guy even had a man-sized freezer unit in there, perfect for hiding poor Mike’s body after butchering him with an ax (speaking of, did anyone ever tell his girlfriend?).

1. The movie’s ending.

The movie could have ended about ten minutes earlier had Anna just stabbed Charlie multiple times instead of doing a one and done. He’s not a chicken breast, you’ve gotta get the villain SEVERAL TIMES. Aren’t these people genre-savvy? Needless to say, Charlie gets his gun and almost kills the Russells.

I admit I did cheer when Anna made the call to the police saying her husband “just shot an intruder,” perfectly queuing up Scott’s final blow. Even if this movie’s stance on guns was all over the place, it was a sound final shot – pun intended.

One thing about this movie that did truly surprise me was that Charlie didn’t attempt to poison anyone with foxglove. I mean it is poisonous and Foxglove is brought up so many times… Then again I don’t know anything about plants nor do I know if that would even work! But I was anticipating it the entire film.

Did you watch The Intruder yet? Do you plan to? What did you think of the film? What were your favorite and least favorite moments? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

The Intruder is now playing in theaters nationwide.