INTRUDERS/ SHUT IN

US, 2015, 90 minutes, Colour.
Beth Riesgraf, Rory Culkin, Jack Kesy, Timothy T. Mc Kinney, Joshua Mickel, Martin Starr, Leticia Jimenez.
Directed by Adam Schindler.

Intruders is a film about thieves coming into a house to steal money and then terrorising the young woman in the house. It was given an alternate title, Shut In, which transfers the focus of attention to the woman herself. She is agoraphobic. When her invalid brother dies, it is expected that she will actually go to the funeral but she cannot bring herself to go and so she is at home when the thieves come.

There is quite some brutality in the treatment of the woman – but, there are further twists to the plot in which the intruders themselves become victims.

There are complications about her past, about treatment by her father, about a series of killings, where the family trapped those guilty of perversions and killed them and put them in a freezer. The house is equipped with all kind of mirrors, traps, receding steps, which gives the woman an advantage over the thieves.

And another further complication is the young man who has brought her meals for a year, has refused to accept her money, but has told a friend about the money – and he comes and shares in the entrapment.

This is one of those terror films, with a touch of the ugly and brutality, but achieves quite well what it set out to do.

1. Title, the emphasis on the thugs and their moving into the house, the mission? The alternate title and the focus on Anna and her agoraphobia?

2. The confined space, the interiors of the house, the variety of rooms, upstairs, downstairs, secret passages, mechanisms for confinement? An eerie atmosphere? The musical score?

3. The introduction to Anna, timid, within the house, looking out, Conrad looking strange, sitting outside? The background story, his cancer, and her caring for him? The tension between them? His death?

4. The visit of the solicitor, the documents, Anna unwilling to sign them? Her return later, coming into the house, and with the knife, her leaving peacefully?

5. Anna, her agoraphobia, the decision to go to the funeral, changing to a black dress, unable to leave? The phone calls from Charlotte urging her to go?

6. Dan, his regular visits for the year, bringing the food, sharing with Anna? Her offer of the money, his refusal?

7. Anna sitting alone, the intruders coming in, thinking she was not there, coming for the money? The information coming from Dan, his friendship with the younger brother?
8. The personalities of the intruders, J. P. And his leadership, apprehensive, yet tough? Perry, unscrupulous about violence? His treatment of Anna, killing of the bird? The younger brother, admiring his older brother, coming along, friendship with Dan, reluctant about violence?

9. The drama of Anna being able to elude them, the various hiding places, her upper hand, trapping them in the basement, the staircase receding, locked in? The encounter with the younger brother, upstairs, the scissors and her killing him, taking the body downstairs? The reaction of the other two?

10. The confrontation with Perry, his violent urges, wanting the money, the search the house, Anna hitting him, his trying to throttle her, the blood, his death?

11. J.P., wanting to get out, the reaction to the deaths, his younger brother? The gun? Getting through the door, and her leading him on, the bedroom?

12. Dan, his arrival, partly complicit, his explanation of the funeral and the mourners, Anna not trusting him, pushing him into the basement, dislocating his knee, Perry putting it back, his being stranded in the basement? Getting out? Knocking on the trapdoor when the solicitor was present? Anna explaining his presence?

13. Anne, the surveillance, the microphone, the camera, the mirror?

14. The explanation of what it happened, her father’s abuse of her, her compliance, the role of her brother? Killing the father? Trapping perverts, wanting them to confess, killing them, the noose in the basement, the bodies in the freezer? Anna saying they deserve death, saving their victims, wanting them to apologise?

15. JP, his saying he was sorry, laughing, his getting out, the struggle with Anna, the gun, his death? Then watching, J. P. Threatening him?

16. The deaths, Anna able to go outside, not fearing the external world – for future?