Bill Gibron is a veteran film critic from Tampa, Florida.One...two...Hollow Face is coming for you...
Doesn't quite trip off the tongue easily, does is? Unlike other horror icons from the past -- Leatherface, Jason, and Mr. Nightmare himself, Freddy Kruger -- this latest attempt at a terror myth (from 28 Weeks Later's director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo) is as wonky as that attempted nursery rhyme sounds. In parallel stories meant to indicate the lingering status of this hooded, featureless fiend, we learn that this is one monster who steals the cherubic cheeks (and everything else) from little kids in order to wear them, all with the desire to get people to...love him? Huh?
Even more confusing, Fresnadillo designs his film as one big puzzle box, offering both the set-up material from the past with material from a more modern setting. Before, young Juan (Izan Corchero) tells his mother Luisa (Pilar Lopez de Ayala) an incomplete ghost story about the ghoul who preys upon unsuspecting wee ones. What happens to him sets up the contemporary material, where a concerned father (Clive Owen) tries to comfort his frightened daughter (Ella Purnell) when it looks like Hollow Face has picked her as his next target. Naturally, a priest (Daniel Bruhl) and a psychiatrist (Kerry Fox) are brought in before the entire narrative crashes into itself and reveals the real connection between the twin tales.
Unlike other entries in the recent Spanish Fright Renaissance -- REC, The Orphanage, Pan's Labyrinth -- Intruders suffers from a wealth of atmosphere and a dearth of basic believability. Hollow Face is an intriguing idea, and for the most part, Fresnadillo renders it well. There is just enough of a creep factor here to get under our skin. But then the coinciding stories step into and over and around each other, rendering various moments of suspense all but moot. As with any mystery, we start focusing on the solution while the clues and red herrings crowd in and confuse us. Indeed, the main issue with Intruders is its ending. We hope for something sensational. All we get is aggravation.Another issue comes from the core concept - nightmares. In a horror movie, a bad dream is never a bad dream. It's an omen, an attempt by the past to make it into the present (or visa versa), the unreal world leaking over into reality. Because he supposedly doesn't exist, Hollow Face gets that generic "viability through fear" factor that can really destroy dread...and then there's the whole "is it a delusion" dimension which is equally exasperating. After at least an hour of decent scary movie maneuvers, the film falls apart over a final surprise that's neither engaging nor effective.
And then there is the pace. Like a lot of current fright film, Intruders believes in less being more. Like Paranormal Activity, it thinks it can get away with merely offering up a good idea and a limited amount of scares. Sadly, we need more to move us through this otherwise sluggish interfamilial mire. Owen -- who is very good here -- has a wife (Carice Van Houten), who's more of a plot pawn than anything else, and the concern he has for his child is believable. But beyond that, we don't really care about these characters, nor do we wish them any particular ill will. All of our concentration is on Hollow Face, and as a result, we want his story singled out and solved.
That's why the finale is so important -- and so underwhelming. When you craft a creature as potentially memorable as Hollow Face, he deserves more than a minor mixed-up explanation. Intruders has all the makings of a wonderful and atmospheric romp. The actual results are less than impressive.
