Movie Review - The Intruder (2019)

This film falls in the genre of stalker and home invasion thrillers. It's in the same genre as Cape Fear (1962), Straw Dogs (1971) and Fatal Attraction (1987). Over the past decade or so, we've seen a resurgence of those kinds of movies. The difference is that the makers of such and the cast of such have been populated with African-Americans. Director Deon Taylor gave us an entry in this genre just last year with Traffik (2018). It featured a wealthy black couple whose home gets invaded by people who ultimately want the black woman for sexual purposes. Screenwriter David Loughery gave us two entries in this genre not that long ago with Lakeview Terrace (2008) and Obsessed (2009). Lakeview Terrace was about a wealthy interracial couple whose home gets invaded by a man who doesn't like their status as property owners. Obsessed was about a wealthy black couple whose home gets invaded by a psychotic woman who stalks the husband.

Taylor and Loughery have now joined forces and created this narrative, which combines a lot from all those aforementioned titles and plots. Here, we have a wealthy black couple whose home gets invaded by a psychotic, older man who wants the black woman for sexual purposes and who doesn't like their status as property owners. Often, these movies are about the titillation from the sexual undercurrents that generally persist in these films. Otherwise, it's about seeing how crazy the home invader will get. It's better if the home invader is smart and the couples are smart in combating that person. Recently, these films have been used as symbolic of female empowerment where the wife or the woman in the couple is the one that fights back and is instrumental in the win.

Michael Ealy (Think Like a Man and Barbershop) stars as Scott Howard, a creative director at an advertising agency in San Francisco. He's black and very successful. He's married to Annie, played by Meagan Good (Think Like a Man and Stomp the Yard). Annie is a magazine writer who's also black and successful. She's beautiful and the two make a beautiful couple. They decide to buy a house in Napa Valley that's worth over $3 million. For some reason, they don't go through a real estate agent or do any kind of research on the property or its owner before purchasing it.

Scott is more a city guy but Annie is more a small-town or country girl. It's a struggle therefore for Scott to adjust to life in this house that's probably a hour or two outside the city. What's also an issue for the couple is the fact that Scott has a history of infidelity. It's not clear if this happened before or after the couple got married. They're in love and have moved past it, but Annie hasn't forgotten what Scott did. Yet, they're trying to make a new start in this house and that appears to be their driving force.

Dennis Quaid (The Day After Tomorrow and Far From Heaven) co-stars as Charlie Peck, the former owner of the house in Napa. He's a retired structural engineer who is very much a country boy himself. He hunts deer. He does the landscaping. He's a handyman that fixes up anything. He's a rugged, almost cowboy-type. He has to sell the house, but obviously can't let it go. After selling the house, he keeps showing up and becomes extremely and disturbingly transfixed on maintaining his connection to the house.

Obviously, he's the crazy one and seeing how crazy he gets or what he does is a driving force to the film. Yet, the protagonists should be a little smarter. This isn't like a slasher flick where a bunch of dumb teenagers are lambs for the slaughter. The way that the movie is set up, there really is no place for the movie to go but to a place that's off a cliff. Charlie starts to obsess over Annie. As intriguing as a possibility as that could have been, it's clear that Annie who is a young black woman isn't interested in his middle-aged creepiness. She could have been but the movie doesn't make room for it.

It's an obvious blocked path, unlike the recent The Perfect Guy, (2015) which starred Ealy in the stalker / obsessed role. In The Perfect Guy, there seemed to be a viable love triangle. That's not the case here and even when the viable love triangle became nonviable, that 2015 film upped the ante in smarter ways. Here, the stakes are raised but in dumber ways. For example, Charlie attempts to kill Scott but doesn't succeed, which is odd because he could have but simply didn't finish the job. Why?

Joseph Sikora (Power) plays Mike, the best friend to Scott. Scott is told that Charlie is dangerous. Scott is then told to go to the house and check on Annie. Mike sees Charlie in the house with Annie but decides not to go into the house. He instead tries to run away. Not only is this dumb but it's cowardly and doesn't make sense for his character til that point. It's done simply to be a contrived way for his character to be killed. It ends up only being lame.

Rated PG-13 for violence, terror, some sexuality and language.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 42 mins.

Available on DVD and VOD.