INTRUDERS

Little Juan has terrifying nightmares in which he sees a hooded, faceless being trying to abduct him at night in his bedroom. Elsewhere, twelve-year-old Mia finds a hidden box in a tree containing a handwritten story about a hooded, faceless man who tries to acquire a face by stealing it from children. When Mia decides to complete the story to present it as a school assignment, the faceless man begins to appear to her, only her father John is a witness to the event and despite no one else believing her, the girl gradually begins to show strange symptoms, starting with the loss of her voice. The world of childhood fears has often been explored in recent years with a series of horror films that have focused primarily on the fear of the dark. Between "Darkness", "Al calare delle tenebre", the "Boogeyman" trilogy, "Fear of the Dark", "They - Incubi nel mondo delle ombre", "Vanishing on 7th Street" and "Non avere paura del buio", we have witnessed the deconstruction and reconstruction of nyctophobia in various situations and creatures that have given a fairly complete overview of the subject. Now there is another "variation on the theme", which more than other films in the mini-genre is linked to the childhood dimension, seeking, moreover, to create a new horror icon with the faceless boogeyman: "Intruders". At the helm of this U.S./Spain/U.K. co-production is Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, already known for the interesting thriller "Intacto" and the beautiful "28 Weeks Later", who with "Intruders" finds himself managing a commissioned film that probably could not have been handled better. I want to clarify immediately that "Intruders" is certainly not the disaster that many proclaim, it has some very interesting points and some elements that favor its remembrance, but it is noticeable that something went wrong and that the film could have been of a much higher level. The opening is not bad but feels familiar: a child pursued by the Boogeyman in the intimacy of his bedroom. The visual style and technical skill of Fresnadillo give the long sequence a particular charm, accentuated by what follows with a sudden and initially misleading change of location and protagonists. From this moment, the film follows two parallel stories easily placed on a determined logical plane, but the screenwriters will reserve a final surprise for us. And it is precisely thanks to the awareness of the predictable "surprise" that an original and interesting narrative construction is noticed that perhaps would have benefited from not being posed as an "ending twist". From here, a series of inconsistencies unfold, making some noticeable script holes that reach their peak in a conclusion that clashes with logic and seems like an alternate ending for the DVD. "Intruders" however offers a series of well-choreographed and truly unsettling scenes featuring Faceless, the hooded boogeyman who looms over the entire story. It is not an original figure, on the contrary, in Juan's segment it resembles aesthetically too much the killer from "Sospesi nel tempo", but Faceless is a credible boogeyman and particularly akin to what the collective imagination perceives as such. He lives in wardrobes and dark areas of children's bedrooms, he is tall, dark, and with undefined features... and it is precisely from this last point that his modus operandi develops, aimed at stealing others' identities to build one for himself. If Faceless touches your mouth, the victim can no longer speak, if he touches the eyes, they can no longer see, and so on, until a personal assembly that reflects his victim. In short, it is enough to think of the ridiculous representation of the Boogeyman in the three "Boogeyman" films to understand how the idea behind the monster of "Intruders" is instead winning. If we then talk about the attempt to build a world that contains Faceless, a bit like the dimension of Freddy Krueger's nightmares, then it's another story: an unfortunate and discordant choice that does not fit well with the atmospheres and themes of the film. Very good the performance of the cast, which includes Clive Owen ("Sin City"; "Children of Men"), Carice van Houten ("Black Book"; "Dorothy"), Pilar López de Ayala ("El destino de un guerrero"; "Las 13 rosas"), Daniel Brühl ("The Bourne Ultimatum"; "Inglourious Basterds") but above all Ella Purnell ("Never Let Me Go"), convincing in the role of little Mia. "Intruders" is therefore a somewhat unconvincing work due to a poorly managed and often unnecessarily complex screenplay, capable however of creating frightening suggestions of good craftsmanship.