Common Sense Media Review
By Brian Costello
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Violence, jump scares in entertaining thriller.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 13+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
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Intrusion
What's the Story?
In INTRUSION, Meera (Freida Pinto) and Henry Parsons (Logan Marshall-Green) have just left Boston to move into their dream home near a small town in New Mexico. Henry, a successful architect, designed the home, and it seems the perfect place for the couple to begin a new life after Meera's recent breast cancer scare. Moved in, Meera resumes her career as a therapist, and the couple seem to be living an ideal life. These illusions are soon shattered when, after a dinner date, Meera and Henry return to find that their home has been broken into and vandalized, with their smartphones and laptop stolen. Meera is traumatized by the robbery, and Henry takes steps to secure the home, including installing a high-tech home security system. While they try to settle back into normalcy, one night while they are sleeping, the home invaders return. They tie up Meera, but after Henry frees her, she learns that Henry keeps a gun hidden in one of her plants, and as she escapes to the car, he kills them. While talking to the police after the home invasion, the investigators tell Henry and Meera that a family of career criminals on the poor side of town were behind the home invasion, and that also the daughter of the family went missing one month ago. As the discovery of the gun has already created an air of mistrust between Meera and Henry, they try to pick up the pieces and move on with their lives. Meera begins to harbor new suspicions. After he forgets his wallet while driving to the store, Meera follows him and discovers that he wasn't actually going to the store. A look at Henry's GPS history reveals other visits to out-of-the-way and very questionable locales. While Henry tries to put Meera's mind at ease, further investigations begin to reveal some ugly truths, and Meera must discover what really happened with the home invasion, and how nothing in her life is what it seems.
Is It Any Good?
This is an entertaining, if not exactly groundbreaking, thriller from the "This Dream Home Is Not What It Seems" file. Intrusion has its moments, as the plot twists twist and the jump scares scare. Suspension of disbelief frays but doesn't completely rip away. Successful architect Henry has designed a dream home for himself and his wife Meera as they escape the "rat race" of Boston to live on the far-enough outskirts of a New Mexico hamlet. It's easy for the audience to get as wrapped up in the seemingly good taste and luxury of this dream home, even as it starts to gradually sink in that it doesn't have much warmth, as it's all angles and gray, as impersonal as an Ikea showroom. Soon enough, this house becomes as tiresome as the close-up jump scares of Meera chopping produce at the kitchen island, and so by the time the third act story payoffs unfurl with visual menace and discordant horror movie synth tones, the movie ends as it teeters on the edge of wearing out its welcome.
The quality of the acting is what keeps viewers engaged, even as you're likely to later question plot points that seem a little too forced. Meera, who is traumatized and anxious through much of the movie, suddenly finds the strength to enter a sketchy trailer park, break into a trailer, and steal some mail. They've just moved to this small New Mexico town, but already seem to have a large group of friends, friends who look like they stepped out of advertisement banners for trendy upscale condominiums under construction. There are other examples, but in spite of this, it's an entertaining thriller.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about thriller movies like Intrusion. How is this similar to and different from other thriller movies? What makes an enjoyable thriller?
How did the movie use jump scares as a way to create suspense and even fool the viewer into thinking that something real was happening to the characters? Why do you think jump scares are such a big part of thrillers?
Were you surprised by any of the plot twists in the movie? Why or why not? How are plot twists often the thing that makes or breaks thrillers?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : September 22, 2021
- Cast : Logan Marshall-Green , Freida Pinto , Robert John Burke
- Director : Adam Salky
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Actor(s) , Indian/South Asian Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Netflix
- Genre : Thriller
- Run time : 92 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : January 13, 2022
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