Filmed in the deserts next to the mountains of New Mexico, it becomes apparent why the setting of a home invasion thriller needs to become its own character in Netflix’s Intrusion (2021).
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The expanse of flatlands, brush, and a massive sky in New Mexico is its own threat in its own serene manner.
Similar to how horror films will regularly isolate their characters in woods, caves, or other confining spaces to create a sense of inescapability, the same can be said for what Intrusion (2021) accomplishes with its setting.
The isolation is palpable and the lack of claustrophobic walls is also suffocating because there is nothing there. No houses for help. No roads for cars. Just an endless horizon line that might as well be two worlds away.
Three leads, two people
Growing up in the rural Midwest of the United States made me respect distance. If I wanted McDonalds, it would be a 45 minute trip at interstate speeds. Those long flat views can be overwhelming if you are in the wrong headspace.
It’s a feeling that immediately resonates as Intrusion (2021) introduces a worrisome Meera, played by Freida Pinto, who is introduced as she desperately tries to stifle feelings that her cancer has returned when she feels a lump in the shower. She’s already on edge.
Meera and her husband Henry, played with a strangely “too nice for his own good” idiosyncrasy from genre cinema stalwart Logan Marshall-Green, are fully isolated in their new beautiful house. Designed by Henry himself, who oversaw all of its construction, it’s a paradise in the loneliness of the New Mexican desert.
For a film with the title’ Intrusion’, it’s also an immediately threatening force with all of its glass and modern sharp edges. An audience knows the home invasion is coming and the house will either be against them or for them.
Along with its desolate setting, the house is the third lead of the film as its sheer presence waivers between hostile and havenly.
A formula for a Lifetime
It’s through this set up, particularly in the manner that the film establishes the backstories and relationship between Henry and Meera, that Intrusion (2021) preps its audience for horrors of home. The performances are naturalistic, if not overly subdued, and the atmosphere sets up the eventual tension and threat as promised by the title.
When that promised invasion happens and ends in the first act before thrusting Meera into investigating the circumstances, the film spins to take a very familiar narrative path. Well, familiar for those who love Lifetime movies.
For all of the fantastic set up that director Adam Salky puts into place in the first 15 minutes, the shift to a more generic mystery comes off as utterly safe and uninspired.
To reveal too much further in the plot would degrade the experience of the film. Intrusion (2021) takes its sweet, sweet time in getting to the actual threats of the plot. The lingering fingerprints of made-for-television thrillers are felt all over the script and its foreseeable plot progressions make for a lackluster watch as it progresses.
Anyone that has watched any handful of thrillers, or even one of Netflix’s true crime docu-dramas, will find Intrusion (2021) a comfortable watch that rarely challenges its viewers in the ways it might have.
Rated TV-14 for Fear, Language
Considering that writer Chris Sparling has delivered a handful of intriguing genre films, including the fun slasher ATM (2012) and the incredibly effective Buried (2010) with Ryan Reynolds, it’s a bit surprising that Intrusion (2021) so quickly abandons its more interesting elements to immediately sprint for safe choices.
I should have known this was the direction of the film when Netflix rated it TV-14 for fear and language.
Even when the true villain is revealed, despite an interesting turn in performance that attempts to subtly elevate the material, it feels unthreatening. The film has so firmly avoided going to any real darkness in its characters or plot that the consequences feel muted.
Is there a body count? Sure, but even that ` to it that fails to capitalize on punctuating the fear that an audience should be feeling – particularly in a genre like the home invasion flick that should strike with realism for most audiences.
Not that all of these films should be gore fests or a nihilistic trip; it’s not that hard to see You’re Next (2011) or The Strangers (2008) respectively, but the lack of real terror or thrills is a massive obstacle that Intrusion (2021) cannot overcome.
E is for Execution
With that being said, for audiences willing to sit back and drift through a mystery for a brisk 90 minutes, Intrusion (2021) is hardly a dumpster truck blazing down the road.
In fact, there are some very impressive aspects to it for a viewer to latch onto. Director Adam Salky ably adds some visual pizzazz to plenty of key moments without undoing the grounded realism of its premise. A buzz-worthy tilting camera shot that follows Meera as she whips into her house after watching some incriminating footage in her car being the prime example. You’ll know it when you see it.
The performances are also grounded from both Pinto and Marshall-Green as they navigate their own relationship and trust-boundaries. As the mystery in the plot unravels, their performances only strengthen.
Could the script have given them a bit more oomph, particularly in the third act? Perhaps, but their humanistic approach to the material elevates it above the lackluster writing of its latter scenes.
It’s ultimately an unfortunate circumstance that Intrusion (2021) simply succumbs to the base level material of a more casual Netflix junkie’s afternoon slice of cinema. It’s not quite dramatic enough to make use of its strong casting, nor is it leaning into its horror and thriller genre elements enough to entertain with its murder mysteries and attempts at tension-filled thrills.
Like the New Mexican landscape that serves as its setting, it’s the emptiness of its potential that tends to haunt the most.
Credits
Editor & Artwork: Richard Williams
Writer, podcaster, cinema fiend, drive-in mutant, kung fu fanatic, horror hound, vulgar auteur, and sometimes human being. I’ve been writing about cinema for over ten years now, dedicating my time to all genre cinema. Co-creator of Blood Brother Film Reviews and co-host of the No Franchise Fatigue podcast.
I own this thing. Being creative makes me tick. Film lover. Coffee hater. Website manager, headline and copywriter, video editor, graphic/motion designer, editor, presenter...
