{"id":2163,"date":"2012-03-29T22:44:15","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T04:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=2163"},"modified":"2012-03-29T22:47:34","modified_gmt":"2012-03-30T04:47:34","slug":"new-faces-of-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=2163","title":{"rendered":"New Faces Of Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nContrived in its storytelling and finally unsatisfying, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo\u2019s \u201cIntruders\u201d nevertheless has some genuinely frightening moments. How could you not when your spooky goblin is a plastic coat with a hood, work gloves and boots for hands and feet and a basket-ball for a head?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the ghost of Eddie Bauer Past.<\/p>\n

Seriously, though, the film intercuts scenes of two families \u2014 one in England, one in Spain \u2014 being terrorized by the same super-natural figure, named \u201cHollow Face\u201d by the adoles-cent girl in the English family because \u201che\u201d has no features and yearns to steal the faces of children.<\/p>\n

The girl is Mia (London-born beauty Ella Purnell), a teenager who finds a box in a tree at her grandfather\u2019s house, and in it a piece of paper telling the story of Hollow Face. Mia\u2019s parents are tall, handsome John Farrow (Clive Owen), a high-rise construction manager who has had a brush with death at work, and the beautiful Sue (stunning Dutch actress Carice van Houten of \u201cBlack Book\u201d).<\/p>\n

Mia believes Hollow Face has invaded her home and lives in her closet.<\/p>\n

The victim of Hollow Face in the Spanish family is Juan (Izan Corchero), a brave little boy who lives alone with his mother Luisa (Pilar Lopez de Ayala of \u201cThe Strange Case of Angelica\u201d). The boy is repeatedly attacked by Hollow Face at night, or dreams he is being attacked.<\/p>\n

At a loss, his mother seeks the aid of a handsome, young priest (Daniel Bruhl of \u201cInglourious Basterds\u201d), who enlists an elderly colleague (veteran Hector Alterio) to help out. \u201cThey\u2019re both nuts,\u201d the old priest concludes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIntruders,\u201d which like the recent \u201cWoman in Black\u201d is magnificently shot (in this case by Enrique Chediak), is yet another supernatural-themed movie that does not play by the rules and deliberately withholds information to keep you guessing. The best of these child-haunted films \u2014 Guillermo del Toro\u2019s \u201cThe Devil\u2019s Backbone,\u201d for example \u2014 has an eerie dreamlike logic of its own.<\/p>\n

Director Fresnadillo knows the nerve-tingling power of such things as a cat\u2019s meow or a Modigliani-esque depiction of the crucified Christ. But he showed much more control with \u201c28 Weeks -Later,\u201d his terrific 2007 follow-up to Danny Boyle\u2019s trendsetting 2002 zombie reboot \u201c28 Days Later.\u201d<\/p>\n

As in \u201cThe Exorcist,\u201d the \u201cIntruders\u201d screenplay by Nicolas Casariego and Jaime Marques tries to suggest a psychological explanation for all that we\u2019ve seen. We don\u2019t buy it. Nor do we buy the conclusion, for that matter, even if the scenes of Hollow Face in his swampy nightmare lair are probably going to give us nightmares.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/bostonherald.com\/entertainment\/movies\/reviews\/view\/20220330nightmarish_intruders_unveils_new_face_of_evil