Director/writer/producer Christian Jude Grillo goes into interplanetary space in campy sci-fi thriller Intruder. Bree Hewit (Dana Godfrey) is failing as an off-book MMA street fighter because she won’t go along with fixed fights. When she lands in the hospital after the league enforcers beat her up for her insolence, her estranged father comes to see her. He is Martin Hewitt (Andrew Hunsicker), lead software designer for Micah-Tech, a company like SpaceX led by billionaire Jude Micah (D.C. Douglas). Hewitt has created the AI operating system for the company’s new space yacht, Intruder Orion.
As it becomes clear that a problem with the moon’s orbit will cause an extinction-level event on Earth, the wealthy who were able to acquire an Intruder Orion flee this doomed planet to take refuge on Micah’s decadent space station resort. The ships meant for interplanetary luxury cruising become lifeboats for the ultra-rich.
Hewitt calls Bree and insists she leave the hospital for an Intruder ship he’s prepared for the two of them. She fights her way to the ship through people also intent on taking it, and she is able to engage the ship’s AI named SALI (Mae Claire) to launch and head for the space station. After departure she doesn’t see her father onboard, but she does find someone else who has stowed away and means to kill her and take the ship. Will she be able to defeat the unexpected passenger? And if she does, will she be welcomed at the space station, despite not being in the designated demographic?
“…a failed MMA fighter trapped on a spaceship with an opponent who wants her dead…”
Grillo makes no apology for the low-budget (about $40K) cheesiness of Intruder. The sets and props are so crude that we could be watching a 1960s episode of Doctor Who. The cinematography quality is as good as it can be, given the setting. Digital work is where most of the money went, it seems. That’s still a mixed bag. While the AI SALI displays are solid, the rest of the VFX are decidedly goofy. The interior of the intruder ship looks to be finished with particle board and home store cabinets, coming off like a spacefaring mobile home. It works in this context. We would watch a story about that trailer.
Budget notwithstanding, Grillo’s film has ambition. He introduces a large cast of characters, some making their first appearance late in the film. He also informs the space horror with social commentary. Exposition about the disaster unfolding on Earth as the moon closes in comes from news flashes on television. The literal moral of the story is in exploring the evils of a wealth gap that enables only a small fraction of humanity to escape, including the U.S. President and Micah himself. This is reminiscent of the Neill Blomkamp/Matt Damon film Elysium. The dialogue in Intruder is excessive, droning on too long when a viewer would like to see more action.
There is a dizzying array of moving parts in the film, and many threads that don’t resolve logically. The performances are uneven, with some roles presenting better than others. Godfrey as Bree displays convincing MMA skills (she trained to do the film) and decent acting chops in her debut feature role. The rest of the cast range from adequate to a few performances that are so amateurish they would not work anywhere except a B minus sci-fi romp that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Intruder provides sweet, addictive cinematic empty calories, which is always fun. It is horror action-adventure for a rainy Saturday afternoon that you don’t have to pay too much attention to.
"…horror action-adventure for a rainy Saturday afternoon"
