The skies are ominous as the Earth’s doom is seemingly imminent, on a collision course with the Moon. To avoid the impending doomsday event, those more financially able choose the only way out: escape. That comes in the form of billionaire tech mogul Jude Micah’s (D.C. Douglas) advanced, AI-operated ship model called Intruder Orion which transports civilians to a space station. As you might have guessed, seats are limited and some folks choose less conventional methods of securing their spot. Enter the father-daughter duo of streetfighter Bree Hewit (Dana Godfrey) and Martin (Andrew Hunsicker), who attempt to steal an Intruder for their own survival, but only the former makes it to the shuttle; joined by a lethal travel companion that isn’t her dad and most definitely wants her dead.
Writer/director Christian Jude Grillo goes all-out in his dystopian feature Intruder, where the theming could not be more current, poking fun at big tech companies for all their ineptitude. Sometimes you’d wish these blurbs would cease to delegate more screen time for Hewit’s time inside the Intruder (maybe even a shorter runtime) but the continuous onslaught of news segments generate a light layer of social commentary, one that stands leagues ahead of the feature’s admittedly lackluster science fiction elements.
A common denominator of ineffective indie moviemaking is its choice of genre. Sci-fi is high on that list, requiring plenty of ambition and a reasonable budget to facilitate proper execution for immersion and believability’s sake. Grillo lacks none of the first on that list, but the last two are where things get problematic for the film. From a poorly pasted moon in nearly every exterior backdrop to flocks of birds flying through characters, the visual effects are rough to say the least, and the practical sets do little to compensate — the Intruder Orion is blocky and unrendered, while its interior is nothing more than a spiffed up apartment with pieces of corrugated insulation pipes screwed into the walls (not exactly something you’d take confidence in for space travel). Maybe this is Grillo’s way of prodding the false promises of leisurely transport for billionaires, similarly to the OceanGate disaster in 2023 which saw a submarine implode due to improper construction, but it’s hard to tell. At the very least, Dana Godfrey gives it her all in trying to sell the anxiety and despair that comes with Bree’s fish out of water archetype.
Ultimately, the film does muster a campy, almost cartoonish tone that will appeal to some — like the wacky blood effects and quippy one-liners that are sprinkled in sparingly. Yet with so many inconsistencies with its worldbuilding and presentation, it’s often hard to take Intruder seriously. Case and point is the onboard AI named SALI (Mae Claire), who’s wardrobe choices and cartoonish mannerisms don’t gel with the concept of high-tech innovation, or News 1 anchor Jim Kramer (Paul Monte, Jr.), who comes across as more of a caricature of Tom Tucker from Family Guy than the face of a major information outlet. Also, the fact that the Department of Defense takes until the final act to confirm and warn everyone of the oncoming cataclysm is odd, as if nobody bothered to have a gander at the colossal shape of the Moon on the horizon barely concealed by poison-green clouds. It’s instances like these that truly undermine Intruder on a fundamental level, where you aren’t exactly sure if it wants to be serious or just plain silly for the sake of it.
Intruder has a bold concept devised by writer/director Christian Jude Grillo, but any potential at it being a fun sci-fi romp are hindered by poor visuals and largely unconvincing storytelling.
