Intrusive (2024) Review

Intrusive (2024) Review

Sabina (Rhoda Jordan) undergoes hypnotherapy to rid her of demonic possession, courtesy of Kelly (Sherill Quinn). It transpires that the demon Phentara has other plans and reaches out beyond the hotel room that the two are in and affects Kelly’s boyfriend and child.

INTRUSIVE is co-written and directed by Eric Shapiro who also stars in the movie as Dr. Kleinbaum. His films have screened at Fantasia, Fantastic Fest, and Shriekfest, received festival awards, and earned the endorsement of PETA. His feature films Horrorbuku, Intrusive, and Rule of 3 are slated to appear as special episodes in the upcoming revival of USA’s Up All Night on Kings of Horror. His novella It’s Only Temporary was named one of Nightmare Magazine’s “100 Best Horror Novels of All Time.”

Shapiro’s sixty-six-minute possession flick INTRUSIVE is an ambitious flick, it is big on ideas but proves a little lacking in the delivery. The camerawork is static; there is no flair and that is not a criticism as this is often the case with lower-budget films but INTRUSIVE’s premise screams out to be a more strikingly visual experience.

The small cast give it all they have got however characterisation is minimal and the story cuts to another character thirty minutes in with little or no explanation as to who these new people are and how they tie into what preceded it. It only becomes clear when a phone call from the first half-hour is repeated in the second half from another character’s position that it becomes clear as to who we are watching and why. The ideas are there; they needed to be fully formed rather than left to our assumption.