Intruder (1989)

Intruder is a horror film directed by an associate of Sam Raimi, Scott Spiegel and co-written by Lawrence Bender. This film aside from being excellent also has a cameo appearance by Bruce Campbell (Officer Howard), long time B movie master actor along with Ted Raimi (Produce Joe) and Sam Raimi (Randy). Intruder centers on a supermarket closing and its staff will be out of a job the next morning. The staff of the supermarket stays late as shop closes to repacking the stock for a new location. As the staff start to disappear during the night, Jennifer Ross (Elizabeth Cox) begins to think everyone has just packed up and left for their new jobs as she ends up the last person not aware that a maniac is meticulously killing everyone. The story involves the manager Dan Hicks (Bill Roberts) who had a major meltdown because his partner sold the store, and now he’s gone psycho. Dan murders each supermarket staff worker by decapitation, meat hooking, crushing and stabbing. The entire time Jennifer thinks it’s her obsessive boyfriend Craig Peterson (David Byrns) stalking her.  Craig however was trying to warn her of the danger and gets stabbed by Jennifer as she thinks she found the killer. Dan almost got away with everything while talking to the police Craig wounded attacks Dan with his own meat clever. Intruder is a well produced slasher film and well worth the addition to your horror or thriller collection. Originally Intruder was released by Empire Pictures before the company was dissolved by the famous B movie director and producer, Charles Band of Full Moon Entertainment. Intruder is available for purchase on DVD by Full Moon Entertainment or on a BluRay/DVD Combo pack released by Synapse Films.

The Guardian (1990)

For thousands of years a religious order known as the Druids worshiped trees believing that every tree has a guardian spirit. Most of the trees are associated with good but many trees embodied powers of evil and darkness.  In this folktale, The Guardian by director William Friedkin is his first horror film since The Exorcist. The Guardian is based on a parent’s worst fear, losing a child. Parents of two children, Alan (Gary Swanson) and Molly (Natalija Nogulich), decide to take a trip leaving their two children in the care of a guardian, Camilla Grandier (Jenny Seagrove). Camilla’s intentions are quickly revealed as a battle for the child’s soul begins, based on the popular novel by Dan Greenburg, “The Nanny.” As the parent’s leave for their trip, Molly, the wife realizes she left her glasses at home. She returns home to find her youngest child missing and had been taken away by Camilla. Camilla sacrifices the baby to the tree in the woods which leaves the imprint of the baby’s face in its roots. Fast forward to three months later where the story continues with a new couple Phil (Dwier Brown) and Kate (Carey Lowell), and their baby boy Jake who moves into the same house. The parents hire Camilla, as a guardian to look after Jake so they can continue with their advertising jobs. Camilla quickly becomes a part of the new family. Things begin to get strange when the husband begins to have weird dreams about Jake and Camilla that begin to come true. As the story continues, Camilla is caught trying to steal Jake from the hospital after a minor injury. A detective investigating the baby’s injury tells the parents that Camilla doesn’t exist. Camilla begins to turn into part tree and attacks Kate, while Phil attempts to cut down the demonic tree with the embedded baby’s face. As he cuts down the limbs of the tree, pieces of skin start to fall off Camilla and she loses her entire leg after Phil cuts down an entire branch of the tree. The Guardian is an action packed horror film with lots of folklore on the Druids who sacrificed human beings to trees for centuries, and includes ancient evil, and the occult. The film is clearly another well directed movie by the famous William Friedkin, which makes the film a must see for horror fans. Released on Blu-Ray by Scream! Factory is now available for purchase also as DVD on Amazon.