Adventures in B-Movie Horror 2023: ‘Intruder’ and ‘Death Mask’

The weather outside is frightful here in Minnesota, and unfortunately, it’s not because of Halloween.

No, instead this state has provided us here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes with some wintry snow and ice on this spooky day. However, it is still Oct. 31, meaning it’s still Halloween, and it’s time for another Adventure in B-Movies, snow be damned.

This year I checked out a pair of low budget scary pictures. A slasher from the 80s and a paranormal horror from the 90s.

Intruder (1989)

Slashers from the 80s are the gifts that keep on giving. This one from the tail end of the decade, as the title suggests, involves an intruder. The intrusion takes place in a grocery store that has just locked up for the night, with a crew of mostly teenagers, aside from a couple older managers.

It’s a fairly typical slasher roster, a mix of girls and guys with their own light drama who indulge in teenage antics included. The movie let’s the viewer get quite acquainted with the night crew because for a while, the teen banter is all that’s really offered to the audience.

Outside of a red herring, there’s a good 40 minutes of waiting for bloodshed to happen, making a viewer hungry for the first bit of slasher action.

Just when a person may start to check out, though, the film turns up the dial and gets the kills going. And the kills are pretty good, with a variety of tools and scenarios with each death.

As the movie shows in detail, there are a lot of items in a grocery store that can be used as a weapon. From a meat hook, to a cold cut slicer, and even a bill stabber, the filmmakers, namely director and writer Scott Spiegel, got creative with the deaths.

That’s always a plus with slashers, and it’s especially true with an under the radar release like this one. There are a few definite highlight kills that play out, such as a great bit involving a hydraulic press,

As a low budget film, the deaths don’t always look the most realistic. There are clearly some puppets and prop heads that are being stabbed in a few of the scenes. But it ultimately works to the film’s small production charm.

Also working to the film’s charm are appearances by “Evil Dead” royalty Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Bill Hicks. The latter of the three really hamming it up as the villain, making for some solid entertainment.

Admittedly, “Intruder” gets a bit wacky at times, but it’s in a fun slasher kind of way. The movie was released after the real heyday of the genre, but still captures what’s good about the category. It’s a good watch for what it is. 3 out of 3 dead bodies in the cooler.

Hell, even if you don’t watch the movie, check out the trailer for some great puns.

Death Mask (1998)

Want some star power in your B-movie, well how about Sheriff Rosco from “The Dukes of Howard!”

That’s right, the late James Best is at the center of this movie, playing a carnival worker, Wilbur, who specializes in making masks. Wilbur himself wears somewhat of a mask for a burn mark he got when he was a child.

For some reason, he is ostracized for the burn mark, even though it’s not that bad and he got it in a tragic way. Aside from a kind carnival colleague named Angel (Linnea Quigley), Wilbur lives isolated. That isolation pushes him into making an agreement with a witch in order to make the perfect mask, which can help him be seen in a more positive light.

So, what we have on our hands with this one is a classic Be Careful What You Wish For scenario. A person gets something they want through some magic and quickly comes to regret it, as it does more harm than good. In this case, the mask Wilbur makes is one that kills people, especially those who wrong him.

The concept of the movie is somewhat reminiscent of a “Twilight Zone” episode, as the show often had these types of scenarios. From a visual standpoint, the film certainly looks like it was made for the same television format that “The Twilight Zone” was.

As the movie starts off, the production quality makes it look like something for the small screen. That’s what I was thinking when the film started, and I wondered if it wouldn’t be too bloody if it was a TV film. I was quickly proven wrong when there was frontal nudity within the first few minutes. After those first few minutes, well…

You know how I said with the last movie that there is a waiting period before bloodshed, well that is even more so here. “Death Mask” takes a while to get going with its deaths, and the payoff is hit or miss in that department. There are two stand outs, one being a decapitation and the other being a person getting impaled, but the others are less than memorable.

Surprisingly, the movie tries to be more of a horror drama and it doesn’t always work, but sometimes does? It’s extremely hokey, as the writing and acting isn’t exactly great. However, Best and Quigley put in an admirable effort, and “The Monkey’s Paw” type concept is alright.

By the way, Quigley is no stranger to Adventures in B-Movies, she was also in “Graduation Day” which I wrote about last year and “Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama,” a movie I covered in 2020. She’s a veteran of this series at this point.

Back to this movie, the execution isn’t fantastic here, but there’s a commendable earnestness at play. Although it probably could have been cut down in time by maybe 10 minutes, but it’s not awful. 2 out of 3 masks that can explode cars.