If there is one genre that will not go away anytime soon, it is the PG-13 horror movie. Presumably, this is due to the fact that teens will see any horror movie possible, whether it's new, a remake, a foreign crafted one or even an American redux of same. So in the straight to video feature The Intruders, we have the unique scenario of a horror movie that appears to be an amalgam of previous horror films, which begs the question of will a whole lot of folks flock to see this one?

Written by Jason Juravic and directed by Adam Massey, the film is set in Chicago, where Rose (Miranda Cosgrove, School of Rock) lives. Rose lives there now with her Dad Jerry (Donal Logue, Max Payne), an architect, as they both are still processing the death of their mother, so picture a tribute of sorts to Sleepless in Seattle. Rose starts to hear strange things in the house and starts to look into the origins, despite the doubts of Jerry. She learns that some family members disappeared from the house and that the possibly psychotic neighbor/father may have something to do with it. Said grown-up is played here by Tom Sizemore (Black Hawk Down), who plays the one who hordes all the protagonist's suspicions and generally stands around looking Sizemorean. Also involved in the film is Noah (Austin Butler, The Carrie Diaries), a nearby construction worker who serves as Rose's advocate and possible love interest. As Rose starts to find out the truth, who believes her?

Cosgrove looks notably older than she has in films you may recognize her in, and when you learn she's 21, you start to feel old yourself. As she has been doing this acting thing for a while, she handles the bulk of the action nicely, or at least as much as the story will carry. That said, Logue's casting as the skeptical Dad/father figure is a curious one. He does not get a lot of time to do anything, other than scold Rose occasionally or tell her that it's (to paraphrase) ‘all in her head.' And as far as the scenes with Butler go, well, both kids look nice and the scenes they share are innocuous and do not lend anything to the story past pushing things along.

While performance wise things are safe, this may be a reflection that the story does nothing that scores of other, incrementally better movies have done. The only one I can of that's done something similar is The Skeleton Key, and on a vacuum alone, borrowing a story component from ANY Kate Hudson starring vehicle is generally a bad idea. With uninspired choice after uninspired choice, things culminate with an ending that seems random yet oddly enough considering how uninspired the story is, does not feel like much of a leap.

So while it may be one thing for horror movies to recycle from other horror movies, The Intruders recycles from bad horror movies which both makes no sense and makes for a uninspired film experience. I would hope that with The Intruders we have assumed peak horror movie territory and not in a good way, but I know that it won't stop anyone from checking out mundane products like this.

Sony presents The Intruders with a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, with the results being generally pleasant as far as standard definition goes. There is little edge enhancement though around Cosgrove on occasion there seems to be a bit of haloing. Nothing overly prevalent, yet noticeable none the less. The constant darkness of the film is replicated well with scarce crushing, and the white Ontario snow (real or otherwise) looks natural, to the point of spotting reflections off it from the sun. A decent presentation all things considered.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound track is fine, and is faithful to the things that go bump in the house during the night. Directional effects are present and sound good, and while channel panning is a little on the seldom side of things, the low end helps emphasize the rattles and knocks about as much as one can expect. The Intruders has some fine production values behind it, at least that can be said.

"The Making of The Intruders" (15:05) is a self-explanatory promotional piece on the film with interviews from the cast and crew on the film and the characters they portray, and inspirations on the script. There is even some coverage given to set design for and shot breakdown of the film. Opinions on the film aside this making of is actually better than most. "The Secrets of The Intruders" (7:48) looks a little more at the story and a little more on the set design. Not as good as the other featurette, but a nice addition.

The Intruders has a couple of familiar faces, but only one really gets any run over the course of the movie. The movie tends to pass the usual horror film road blocks like a dutiful marathon runner, with their head down and unaware of what the final result might be. Technically, the disc looks and sounds good, but feels like a cinematic Frankenstein, borrowing things from other films. Go see those films, and skip this one.