Horror icon Bruce Campbell criticizes the 1989 slasher flick Intruder for what he deems “shockingly misleading” marketing. Campbell rose to fame with 1981’s The Evil Dead, which marked his first significant team-up with director Sam Raimi. The star would go on to reprise his role as Deadite killer Ash Williams for two subsequent franchise installments and a TV show, in addition to enjoying a fruitful career across the horror genre and beyond.
After a fan on Twitter called attention to Intruder, a movie about the overnight stock crew workers at a supermarket who become the targets of a deranged killer, Campbell calls the movie out for its shameless marketing.
The poster for Intruders prominently features Campbell and Raimi’s names at the top, suggesting that the two figures are a central part of the movie. The actor clarifies, however, that he has only a “2 minute cameo at the end” and that Raimi “plays a random stock boy,” thus making the poster a “shockingly misleading” piece of movie marketing.
Intruder’s Shameless Marketing Tactic Isn’t Uncommon
After both The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II in 1987, Campbell and Raimi’s cachet in Hollywood was growing, with both low-budget films ultimately scoring positive reviews from critics, performing decently well at the box office, and, of course, eventually ascending into cult hit status. Campbell and Raimi were becoming more widely known names at the time but quickly developed a passionate following within the horror genre. By slapping their names on the Intruders poster, the film’s marketing executives were attempting to capture the attention of Evil Dead fans.
While certainly misleading considering both Raimi and Campbell have essentially throwaway parts in the film, the practice is still actually quite common today. Big blockbusters typically don’t do it, but smaller, direct-to-video movies do it all the time. It’s particularly common in the direct-to-video action movie genre, with Bruce Willis (before his retirement) taking center stage in the marketing for movies in which he essentially plays smaller supporting roles, sometimes only working on set for a couple of days before collecting a sizable paycheck.
Older but still noteworthy stars like Willis signing onto a movie is usually what would get the movie financed and/ or distributed in the first place. Although it’s unclear what the situation was for Intruder, it’s possible that simply having Campbell and Raimi signed on at all helped the movie get made and subsequently find distribution. All these years later, however, it’s clear that Campbell isn’t afraid to call out Intruder for what he sees as a misleading poster.
Source: Bruce Campbell/ Twitter
