After weeks of nugget-sized teasers, BBC America has finally barged into people’s minds with a full-length trailer for the upcoming thriller series Intruders, which the network announced will premiere on Saturday, August 23. The promo somehow manages to remain just as cryptic as everything else we’ve seen, which I take as a sign of a good mystery, rather than the flag-raising of a series that doesn’t understand itself. It’s the latest in a line of shows that are handling the “returning dead” angle in a way that completely turns away from malevolent zombies. But make no mistake – there is malevolence here.
Based on the 2007 novel of the same name from British author Michael Marshall Smith, Intruders is mostly centered on Jack Whalen (John Simm), an ex-cop who is drawn back to crimestopping by a particularly brutal murder. He’s married to Amy (Mira Sorvino), who goes missing, leading to the reveal of…stuff. I’m delightfully in the dark as far as the plot on this one goes, as my usual habit of reading books before seeing adaptations stalled out with this one. But even if I knew exactly what was going on, it wouldn't stop Sorvino’s madness–infused behavior in the trailer (via THR) from appearing completely unsettling. Her eyes are almost too loose here.
And speaking of eyes, what the hell is happening to this person’s pupil?
Ew. Anyway, it’s not just about that troubled couple. Intruders also focuses on a young Oregon girl named Madison (Millie Bobby Brown) who is leading a normal life until she is approached by a strange man who gives her a strange item. All of a sudden, everything about her life changes. As it happens, that strange man turns out to be Richard Shepherd (James Frain), a ruthless assassin. What do these people have to do with one another? Seemingly nothing, except maybe the number 9?
And yet, it’s all tied together through a plot that assumes the dead can rise again through the bodies of others. (The intruding in the title doesn’t refer to home invaders.) So I’m guessing that’s what happening with Amy and Madison, but what does it all mean? What's that thing Robert Forster is holding? That there is a conspiracy at the heart of Intruders is no surprise when you consider the series was adapted by The X-Files writer/producer Glen Morgan, with directorial duties split between The Blair Witch Project co-director Edward Sanchez and The Last Exorcism’s Daniel Stamm.
Check out one of the previously released teasers below to get another take on how this series treats death.
With the excellent second season of Orphan Black having come to a close, BBC America has a lot to live up to with Intruders, and dead or alive, we’ll be glued to our seats when it debuts on Saturday, August 23.
