Intermedio is one of those films that as a reviewer, and as a general horror fan, is frustrating because it has potential buried within its core but it manages to mess it up at every turn.

There's a tunnel that runs underneath the border between California and Mexico and it's the perfect way to smuggle drugs into the country, but it's also supposed to be haunted by "Intermedios" (which is Spanish for "In-Betweens" meaning spirits caught in limbo). But that doesn't stop a group of two twenty-somethings (led by Edward "Terminator 2" Furlong and Cerina "Cabin Fever" Vincent) from going down into the depths in order to pull of a large marijuana deal that will get them rich.

Things soon go wrong as they come under the attack of some spirits who proceed to gorily knock-off one of the drug dealers with a chain through the eye before chasing them through the tunnels. It seems that old man Steve Railsback (who is quite unexplainably wandering through the tunnels) can unleash them by pouring some blood from a necklace around his neck. And its here the movie soon starts to disintegrate.

Not able to decide if it wants to be a ghost movie or a serial killer movie, Intermedio is a sloppy blend of both with a script that makes the most minimal of sense and contains tons of unexplained events and it does an uncomfortable shift between being about trapped souls to being about Railsback being a nutty old man who's chasing them with a pick-axe. Throw in some moments of confusing editing and some bad dialogue (the line "what the ass?" is used more than once, and I don't know about you but I've never hear anyone utter it in real life) and you have a film that even Vincent and her tight top which threatens to burst at times can't even save.

It's all pretty unfortunate because there are a few moments of alright mood, some okay gore (including a "sawed in half" scene), and the premise isn't too bad but the movie is hung by too many problems and not enough coherency.

Cinematographer Neal L. Fredericks (who's main claim to fame was filming The Blair Witch Project, which honestly couldn't have been too difficult) passed away in a plane crash in October 2004 and the film is respectfully dedicated to him.

Visit The Asylum for more information. (Chris Hartley, 3/24/05)

Directed By: Andy Lauer.
Written By: Kraig X. Wenman.

Starring: Edward Furlong, Cerina Vincent, Amber Benson, Callard Harris.

aka: The In Between.

Picture Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: The Asylum brings this to DVD with a pretty sharp transfer that handles the desert colours on display quite well and doesn't suffer too badly in the dark scenes showing very little of the fuzziness that plagues most low-budget films.

Extras: Not a great deal of stuff to dig into here, but I suppose depending on your opinon of the movie that could be a good thing, as we get a trailer (plus trailers for Alien Abduction, Way Of The Vampire, Ghost Of The Needle, and Rachel's Attic), a brief "making of" featurette that doesn't give too much information, and a fairly passable commentary track with director Lauer, co-stars Railsback and Furlong, and effects man Richard Miranda.