Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The acting in this movie is really good.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

One of the best thrillers I've ever seen and the fact that it's a lesser budget "made for TV" movie doesn't diminish it's brilliance. It outshines most big budget Hollywood guff out there and provides the viewer with a tense, nail-biting experience mostly powered by two riveting performances from Molly Parker & John C. McGinley. This is what the French film, Haute Tension (High Tension/Switchblade romance) wanted to be but failed dismally. Intensity is the original movie based on Koontz novel - sadly Haute Tension, no matter how vehemently it's makers deny it - was a failed attempt to remake Intensity but not credit Koontz. They threw in a bunch of random "shocking" scenes/gore & a lame twist at the end hoping this would disguise the fact that it's the exact same story & they plagiarized it. What the directors of the French version didn't understand is why, even with it's low budget & basic production, this version of Intensity works so well and theirs doesn't. The acting, the script, the development of the plot and the fact that it isn't just slash & gore for the sake of it, THAT'S why it works. It's why this movie is a MUST SEE if you are able to find a copy of it anywhere while it's sneaky, absurdly violent, badly acted, slasher rip off - Haute Tension - is a "must avoid at all costs".And I have to stress how absolutely incredible John McGinley was as the psycho dude. Somehow he managed to come across as chillingly insane AND absurdly normal at the same time. One of THE best villains ever.I can't recommend this two-part mini-series enough. Please try and get a hold of the full uncut version if you can. It's definitely going to be a repeat viewer for me.

What on earth were people complaining of the ending about? In the 3 hour made for TV flick INTENSITY, the finale and some details of it deviate from the novel but it doesn't mean it is absent of denouement. It has about the same sensitive and emotional resolve that the book gives to its heroine Chyna Shepherd, portrayed perfectly by Molly Parker. Based on reviews I would have thought that the movie would fade to black pointlessly after the final confrontation. But gladly it doesn't and it nicely pays off and brings to a close all the backstory that is skillfully juxtapoused in between scenes of this thrillful suspenser.There are even some interesting new elements added such as that of the good African American sheriff. And even the old lady. I cracked up during their interaction and the sheriff says, "China? Has this become international already?"Perhaps they use it to fill the gap of more introspective scenes in the book where mental soliloquy can't possibly be translated into cinematic form without being perverse. What makes this better than the common B-Movie thriller that we get a plethora of in Cinemax is the backstory involved of the movie's heroine. Or should we call her super heroine. All of that laid down from the novel of Dean Koontz. Maybe I comment on this positively because of my bias for the author who has given me so much awe and wonderment in fiction, but maybe I do because I am genuinely pleased by the way this was slapped into celluloid.I also notice that the writers manage to slip in the little subliminal reference of why the villain is afraid of the stars or the shining sun. In the novel it was only in prose, but gladly in the film Chyna notices it and sounds off much to the perturbance of the villain, so masterfully portrayed by John McGinley with furious gusto.I can only hope that the many beautiful pieces of literature from Dean Koontz can be adapted in motion picture form as decently as INTENSITY. I hear the same positiveness for SOLE SURVIVOR, which I also hope to bump into later on. Not particularly excited about THE HUSBAND, but as I write this I am anxious for next year's Sam Raimi produced THE TAKING. I can only hope such infidelities and deviations that take place will be inconsequential, just as the liberties taken from the book in INTENSITY are to me.5/5

I read the book Intensity a long time ago and had no idea that there was a TV movie made out of it. I thought I would have no chance of seeing it, being as that it was made in 97' and probably not on DVD. But then today when I was flipping through On Demand I saw it in the free section. Cool beans, right? Maybe not so much.As the movie started I came close to stopping it and walking away several times. The first 20 minutes or so is just sooooo asinine. The movie makes a very poor attempt at trying to get you to like the characters that you know are going to die in about 5 minutes, and to try and foreshadow, but fails at it miserably. Pretty much through this entire movie I didn't give two cence about any of the characters.Now, once the killing started happening I was sorely disappointed. The big scene were Vess kills the family that took like a hundred pages in the book is over in about five minutes, and there is no intensity at all. It's pretty much Chyna hides under bed, Vess comes in, annoying music plays, she breaths really hard, he leaves, she runs around the house really loudly and finds all the dead people and freaks out, etc. etc.After the leave the house Chyna hides in with the killer in his RV and they go barreling down the highway. He stops at the gas station and we finally get to see who he is: it's that funny doctor guy from Scrubs...trying to be a psychotic serial killer...no. Almost all the reviews I've read have praised his performance, but I don't think that there's anyone worse they could have picked to play except for Jim Carrey. I was never once afraid or intimidated by Vess. He did not act like a cool collective serial killer, he acted like a giddy school boy squishing bugs the entire movie. I could have kicked his ass, and I'm a real wimp. Plus how is it that he does not take any precautions while killing people, yet has never been caught? Chyna is also a piece of work, like everyone else has stated she makes some of the most stupid mistakes that anyone has ever made in a movie, ever. The actress playing her did a pretty good job. She was good at being scared, being in pain, being scared and in pain.While there was a couple of mildly intense scenes, most of the movie was just dull. If you have 3 hours to kill or are a fan of the book or thrillers check it out, if not don't bother.

I saw 'Intensity'on TV. Of course it was cut to ribbons*.That is, if the IMDb run time of 186 minutes is correct.(*Why do they insist on doing that?) It was still excellent. Molly Parker, one of the most adventurous actresses working today, was terrific. John C. McGinley usually an actor who does a fine job in a lesser part, was mesmerising. Suspense builds up all the way. I went out and got the book, great read that made me realise what a good job the screenwriters had done. Wanted to buy the full length movie, according to IMDb it's unavailable!! This is a great movie, only made in 1997, so where is it? Somebody put the uncut version on DVD, PLEASE!!