Rory Culkin talks Intruders and the last time he watched Signs

In Intruders, Rory Culkin plays a delivery man caught between three home invaders (Jack Kesy, Joshua Mikel, and Martin Starr) and a grief-stricken young woman (Beth Riesgraf), who proves surprisingly adept at thwarting the trio’s malevolent intentions.

At times, this twisty thriller (out in theaters and VOD on Jan. 15) resembles a mashup of Home Alone and Wes Craven’s 1991 film The People Under the Stairs, which is a nice synchronicity given that Culkin’s older brother Macaulay famously starred in the former while Rory himself appeared in the late Craven’s Scream 4. “I hadn’t really thought about it,” says Culkin, 26. “But I can imagine how someone could see it like that.”

In a film full of violent or disturbed people, Culkin’s character stands out for his dangerous-to-his-own-safety friendliness. “One of the things that appealed to me about this was that I got to play the only normal person,” he smiles. “Everyone else is just completely insane.”

Culkin’s previous credits include 2000’s Mark Ruffalo-starring drama You Can Count On Me, 2005’s The Chumscrubber and the recent Gabriel, in which he portrayed a troubled young man obsessed with tracking down his first love. But the actor may still be best known for his role as Mel Gibson’s young son in M. Night Shyamalan’s 2002 sci-fi blockbuster Signs. “I haven’t seen it for a while,” he says. “But [when I did] it was like I was watching someone else.”

Looking ahead, Culkin will, if things go to plan, shortly appear in Lords of Chaos, a based-on-real-events tale of arson and murder set in the Norwegian metal scene. “It’s something I’ve been attached to for a long time,” he says. “Hopefully we’re going to be making it very soon.”

You can see the trailer for Intruders, above.