I’m not much of a metalhead, but even I have to acknowledge that horror and metal go together like peanut butter and jelly. The aesthetics of these two art forms are incredibly similar, and there’s quite a bit of overlap in their fandoms. There have even been a number of excellent metal-themed horror films over the past several years, so it should come as no surprise that the upcoming found-footage flick Invoking Yell intrigued the hell out of me. It looked like it had all the makings of a rocking horror gem, so I couldn’t wait to see what head-banging scares it had in store.
Invoking Yell was directed and co-written by Patricio Valladares, and it stars María Jesús Marcone, Macarena Carrere, and Andrea Ozuljevich. The film follows three young women—Tania, Ruth, and Andrea—as they travel into the woods to record paranormal phenomena. Tania and Andrea are in a black metal band called Invoking Yell, and they’re trying to get some spooky sounds for their demo tape. Ruth isn’t in the band yet, but she’s there to document the unorthodox venture, and if her companions like her, they’ll let her join them as Invoking Yell’s third member.
At first, the trip seems pretty uneventful. The three women are essentially just hanging out, taking fun pictures and videos, and talking about the music they love, but these good times don’t last. Tania and Andrea eventually perform an occult ritual to conjure up some more spirits, and almost immediately after they begin, the night takes a deadly turn.
For most of its runtime, Invoking Yell plays more like a drama than a horror movie. Nothing particularly scary or supernatural happens until the final act, so if you’re looking for thrills and chills every few minutes, this is not the film for you. But if you’re a fan of slow-burn found-footage movies like The Blair Witch Project, Willow Creek, and Frogman, I think you’re really going to like this one too.
By and large, these characters feel like real people, not just cardboard cutouts or actors reading lines, so you’ll have so much fun watching them you won’t mind waiting an hour for the horror to finally kick in. Let’s start with Andrea. She’s the most stereotypical metalhead of the group, so she appears to have a dark and dour outlook on life.
At first, you might even get the impression that she’s a huge Debbie Downer. She looks mad or sad most of the time, and it’s a while before she cracks her first smile. Andrea does lighten up a bit eventually, but even then, she’s not exactly a ray of sunshine. Her demeanor almost always retains an undercurrent of melancholy, and she sometimes acts like a bit of a jerk toward Ruth.
On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Tania is just about the bubbliest metalhead you’ll ever see. She loves to smile, laugh, and be silly, so she’s basically everything Andrea isn’t. Those contrasting personalities make for a great pairing, and these two actresses, María Jesús Marcone and Macarena Carrere, have excellent chemistry together. They make you believe that their characters really are longtime best friends, so like I said before, they’re just a joy to watch, even when there’s nothing terribly interesting or scary happening at the moment.
The only weak link in Invoking Yell is Ruth, as she’s behind the camera most of the time. Granted, when she steps into the limelight, she’s just as fun as Andrea and Tania, but she doesn’t get enough screen time to make much of an impression. That makes it tough to get any sort of read on her, but thankfully, you don’t really need to. The other two leads are more than capable of picking up the slack, so you barely even notice Ruth’s deficiencies.
Those excellent characters carry the first hour or so of Invoking Yell, and when the horror finally kicks in, the film gets even better. I can’t go into specifics without ruining the movie’s surprises, but I can say that the final act is pretty wild. It’s not at all what I was expecting, and I mean that in the best way possible.
These frights are shocking and disturbing, but it’s not just the what that makes them so effective, it’s primarily the who. This third act works so well because the previous two got you genuinely attached to these characters, so when their fun getaway finally goes south, it has an emotional heft a lot of genre flicks these days sorely lack.
All that being said, I do have one small criticism of Invoking Yell. As much as I loved the last act, the final few minutes aren’t nearly up to par. Again, I have to be really vague here, but one of the characters does something so nonsensical and stupid that it feels like little more than an excuse to give the film one last scare. The whole thing is incredibly contrived, and in a movie that looks and sounds so believable up until then, it’s a disappointing way to close out the story.
Thankfully though, that’s just one scene, so it doesn’t negate the previous 80 minutes. On the whole, Invoking Yell is still a super fun time with great characters and excellent horror, so if you’re looking for something good to watch, I highly recommend that you check this movie out. It’s one of the year’s best indie horror gems, and in my opinion, it has the potential to become a legit cult classic in the not-too-distant future.
Invoking Yell is set to hit VOD on September 20.
