Invoking Yell (2023)

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Director: Patricio Valladares
Genre: Horror
Country of origin: Chile

The movie created a minor sensation due to the fact, that the main characters in it are Metalheads, or to be specific, female Metalheads. "Invoking Yell" is kept in the spirit of so-called found footage, taking the idea and the atmosphere from the classic "Blair Witch Project".

The plot kinda starts similarly: in year 1997, three friends from school go to the forest, to shoot a promo documentary about their band's first demo and record the "voices of the spirits" at night. The goal is to create the pvrest / kvltest tape ever, and put on their tape "agony and suffering". The style that they perform is called "Depressive Suicidal Black Metal". Obviously, it's going to end badly for everyone.

The way that Metal culture was presented here gave me warm feelings and a sense of nostalgia. It is indeed pretty spot-on, and I felt, as if I was watching myself, when I was a teenager. However, this also will be the boiling point, dividing the public, as for many people, the "trveness" of our gals might feel cringe and silly. But that's the way people behave(d), for good and for bad.

The second issue was with the music itself. Written specifically for this movie, the song is just plain weak. It's hard to disagree with the opinions, that the Chilean scene has enough of talented musicians, who could have lent their talents, and create something with the co-operation of the director.

But the biggest controversies were with the tempo and the lack of action. You see, for almost an hour we just see your average day from the life of the band, where they wander around the forest, fool around as well, talk about Metal scene and drink wine, without anything paranormal happening. It's not until the final 20 minutes, where the bloody ritual starts happening. But being the devil's advocate, I dare to say that it actually makes everything much more realistic and authentic, along with the creeping threat of the ominuous nature of what we are about to see on screen.

Both special effects and acting I would say are on high level, not much to complain about. Therefore it leads us to the final verdict: is this movie a future cult classic, or just plain trash?

In my humble opinion, the movie will be more appreciated over time. So yes, in spite of flaws, I liked it, even if the movie could have been scarier. It certainly made me feel HUNGRY for such productions, as there isn't enough of stuff dedicated to Metal culture. There is a sequel planned, called "Invoking Scream", which hopefully will live up to my hopes, especially that this time, it will focus on the immortal DEATH METAL genre.

Till then.