Mickey Keating is a wide-eyed scholar of horror cinema. Every of his movies is an homage to a subgenre, loaded with well-studied influences. Hitchcock, Carpenter, and others make stylistic cameos in movies like Darling and Offseason, together with his newest—Invader—giving us Keating’s tackle dwelling invasions. It is a tight 68 minutes that echoes Humorous Video games, The Strangers, and even Adam Mason’s Hangman, however in its stripped-raw method, struggles to captivate as a blustery snapshot of a grander account.
Vero Maynez stars as Ana, a lady in transit heading to her cousin’s home within the Chicago suburbs. Issues get dodgy when Ana cannot contact her household, nor does Camila (Ruby Vallejo) present up at her grocery retailer job. Ana groups with Camila’s coworker Carlo (Colin Huerta) to research her disappearance, which ends up in a horrifying discovery—a beer-swigging, gimp-suit-dressing invader (Joe Swanberg, additionally serving as producer) has taken over Camila’s residence. With out hesitation, Ana jumps into motion to hopefully save Camila from no matter squatter nightmare is going on.
Invader is a type of “caught in a second” narratives that does not offer you a backstory or care concerning the aftermath. It exists from the second Ava’s kicked off a bus at its final cease to the end result of her standoff with Swanberg’s prison. The whys and hows do not matter—Keating opts for Bryan Bertino’s “since you had been dwelling” dread in a contained bubble. Cinematography presses shut on characters and jiggles with a chaotic, nearly guerilla-like perspective. It tries to stay natural and convey Ana’s paranoia via an unsteady lens, however feels one-trick as minimalistic plot beats unfold.
I do not need to recommend nothing occurs in Invader—one thing DEFINITELY occurs. However, the largely dialogue-less and unexplained phenomena that unravels is begging for extra growth. Keating’s screenplay is a kernel of an concept that’s deliberately trim but feels weightless as Ana sits in an empty transport station, flees from a one-eyed, metal-loving cabbie, finds one or two bloody clues, then is face-to-face with Swanberg’s harmful vagrant. The filmmaker desires you to really feel destabilized, therefore rougher methods fringing avant-garde horror deliveries, nevertheless it’s by no means sufficient. A bite-sized characteristic like Host builds mythology and that means inside its hour-long timeframe, whereas Invader merely exists like an nameless specter shrugging its shoulders.
Particular touches recommend there’s extra to Invader underneath the hood. Metallic music performs throughout scenes of panic and horror, whether or not that is the indignant cabbie chasing his potential fare (who’s dashed away) or Swanberg’s erratic, nearly possession-like dances. That is dangled for viewers to interpret. Then you could have the red-blooded American portrayal of Swanberg’s villain, ingesting Piss Lite beers and leaving houses in squalor—however particularly to Ana’s state of affairs, a house owned by a minority household. We solely glimpse Swanberg’s character motivations in a gap montage of one other suburban destruction, however we do not know the homeowners. Given the movie’s title, “Invader,” and the visible illustration of a ‘Merica caucasian man who breezes via a police check-up whereas Ava and Carlo watch from afar, one might assume the movie is making an attempt to say one thing about America’s present xenophobia and the Trump administration’s stoking of immigrant blame.
The issue is, you do not know if Invader lucked into these speaking factors or desires to take a stance. Satanic Panic? Political protest? It is all up within the air. Movies are allowed to be ambiguous, nevertheless it’s a danger.
The trio of Maynez, Huerta, and Swanberg shoulder the burden of Invader. Their duties are easy—strike worry or be afraid. Their performances aren’t poor however extra misplaced in perpetual movement that trudges ahead. Keating’s method generally mirrors a Silent Home or MadS, youngsters of the “one take” motion. An extended stretch will comply with Ana as she strolls down rural highways, dragging her baggage, or watching Swanberg smash non-perishable meals cans with a sledgehammer. “It is occurring as a result of it is occurring” would not assist actors in the best way Keating may hope, nor does their predicament ever really feel greater than swapable. It could possibly be anybody, wherever—and I do not imply that like how The Strangers terrified audiences with the identical mantra.
Keating’s abilities as a chameleon to the horror style should not on show in Invader. He is toying with one other mode however casts out of his depth. Darling, Carnage Park, and Offeason show what he is able to, whereas Invader performs like an afterthought. The filmmaker’s nebulous tackle dwelling invasions begs for introspection to be greater than a generic utilization of the system. It is lean and imply, however would not translate right into a nerve-shredding expertise for audiences. Invader has all the weather essential to make a great dwelling invasion flick; it is only a restrictive and bland take that is screaming for added taste.
Film Rating: 2/5
