“After inheriting a house from the family she never knew, Samantha Harris (Trin Miller) and three friends head to rural Sader Ridge to inspect the property. Soon after arriving, Sam begins to experience horrific visions of savage brutality and unspeakable evil. Plagued by the sinister forces closing in around her, Sam descends into a waking nightmare when the demons from her past refuse to stay buried any longer.”
I felt that I should copy and paste the plot description for The Invoking from IMDb at the beginning of this review because I honestly had no idea what was going on for most of it.
Wait… scratch that. I knew what was going on, but couldn’t for the life of me understand WHY certain things were happening. This is a very dreary looking film with very angst filled characters and next to no logic or reason. Our heroine, Sam (Trin Miller) and her friends are visiting a house she has inherited. As soon as they arrive, we are introduced to a cliché right off the bat: The weird guy in town who seems to know everything that is going on but won’t spill the beans (D’Angelo Midili).
Of course he won’t talk. He will just roll his eyes or stare off to his left whenever someone asks what is going on. This is all terribly frustrating because, essentially, several people lose their lives for no reason other than this guy not being straight with the other characters.
The supporting cast is fine. But they have very little to do other than whine and moan more than the cast of Dawson’s Creek. This is one of the simplest, yet infuriating stories I have seen in a while. The film could have been 20 minutes long and more satisfying. Instead it is nearly an hour and a half and padded with well shot (but ultimately pointless and distracting) landscape shots and unnecessary character twists that ultimately go nowhere.
Oh, and at one point, another male character gets possessed by what I am assuming is the ghost of Sam’s abusive father. I don’t know why or how this happens, but it does. In addition to the mopey supporting characters, the interactions between Miller and Midili are even worse. Midili goes on and on about how they used to be best friends and she cries out of frustration because she can’t remember and can’t tell what is going on. I’m sorry, but you have to be some special kinda rocket scientist to not remember your best friend after MAYBE 12 to 15 years.
On the plus side, The technical aspects of the film are pretty solid. Good looking sets that are marred when the camera seems to linger too long are still impressive. And the actors seem to be doing the best they can to make sense of the script. But ultimately, Sader Ridge isn’t a place I would recommend visiting.
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