Invoked (2015)
Directed by: Humberto Rosa, Thairon Mendes
Written by: Aaron Gibson, Humberto Rosa
Starring: Ciara Rose Burke, Lynn Larkin, Patrick Murphy
INVOKED (2015)
Directed by Humberto Rosa and Thairon Mendes
A group of teenagers decide to have a weekend away of fun, boozing and nookie at an abandoned youth hostel on a small island. After reaching their destination by car and rowing boat, the teens settle into their accomodation which is without electricity. Undeterred, the teens light a fire and candles and decide to attempt a seance having heard that wicked souls of criminals were buried on the island. Using a glass tumbler and letters written on paper, the group end up connecting with a spirit looking for their children. Spooked, the teens try to end their seance but it seems the spirit hasn’t finished with them yet…
Found footage horror INVOKED takes place in Sligo, Ireland. The opening of the movie sees two guarda officers armed with cameras entering an empty hostel to discover a mess inside with a video camera on its side. The rest of the movie is the footage from that camera that goes some way to explaining the events that have transpired. The footage is your typical fare as three young guys and two girls, both girls romantically linked to two of the lads with the cameraman without a girlfriend, are looking for a weekend of fun and frolics. Why you would film the entire weekend instead of enjoying it, I’m unsure, but in today’s age of YouTube and the like, who knows what goes through their minds. Upon entering the youth hostel, it’s easy to predict the events that ensue.
Unfortunately, INVOKED has fallen into the horror hole that so many budget horror movies have done in recent years. There’s nothing original about this movie as it appears to tick the boxes of the typical horror checklist: Found footage? Check. Darkness? Check. Ouija board seance? Check. J-horror style ghosts? Check. Teenagers being haunted in an abandoned location? Check. Grisly backstory? Check. Character being dragged away by ghost? Check. The list goes on and there’s very little of interest here to keep a film fan, not to mention a horror fan, entertained. It plods as it attempts to drum up scares but it struggles so much with dialogue and pacing that it simply isn’t interesting and lacks the scare-factor for horror fans. This type of film has been done to death that there’s nothing left anymore and INVOKED doesn’t change that.
Whilst the film has issues with pace, script and screenplay, the problem I encountered most when watching INVOKED was that I couldn’t tell what was being said due to the characters talking over one another at the same time. I know the filmmakers were most likely opting for realism but when shooting a film, realism sometimes has to be sacrificed a little so that the film and its dialogue are comprehensible. As it stands, there’s plenty of moments when I just can’t make head nor tail of what’s being said. This occurs in casual scenes as well as the tense horror moments, so it can be a bit infuriating as it distracts from what’s going on.
Being a found footage film, INVOKED utilises that all-too-familiar shaky cam. As someone who suffers motion sickness, the shaky cam does cause issues. Not long afer the opening of the movie I felt sick. It’s not as bad as Irreversible but enough to make you physically unwell so just a word of warning for fellow sufferers out there.
Show this film to someone who doesn’t normally watch horror and it might give them the chills but you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone who’ll be willing to sit through a bunch of teens talking over each other. Coupled with all the genre cliches, INVOKED is merely a stereotypical horror of recent years that struggles to conjure up anything new.
Rating: 
We shot this movie in just four days and with only € 2000 was an experimental film, but incredible as it may seem, many frightening and inexplicable things happened during filming as the game cup he turned himself was not effect, we had to call mother of one of the actresses to calm the girl because she was so afraid that did not want to go back to playing the game, a passing shadow behind them that looks like the shadow of a boy only realized after the edition, was also not effect, all fright of hours the actors were really terrified, try to make it as realistic as possible, in one of the scenes where the blonde left the house to look for her boyfriend the night and sees the actor in the water, she trained with the camera and we send she go alone until the lake for him come across as the actor Peter who made one of the ghosts and she already knew, but we exchanged actors, Peter was hidden in the house and the other was characterized and was waiting for the blonde in place the other however without her knowing, when she saw a strange man with the burned face all she almost had a heart attack, ran crying, nearly had the camera fall only stopped when he reached the house, she was desperate, suddenly aparence peter inside the house and tells her that he was in makeup and why it was late and we had not put anybody in his place, she must have seen a tree and had thought it was a person at that time the actress began to tremble of fear and went in shock reviewing the images to make sure it had not been her imagination, and etc … We are young filmmakers passionate about what we do, sometimes we fail to some people, we hit to others, but we are lifelong learners I hope that give a chance to our “Invoked”and for us
Best regards
On October 31st 2013 I bought a Ouija board, from that Halloween on strange things appear to me as suffering..waiting to see what this year will bring..
Hi there ,
I just watched your movie and as a horror fan I thought the movie was great … It seemed so realistic and for the first time I was actually scared .. I just wanted to say thank you for the movie ????
Sorry for the question marks at the end of my comment not supposed to be there …. Good luck with future films .. Il be watching ????
This real the movie?
I thought the film was very good and spooky was it true story that really happened
Hi Humberto
I’m watching your movie now, halfway thro and I must say I like it. I’m a horror lover and have found bad write ups unfair to be honest. It’s like watching a group of friends and does actually feel real. I also think, reading your write up that what you did on that budget was great and I also felt the fear the girls felt as wether things actually did happen or not, filming something scary in the dark is always scary! Anyway, back to the movie and good luck with future projects!
I enjoyed this film a lot more than I thought I would. The people seemed like friends instead of characters and it’s not just lots of jump scares or loud noises. If you think of it as a low key horror you’ll enjoy it a lot. Give. it a chance.
This review is all wrong. I’m a horror movie freak and with all the garbage playing out there Invoked was a great little film. Scared me. It actually has pretty big cult following. I could only wish that more horror found footage films were like this one. So don’t listen to the awful review. Check this one out if you dig found footage.
it’s fairly obvious the film makers are leaving these comments.
The problem with Invoked is that it treads the same water as half a dozen similar movies. The Ireland spin is a nice touch, but otherwise everything here has been done before. There are scenes in this movie shot through a security camera and if I walked into a room with Invoked playing on a television when one of those scenes came up and I didn’t know any better, I’d assume it was one of the early Paranormal Activity films. The black fungus/cloud thing is straight from Ju-On and the House on Haunted Hill remake and the ghosts themselves look like something out of The Ring. Even the basic premise is similar to elements of both Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things and Witchboard.
That having been pointed out, I will say it was put together professionally and the cast did a solid job. I can actually see the filmmakers going on to better things when they bring to life a project that’s more original.
I’d give this 2.5 out of 5 stars. It doesn’t quite deliver for a more experienced horror fan , but the talent is clearly there. It just needs to be channeled into something fresh.
Worst movie I’ve ever seen!I mean just horrible acting,directing and screen play. 4 negative starts.
I have to know what song is playing in the first scene with the kids in the car, it starts with I am burning like a fire, it has an acoustic guitar, I am in love with that song and I must find out what it is, please help.
I think the movie should’ve actually been titled “Craig! Craig! Craig! Craig! Craig!”
As is so often the case, there are just terrible logical issues:
1) There is no power, but the surveillance cameras are working?
2) There is running water, but on an island with no power, how is the water pressure being maintained?
3) The blond that jumps at every shadow suddenly takes a stroll out into the dark looking for her boyfriend…alone?
4) They evidently knew the hostel was there, but why did they actually go there, especially in a rowboat in the middle of the night?
5) The attempts at jump scares are done so quickly that the viewer has almost no time to react.
6) If the cemetery is full of pedophiles and murderers, etc., that were buried on the island for “safe keeping,” then where and why bring in the ghost woman evidently looking for her children?
Too many holes in this Swiss cheese!
After reading this review, I wasn’t going to watch this. After reading several more, I feel I have to watch it to see if, even given the Irish twist, it truly sucks that badly.
It’s now several years later, so everyone is older and wiser, but I’ll still give my advice. Making a turd quickly and on a small budget is still nothing to be proud of.
Not a good movie, if it is a documentary is acceptable
I’m all for horror movies but hate that it’s considered ‘found footage” to lure people to watch when in all reality, it’s fake. To me, that’s click bait. Why not be truthful in beginning of movie that it’s not real…you’d still be able to provide the scare!