Sader Ridge

Jeremy Berg's "The Invoking" tells the story of a young woman out to discover a past she never knew existed when a house is left to her by family she never knew was there. Samantha Harris (Trin Miller) and three of her friends take a trip to Sader Ridge to investigate the property, in the care of someone from Sam's past. "The Invoking" stars Andi Norris, Brandon Anthony, Trin Miller, Carson Holden, D'Angelo Midili, and Josh Truax.

The story in "The Invoking" is a pretty cool, classic adventure turned nightmare and that works for the first half of the film. The characters are emotive and portray some pretty convincing roles. There is some lag when the story arch hits the midway point, and instead of rushing into a thrilling overload of horror and melodrama, things fall a bit flat. The vision goes from one of almost paranormal chills to one that seems patch-worked between missing intent and scattered dramatics. I felt that something got lost in the translation toward the last act of the story. The first part created a great character building connection between me and the characters, the second act created an atmosphere of haunting unease but the last act seemed lost or held back. Plus there is absolutely nothing paranormal, supernatural or invoking in the story save the lead character's, Sam's, recovered memories of a sketchy past. I felt the marketing for this film is very misleading and that is really off-putting.

The special effects and horror elements in this film are almost non- existent. I am not sure if that was intentional or a budget crunching thing but I really expected more from "The Invoking" and was left with a major feeling of disappointment. The few horror moments in the film are lightly braised upon with standard effects tricks that work but considering there were so few moments and most of the film is melodrama I feel Lifetime Movie Network is more this film's audience. The ending was a total miss and made very little since. The meat of the mystery caretaker and Sam's relationship is almost missing from the story. The moments touched upon are not enough to justify how this film ends. So really most of the film is a fail considering the pay-off, after such a suspense build-up, is really not worth the time invested. I say skip "The Invoking".

I saw the trailer and the poster for this movie, and when I saw that reputable Horror websites like Fearnet say "Must-see" and Fangoria say "Chilling", I thought, "this movie must be at least decent"...well I was proved wrong! Here's what this movie ISN'T; thought provoking, original, riveting, engaging, well acted. It was long (even though it was only 80 minutes), boring, mediocre, and just plain bad. The cover/poster closely resembles the hit film 'THE CONJURING' (even the name was changed from 'SADER RIDGE' to 'THE INVOKING' to cash in on its success). But those are the ONLY similarities to that movie, the acting is poor, the story is totally cliché and been done before (in a much better context mind you), and yet again I'm left thinking how did this movie get financed?? People must want to throw money away. And as for the rating being at 5.7 out of 10 (on the date of this review February 19, 2014), in my opinion this does NOT deserve it, more like an average of about 2.5 out of 10 at most! So with that said, I give this rubbish a 1 out of 10. Do not waste your time.

I would give it a zero if I could, I was so excited for this movie because I knew someone that worked on it.

bad actors that make you want them all to get killed off (except the one bad guy who may have a future in acting).

wasted plot line that drifts slowly and endlessly.

and the title makes no freaking sense in regards to the movie, not a single thing is invoked in this movie, it's not in the kind of forest that is on the poster, that's not the same girl and it definitely isn't the same house.

this movie just wants you to get it confused with the Conjuring and mistakenly rent it.

on the bright side this confirms the idea that anyone can make a movie, regardless of mental handicaps or lack of talent.

As other reviewers have mentioned, I was drawn into watching this movie because of the misleading (in my opinion) advertising surrounding the poster and the synopsis. Once the movie started, I was struck by the "amateurish" quality and low-budget feel of the movie. I know that some VERY GOOD movies are amateur and low-budget as they can have compelling story lines and thought-provoking concepts. This movie had none of that. We start the movie next to a radar dome that was given a lot of screen time and conversation that was never mentioned again. The acting was awful. None of the characters were remotely engaging or sympathetic and I couldn't wait for them to disappear. I kept counting down the time and hoping something would happen. Sadly, the ending was confusing and unresolved and I was left feeling that was 80 minutes of my life I will never get back again. The only good thing about this movie (other than it ending) was the cinematography - some of the still shots were amazingly well framed. The movie on a whole was awful. Miss it.

What's there to like about this film:

1. The location

2. The creepy guy

3. Ummm

4. The end credits, which didn't come soon enough

In a nutshell, this movie can be characterised by:

1. Its terrible acting

2. Its terrible characters, who are also uninteresting and annoying (with the exception of the creepy guy who didn't spend enough time on set for me to have a chance to dislike him).

3. It doesn't make sense. No really, it doesn't. Is it or is it not a super natural flick?

4. It's just simply dumb.

5. No, it's super dumb, dumb on steroids, stupendously stupid... etc., etc.

6. Oh, and it's just plain boring.

If you like your horrors to be blah and dumb with characters that are borderline retards with either too much emotional baggage or lack thereof, then this movie is for you.