1982 Directed by Michael J. Murphy
A young girl attends her high school reunion, but when it's discovered she is still a virgin, she is taken prisoner and planned to be used as a sacrifice in a Druid ceremony for the spring equinox.
Kind of a lo-fi soap opera teetering on the edge of becoming a snuff film. This would probably be kind of dull if weren’t for the synth score rumbling throughout; it sounds like the composer is playing live while watching the film, and it adds a nice sinister strangeness to the whole thing. It may just lull you to sleep depending on how late you’re watching. Worth checking out if only to see a demon crucify a man against a wall of nude pinups.
Birth Year Challenge (27/36)
Hooperstar 666 Film #3
A woman goes to a costume party, but she doesn’t know it’s a costume party, so they provide one for her. Fun times are had, until the woman is drugged, and something mysterious takes place. The next morning, her friend is like “I’m so sorry, but I can’t tell you what happened to you last night, and also none of us are allowed to leave this house.” It turns out to all be part of a Druid ritual. Some people die. The dialogue is all very flat, synth music plays over every second of the movie, and even the murders are presented very matter-of-factly. For whatever reason, I kind of really loved this style and being inside of this world. Very glad I RSVP’ed to this Invite to Hell!
I knew this Murphy film was about the occult and such, but people had failed to inform me that there's a slasher in here as well.
Invitation to Hell has the production and lo-fi synth sounds of murderdrone with the budget ambition curio of American trash filmmakers. I love how accepting the main woman is of being captive to Satanists (or whatever they're supposed to be). Even at half the length of a regular feature there's enough sleaze to make it feel like a big ol' thing, and not just a pet project, though it certainly does look like such as a whole. I had a good time. Hypnotic at times. I would recommend to slasher completists and cult fans.
I don't even know. British shenanigans with some mute fit good looking guy and a bonfire and some demon tacked on at the end.
You have to trudge you A LOT of amateur acting and piss-poor production values to get to a fairly eventful, hellish finale.
Creative looking demon murders some teens including one that gets crucified against his pinup clippings (!!!!!!!) will inevitably overcome any incompetence.
Still hard to recommend since only 15% of this is good.
From the opening synth jab that scared the shit out of my cat, I could tell that this was going to be one of the good ones. The blown out dialog walks the line between incomprehensible and perfectly crunchy. The hypnotic, heavy vibes just wash over you. Nonstop analog synth drone and rural England shot with a sheen of fuzzy haze. Perfect start to this, the spookiest of the seasons.
Also, maybe I just think this because they're British, but it's a rare S.O.V. movie that seems to star fully functional, sane adults? Which just adds to the dream drone
Having just watched another of the directors efforts, The Last Night, I went straight into this and found it even more enjoyable. A girl is obviated to some kind of party in a large home in the country. When she gets there, she’s drugged and taken to some kind of altar. She wakes up in the morning and attempts to leave, but can’t.
I really enjoyed the way the lead takes what happens. There’s a certain Britishness to it as she acts quite polite towards people that have just drugged and kidnapped her. She takes things quite rationally most of the time, which plays out well. It, much like The Last Night, is pretty slight, but the director is well…
Another gem from the sadly overlooked Michael J Murphy
Low-fi affair with a plot and run-time that come off like the third act of something bigger. A woman shows up at an isolated home for a weekend with her friends but things aren't what they seem. Everything goes to hell for forty minutes with a lot of loosely threaded ideas thrown in between, making this a little more interesting to watch than something standard. Stilted acting, bad camera direction, a smattering of cheap gore and a droning, metronomed synth score. In other words, a good time.
you're mostly gonna sit through a somewhat lifeless cult horror turd but a very solid sacrifice scene is awaiting. just listen to it and check yr sites then tune in to the finale. i couldn't believe the level of redemption.
