Where’s the dino, you may ask? Clearly not many people have the budgets allocated to Oscar winners like Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson,these look more like an intent trying to come off with a realism-based prehistory flick. There is a scope of doing this, on an indie budget, here’s a novel idea: Why not lean into the major drawback? Now Chad Michael Murray’s new Christmas movie seems to be receiving backlash from netizens for trying to fake ice skating for a camera. But it the new American filmmaker really wants to imagine his version of an ultimate spectacle in which dinosaur rampages across the mainland US perhaps it would be best take the route that Spielberg took while writing Jaws. For the readers that should be well known: a shark in Jaws had only four minutes of screentime overall. So imagine going for an hour plus dinosaur flick and not locking eyes on a single dinosaur. The Invisible Raptor attempts to do just that.
From director Mike Hermosa, The Invisible Raptor – a name that suggests something dull and uninteresting, but the opposite can actually be said about it – is the type of movie that would be at home in the old school grindhouse, and not in a bad way. How many times do you hear grown men make stupid jokes and say outlandishly corny lines? Embrace the low budget and you may find the horror comedy scares that come with it quite fun. C’mon, all this is obviously done with some dedication, as the co-writer and actor Mike Capes himself is determined, and the last act may even redeem everything.
As the similarly outrageous horror-comedy Piranha 3D (2010) was similar in approach and opened with an intimidating note with a veteran star in Machete’s Richard Dreyfuss Spilling his D guts, The Invisible Raptor also does not shy away with its introduction. Before this fictitious universe spreads to the fictitious small town entirely the scene starts inside a dark room with professional Goonie Sean Astin trying out his role as scientist Willie Walsh in the film. He is a rather lonely man who works late at night conducting some form of analysis for a top-secret project that he and his co-worker John Sykes (Bobby Gilchrist) are involved with in some capacity. Naturally, Willie’s tests result in chaos as their ibex goes deviant and escapes.
Also as per any B-movie the small town which is about to be the punching bag of the large beast is filled with an assortment of teeming worthies who have an exquisitely diverse range of colorful personalities. More aged members in residence include Henrietta (Sandy Martin), Murray (Larry Hankin), and Sheriff Grimley (Richard Riehle) all of whom are veterans acting in banterous roles in yester years films and television series and add a perfect touch of lived in warmth in this otherwise horrid blood entertaining imagery.
Despite his lengthy conclusions, the chief focus is in the finished conclusion – the advent of the disgraced Capes – a paleontologist whose accomplishments are now unsurpassed and who now teaches brats about dinosaurs at a good old ‘tk’ – Theesol amusement park. Of course, call Dr. Grant back and respect Sam Neill’s character from the classic Jurassic Park film. In this new-and-(un)improved Dr. Grant scene, he is at his lowest with a dead-end job and jaded colleague Denis denielson (David Shackelford) and a young hot-headed supervisor, Todd (Bill Kottkkamp). However, when Grant’s attractive long-lost ex spouse Amber (Caitlin McHugh) happens to show up in one of the places he works, there are fireworks again.
And just as Simon Pegg had to combine a pursuit of love against a backdrop of the zombie apocalypse in Shaun of the Dead (2004), so do the stakes for Grant escalate when he and Amber find out there are unexplained bodies dropping around town which they cannot find the creature responsible for. Thankfully, he is a licensed paleontologist, which also allows Capes to say “Ivan Vekapov is a one stupid idiot! where the hell did you once hide the raptor!” as if he is playing Samuel L Jackson in Snakes on a Plane. ‘IT’S AN INVISIBLE RAPTOR.’
Bring along some popcorn if you’re going to be viewing this in theaters and prepare yourself for loud shouts from fellow theater patrons. And perhaps such viewer feedback can also be expected at other moments during the narration of this outrageous story. It’s like watching a bunch of local losers and incompetent policemen boat on a dinosaur hunt with hooded velociraptor wreaking havoc around the city to satisfy its endless appetite. The film is light-hearted, self-aware and pays homage to the countless ‘50s monster movies such as The Killer Shrews, The Deadly Mantis and Them.
Yet again, you have been placed on notice once more regarding the fact that this is a satire movie at the end of the day, perhaps best viewed while eating pizza and drinking alcohol.
Because if you go in without the right heads up, as many have, you find it hard to understand and always end up asking yourself,’ Where the Demon was? What a waste of time!’. He is the reason during the construction of a blockbuster such as this you should be prepped. Its so bad that it’s good or other times so bad that it’s not good depending on how silly you want your movie.
The third act indeed has a couple of parts that are impressive with the raptor but apart from that, enjoy the incompetence of raptors fanboys and girls at the town who can’t agree over which foolproof plan is the best in getting mental sanity restored in society. Some of the quip retorts that were hurled back and forth between certain cretins that seem like after the authors have taken several pulls off a huge bong and coughed out the nonsense that is shooting around in their heads.
One downside is the running time of the film which is almost two hours. These aspects would normally deter someone who expects a movie such as The Invisible Raptor to be not more than 85 minutes long. It’s hard to get past that point even for die-hard fans. However, even their reverence will be tested. After all, who wouldn’t want more lines from Astin, who gained notoriety after The Lord of the Rings cast? But that is not the case. The remaining part of the crew has good enough enthusiasm to engage you — and why not? If the film performs well at the box office, there is every reason to think a sequel called The Invisible T. Rex will.
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