Inverted

Director - Tristan Clay (Red Eye, USED)

Starring - Jennifer Nagle (Gone with the Dead, Amityville Apt.), Kaici Lore (The Dark Web Tapes), and Destinie Orndoff (Red Hollow, The Haunting of Mia Moss)

Release Date - 2024

Genre - Horror

Tagline - "Join the cult or fight to survive"

Format - Streaming (Online Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     Most of you know by this point that I was born in the mid-80s and grew up during the video store heyday. I remember going to Dewey's Video every Friday evening after school and loading up on tapes to watch through the weekend. While I've always been a fan of horror, I'm obsessed with 80's cinema in general. I would rent 80s action, drama, comedy, and romance. I didn't care as long as it was made in the 80s. Hell, I'm still like that to this day. However, as I got older, I've found myself really interested in 70s exploitation and horror flicks especially those centered around cults and the whole Satanic Panic scare. This started when I stumbled on the William Shatner lead film The Devil's Rain, and others like Enter the Devil, Satan's Cheerleaders, and Race with the Devil. This was why I was excited when I received an email for the 70's inspired occult horror film Inverted that featured my good friend Roman Jossart as director of photography asking to review the film. I quickly worked it into my schedule and decided to hit play when I finished watching the blu release of the 1997 adaption of Stephen King's The Shining. I want to thank director Tristan Clay for sending this one over for review. 

      The film follows a group of strangers who are brought together by two women and sent through several "trials" as forced initiations to join their cult. The two ladies are looking for the strongest of the group as their build their cult in preparations of the second coming of Christ. As their group gets smaller and smaller, one of them refuses to submit to their twisted games and is about to fight back before she is forced to join. 

      I went into Inverted completely blind as to what it was aside from what was included in the email when I was asked to review it. I prefer to go into a movie knowing absolutely nothing about it to avoid preconceived notions or ideas about the film. This worked in favor for Inverted. I enjoyed it quite a bit but it's an indie production that is far from perfect. The acting in this one is great. The cast features a wide range of characters, and the cast does a great job at portraying them. The film has several standout performances from names like Destinie Orndoff, Dixie Gers, Maria Olsen, Susan Lanier, and Bryan Kruse just to name a few. However, the two that really stood out to me were Jennifer Nagle and Kaici Lore. These two were amazing together. Their energy matched each other and the way they fed off each other made their scenes even more enjoyable. The story for this one is predictable and repetitive but I found myself enjoying it for the most part. I loved the characters and how developed they are along with the location that the story mostly takes place. Any horror film set in the woods plays on my love for the mountains in which I grew up. When you toss in the cult angle then you have my full undivided attention. I was fully invested in Inverted, but I did find it to be very predictable and the torture scenes did get a bit repetitive. In fact, some of them could have been cut and it would have no impact on the overall story. Finally, the film has a lot of blood and several deaths but nothing that will really stand out with the viewer. The gags that we do get are classic effects like the notched machete and slit throat but that's the extent of it. Overall, Inverted is a solid attempt at paying tribute to a time when films about Satan were very common. I enjoyed it as it is, but I would have loved to see some memorable deaths and some of the scenes trimmed down. Check it out.