Frightfest Glasgow 2024: ‘The invisible Raptor’ Review
Stars: Mike Capes, David Shackelford, Sean Astin, Sandy Martin, Caitlin McHugh, Bobby Gilchrist, Larry Hankin, Bill Kottkamp | Written by Mike Capes, Johnny Wickham | Directed by Mike Hermosa
The Tyler Corporation has finally figured out how to engineer a prehistoric raptor genetically, but they didn’t stop there… they also made it invisible. Unfortunately for them, he’s a really smart invisible raptor. After easily breaking out of its enclosure, it’s now up to washed-up amusement park palaeontologist Dr Grant Walker and hapless loner Security Guard Denny Danielson to stop the predator before it wreaks havoc on the entire community of Spielburgh County. With the help of local celebrity chicken farmer Henrietta McCluckskey and Grant’s old flame Amber, they uncover the truth behind the mysterious apex predator.
Take Jurassic Park, ramp up the horror, film it on a low budget and make it independently and you have the Roger Corman-produced Carnosaur… Actually, scratch that. Add a tremendous amount of laughs too and you get The Invisible Raptor!
Yes… The INVISIBLE Raptor. You read that right!
A ridiculous premise but one that leads to one of the most PURE fun horror movies in ages. Dick jokes, fart gags, dinosaur/human fornication, decapitations, disembowelment, blood by the bucket load AND a surprising micro penis(!) are just some of the glorious over-the-top things you’ll see and experience in The Invisible Raptor.
The Invisible Raptor is filled with many, many pop culture references, so much so that you can not only play spot the invisible raptor but also spot the reference – riffing on Spielberg movies aplenty, not only the obvious Jurassic Park but also ET, Close Encounters, The Goonies and more!
Yet for all the gross-out gags, the gore and more, at the heart of The Invisible Raptor is a love story. Not between our hero Dr Grant Walker and his old girlfriend, now back in town Amber. No, this is a love story between Dr Grant Walker and one of his co-workers at Dinoworld, security guard Denny Danielson. It’s a story of two men who are loners, one by choice, the other because he’s so damn strange. But you know what, despite their differences, these two guys find each other, find a deep-seated friendship. Of course, the duo stumble along the way, mainly because Denny is a moron, but when they come together and bring their relative skills to the table… Well, that friendship will, ultimately, lead to saving the world!
A perfect parody of the genre and of Spielberg’s oeuvre, The Invisible Raptor is a film fans wet dream written big on the screen, seemingly filmed by a group of filmmakers who love, LOVE, movies and whose passion shines through every proverbial pore of the film – that passion, coupled with the comedy, is literally infectious. There’s ZERO chance you won’t enjoy this one!
***** 5/5
The Invisible Raptor screened on Friday, March 8th as part of this year’s Pigeon Shrine Glasgow Frightfest.
