Like “The Strangers” franchise, “Invader” (2025) begins with a caption with general crime statistics to attract more eyes and imply that it is based on a true story that could happen to you. Ana (Vero Maynez) arrives in the middle of the night at a desolate bus depot in Morton Grove, Illinois later than the estimated arrival time. She calls her cousin, Camilla Torres (Ruby Vallejo), heads to her cousin’s house but feels as if something is wrong. Is she destined to face the same fate as her cousin?
Ana is relatable, especially to women. Who has not been stuck alone somewhere, and everyone seems threatening? Unfortunately, writer and director Mickey Keating decided to use chaos cinema to convey the characters’ emotions thus making his film almost unwatchable for anyone remotely interested in the story. Chaos cinema means a lot of handheld camera work. Not content to make it inscrutable for only one reason, he also chooses to make the nighttime and interior shots so deliberately muddled, it would be understandable if anyone chose to turn off the movie thinking that there were technical issues, but the sound is crystal clear, which ends up being a negative. Unnamed angry white men, blare metal music, and the soundtrack does not wait for them to appear before using that genre to evoke Ana’s frayed nerves or the rats scratching away at the skulls of these mad men. The emotion is clear, but movies are primarily a visual medium so these roadblocks may convey the disorientation, confusion or the inner turmoil of these characters, but unless you were hoping for a radio production, even the most amenable, flexible and open viewer will be out of luck.
Let’s cut to the chase. “Invader” is a horror metaphor for politics, and it does not matter if the filmmaker, who appears to be a white man, claims that it was mostly improvised, there was a basic framework, just no prewritten dialogue. Ana is a Spanish speaking woman who is at the receiving end of disproportionate aggression. Keating does not show these men but deliberately leaves them off screen, in the shadows, blurry or constantly moving in the frame because they are threats, and they do not really see her so Keating returns the favor. Invader is defined as a person that invades a country, region or place. The hostility that she receives only makes sense if these men view her as a threat, inconvenience or an enemy, but these men (a bus driver, a cab driver, a store manager and the titular character) are a threat to her. In politics, this tiny woman is the threat because she is othered whether as an alien or a woman.
There is a glimpse of the first house that the Invader (mumblecore director Joe Swanberg) took, and a photo of the implied owner is of a blonde woman. During the denouement, the television is airing an Obama press conference, so it takes place sometime in 2009 through 2017. That era radicalized a lot of voters into becoming Presidon’t supporters, but the practical result, extending to today, is just resentment directed at someone perceived as other or less than you whether a blonde single woman or a Latino family for having better things than you so you would rather destroy the item of value than let the other have it. The irony is that these people could be politically allied with Invader—randomly the Latino family has a gun under an elephant! Get it! Elephant is a symbol of the Republican party, and although many Americans from both sides of the aisle enjoy their guns, the NRA and Second Amendment is closely associated with that party.
Invader wants the place but just vandalizes and destroys it because he is incapable of creation. Homes can be a metaphor for the nation, and the neighborhood appears to be lined with flags. Instead of becoming a steward and treating his new, purloined dwelling place as if it was his home, he still rips it to shreds. He is filled with rage, but the most violent act is when he cooks a steak without any seasoning then makes it well done. In an ode to Brian De Palma meets “Silence of the Lambs” (1991), when he is not outside passing as a normal member of society that never gets scrutinized or seen as out of place in his jeans and flannel, he plays dress up and looks like a live action blow-up doll. This inadvertent (hopefully) transphobia has a kernel of truth: people who hate themselves for being different often attack others who are living freely. When people try to engage him, after a brief moment of normalcy, he just screams and cannot engage in conversation before lashing out.
The only men who appear on screen without obstruction happen to be minorities though it is possible that actors of color played other male characters. The unnamed store manager (Sanjay Choudrey) may be described as Dinesh D’Souza if he chose a legal path instead of being a fame whore that breaks laws and needs a felon’s pardon. He adopts the stereotypical talking points about Hispanic people. It is a practice common among minorities who hope to get recruited into privilege as Americans to avoid being othered—to ally oneself with the biggest bully. Meanwhile the manager is stuck in a job only a peg above everyone else.
Carlo (Colin Huerta), Camila’s coworker, the only person who treats Ana with kindness, speaks Spanish. Don’t tell Jacques Audiard, but in “Invader,” Spanish becomes the language of human beings and civilized society, not English. Ana uses GPS to get to Camilla’s house, and the computerized voice speaks in Spanish. As she gets closer, Keating cuts and gets closer to the American flag. The daytime horror is that the Chicago suburb feels abandoned, which feels like a metaphor for white flight and a more realistic reference to “Barbarian” (2022). It also feels like a reference to Haddonfield, the Illinois town from “Halloween” (1978) since no one notices murders or missing neighbors. Keating does a superb job with editing by using the footage and cutting it with darkness punctuating the cuts almost like an eye blinking. It makes the camera feel like another character.
The seventy-minute film feels like an eternity, and Keating never wanted it to end. He did not do as good of a job when the story shifts to law enforcement. Even though it is obvious to any woman or person of color why they would be reluctant to go to the cops or afraid of a caustic, cursing cabbie, here is where the improvised dialogue and action dropped the ball. Some moviegoers could just conclude that she is overreacting. Ana is furious when the cops do not arrest Invader, but if no one tells them that he is not the owner, it is not dropping the ball. To be fair, if they did tell them, they may use the excuse of squatter rights not to investigate further but the audience needs to be brought to that point without leaving gaps in the story. The implicit lesson is supposed to be that Invader has less to fear from the cops than law-abiding, hardworking, functional members of society, but the point is unearned though valid. The inevitable clash between the cops and Invader feels like an allusion to January 6th. The rage directed at the other can easily be turned on law enforcers since an illegal act against the other can escalate.
If this review makes you curious about “Invader,” do not follow that impulse. It is not worth it, and when people start doing dumb things, the subtext gets increasingly less interesting to analyze. If you are in a dangerous position, one person needs to be able to get help. Do not put all your eggs in one basket, and if you have a chance to run, take it! The ambiguous ending may make sense given the interpretation of the film’s real purpose, but just because a film is well-intentioned and thoughtful, it does not mean it is good. Skip it! Sloppy work.
