Aug 11, 2023

Welcome Villain Films Acquires Found Footage Film 'Invoking Yell'

New genre studio Welcome Villain Films announces their acquisition of the festival horror hit INVOKING YELL, which has been deemed “a shining example of contemporary international found footage.” INVOKING YELL serves as the studio’s third acquisition this year and its first Spanish language film.

Co-written and Directed by Patricio Valladares with co-writer Barry Keating, INVOKING YELL premiered at the Unnamed Footage Festival and garnered numerous positive reviews calling it “shocking, anxiety-inducing, and genuinely horrifying.” The film went on to play at several other genre film festivals including PanicFest, Chattanooga Film Festival, and is set to play at Popcorn Frights later this Summer.

Set in 1997 south of Chile, INVOKING YELL is a love letter to black metal that follows a trio of metalhead twenty-something girls who venture into the woods to shoot the demo tape for their black metal band, Invoking Yell. However, things take a sinister turn as they document their disturbing and unorthodox process of recording paranormal phenomena to be used in the album’s final track.

“This film was always meant to be an ode to the found footage films of the 90’s, but with a black metal twist,” says Director and Co-Writer Patricio Valladares. “I’m a big fan of The Blair Witch Project and many other found footage films from that era, and I am also a metalhead, so the subject matter came easy to me. I was lucky enough to shoot the film in my home country of Chile, taking advantage of the region's natural splendor while also giving audiences a unique perspective into our local music scene that will feel both familiar and new to metalheads and music fans alike. t is incredibly exciting to be teaming up with the amazing group at Welcome Villain to release this special film to the world. We couldn’t be happier with this partnership.”

“We are massive fans of the found footage subgenre, and what Patricio and team created is a genuinely unnerving nightmare that stuck with us long after the credits rolled. This is the type of exciting creative vision that not only breathes new life into the subgenre but also proves there are still plenty of terrifying stories to be told in the found footage style,” says Luke LaBeau, Welcome Villain’s Head of Development.

“Invoking Yell brought back that feeling of seeing films like The Blair Witch Project for the first time - the mystery, the unpredictable plot twists, and the overall raw, gritty aesthetic really make this film effective and creepy in surprising new ways, and we are exceedingly proud to be releasing the film under the Welcome Villain label,” states Eric Kleifield, Welcome Villain’s Head of Creative.

Welcome Villain Films is distributing the film domestically, with an exact release date yet to be announced, and will also be handling international sales for the film.

INVOKING YELL was written by Barry Keating and Patricio Valladares, who also directed the film, and was produced by Moral Brothers Entertainment, owned by Diego Moral Heimpell, who served as producer alongside Vittorio Farfan. The film was shot on location in May of 2022 in Los LLeuques, Ñuble, a small town near Valladares’ home in Chillán City, in the South of Chile. María Jesús Marcone, Macarena Carrere, and Andrea Ozuljevich star as the members of Invoking Yell who go to extreme lengths to ensure their demo is the most evil tape ever made. With cinematography by Vittorio Farfan and Evelyn Belmar serving as the art department, INVOKING YELL was a bare-bones crew. Thishasn’t stopped the film from becoming an indie horror darling from its multiple festival appearances over the past year where it has been embraced by genre audiences. The film has played at Unnamed Footage Festival, PanicFest, Portland Horror Film Festival, Chattanooga Film Festival, and is set to play Popcorn Frights next month, as well as Sanfic19 in Chile where it will have its Latin America premiere.