This Halloween, Film Trivia is back with our classic brand of infotainment quiz show fun, followed up by a spooky after-trivia screening of local indie filmmaker Michael Keating’s latest release Invader (2024), a live set from local punk band Hunting Scene, and post-show Q&A with film talent. 

FACETS Film Trivia loves to showcase cult films, including new films we think are destined to achieve this status. Invader is a short, taut indie horror film that manages to tell a terrifying story while showcasing independent filmmaking at its finest. Set in the south suburbs of Chicago, Invader places itself in the pantheon of small-town suburban Illinois horror next to its fellow indie horror classic, Halloween (1978). 

Invader puts us in the middle of chaos. Ana is a young woman from Mexico who is visiting her extended family in the suburbs of Chicago. Immediately on her arrival things are off. She falls asleep on the commute out of the city and when she finds herself in a strange suburb in the middle of the night her family is nowhere to be found. Finally, after walking all night to her family’s home she discovers that things are far worse than she could have imagined. 

Produced by, and co-starring, mumblecore, and more specifically mumblegore, mainstay Joe Swanberg, this film by the prolific indie auteur Michael Keating, is a barebone film that focuses on atmosphere and dread. At 70 minutes Invader reminds us that creeping people can be done in quick order. With the dialogue mostly in Spanish, Ana’s (and the audience’s) sense of being lost in a foreign place is intensified. Sometimes the scariest things in life are situations you find yourself in that have no explanation or logic. A clever reversal of the classic Home Invasion Horror sub-genre, Invader seems destined to be a Chicago spooky season classic.