The Invisible Raptor: Goofy Low-Brow Schlock

The Invisible Raptor is the best film of the year about an invisible dinosaur, even when it starts to wear out its welcome.

Remember the heyday of the Syfy Channel’s original movies around the 2010s, which peaked with films like Sharknado and Ice Spiders? The Invisible Raptor feels like the next evolution of those films, leaning into the absurdity of its premise, and even further into its low budget limitations. It’s got an A- or B-list celebrity – in this case, Sean Astin (Stranger Things), who stepped in for a day of work and an easy paycheck before getting efficiently killed.

Thankfully, Mike Hermosa, who directs the screenplay from Mike Capes and Johnny Wickham, knows exactly what kind of tone to strike with material this schlocky. Consider the scene where good-for-nothing mom Debra (JJ Nolan) dashes Elliot’s (Luke Speakman) hopes of getting Invisalign because “we don’t like invisible things in our household”. Or the scene where Elliot – who lives in Spielberg county, dressed in a red hoodie – leaves a trail of nondescript candy to lure the titular invisible raptor out of hiding in his backyard.

Is there more of a plot to be found in The Invisible Raptor? Who cares! Original, absurdist comedies are hard to come by these days, so I’ll call it a win when one is this fun. Our hero is Dr. Grant Walker (Capes), a loser paleontologist who works at a low-rent Dino park for kids. When people and animals start going missing and mysterious piles of droppings are left behind, Dr. Grant knows it can only mean one thing: a velociraptor is on the loose. He teams up with Denny (David Shackelford), the park’s loser security guard, and Amber (Caitlin McHugh), a long-time crush, in order to solve the mystery before it’s too late.

Of course, the film’s gonzo premise can only take it so far before it reaches its saturation point. A nearly two hour runtime is simply too long for such a simple premise, even when it’s clear that Capes and Wickham have great affection for the films they’re skewering. How much enjoyment you get out of The Invisible Raptor will likely be equal to how much of an investment you bring to it. The invisibility of the dinosaur allows Hermosa to easily work around the budget limitations, instead relying on the actors to pantomime or react to an empty room. So don’t expect any Jurassic Park – or even Jurassic Park III – level digital effects whenever it’s required.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit how much I laughed throughout The Invisible Raptor; there’s a potent mix of high-brow and low-brow humor at nearly every turn. Again, it’s imperative to check your expectations for quality at the door. The mere idea of rating this film feels disingenuous because yes, it’s too long and chock full of lowest common denominator humor, but it’s the dumb humor that gives the film its charm. A five star review could be justified, but so would one star. Is this enough to justify spending your hard-earned dollars on a VOD rental in the midst of awards season, when you could just as easily spend that money at the movie theater? I haven’t seen The Brutalist yet, but either way, it’s safe to say that The Invisible Raptor is the best film of the year about an invisible dinosaur. 

The Invisible Raptor will be released in US theaters and on digital on December 6, 2024.