Two of the films I saw at Panic Fest offered a few intriguing performances, but unfortunately don’t quite pull of their executions. Both of the films were obviously inspired by other classic films, but neither of them quite nail the intensity or capture that spark that made the films they’re aping so powerful.

Up first is Invoking Yell, a somewhat meandering found footage film that obviously was informed by The Blair Witch Project but lacks that film’s impact. In 1997, a trio of women enter the Chilean wilderness ostensibly to film a black metal music video. Andrea (María Jesús Marcone) and Tania (Macarena Carrere) belong to a “suicidal black metal band” named Invoking Yell and they’ve hired a camerawoman named Ruth (Andrea Ozuljevich) to film their music video as well as behind-the-scenes footage. The bandmates want to head to a specific location in the woods where they can film EVP and incorporate the sounds of ghosts into their haunted recording. But as the night progresses, bad blood and potentially malicious intentions threaten to destroy them all.

The film tackles misogyny in the metal scene, particularly in the 90s, and Andrea and Tania are very proud of the work they’ve done as they try to break into the scene. The film is a bit more complex in that regard, though, because while they lament about the gatekeeping in the music space, Andrea looks down at Ruth as a poser in similar ways. It doesn’t ever really interrogate that feeling, though, instead using it as a one-trick pony; a catalyst to further the bickering and drama between the trio.

Invoking Yell, directed and co-written (with Barry Keating) by Director Patricio Valladares, has a fantastic setup for an all-woman found footage film. The Blair Witch Project is obviously an influence, as the trio end up spending a lot of time in the wilderness talking amongst each other and squabbling. So much squabbling. It’s hard to root for anyone in the group when they immediately descend into a bickering mess through most of the runtime. It lacks cohesive storytelling or rising tension. Aside from the ending, it never feels as if the characters are truly isolated and too much of the tension is created simply because Andrea doesn’t like Ruth. It’ll be compared favorably to The Blair Witch Project, but is missing that key ingredient that made it so well-loved by found footage fans. It looks great, but feels empty. By the time the film reaches its somewhat violent climax, all but the most fervent found footage fans will be checked out.

Set in 1997, the film captures that DIY ethos of punk and metal bands and creates a stunning aesthetic that embraces the decade’s VHS look. If this were found on a VHS in the 90s, you’d be hard pressed to think it wasn’t real. Unfortunately, just because it aesthetically creates a convincing pastiche of the 90s, its messy execution and lack of story keeps it from being the exciting film it wants to be.

On the more traditional side, we have writer/director/actor Kyle Butenhoff’s directorial feature debut with Laced. Marketed as a single location Hitchcockian thriller, the film is ostensibly about a woman named Molly (Dana Mackin) attempting to murder her abusive alcoholic husband Charlie (Kyle Butenhoff) one snowy night in their mountain cabin. She’s busy preparing a shepherd's pie for her husband when he enters, swinging a six pack and, it's suggested, is already drunk. It’s obvious from the beginning that there’s simmering tension between the two of them, as he kisses her on the mouth and, when he isn’t looking, she wipes it away. Cut to a flashback of her crushing up some kind of pill and, well, lacing one of the dishes with it.

Moments later, she’s telling him how she sees all these “pieces of happiness” but that it’s like making a cake and someone’s just thrown all of the ingredients into a bowl. “It’s a mess,” she sums up as he begins to choke on the food. But his poisoning is just the tip of the iceberg as truths are revealed, including the fact that Molly’s been having an affair with an ice queen named Victoria (Hermione Lynch) and the two of them have been planning this event for a while. Rounding out this foursome is Molly’s brother, and Charlie’s best friend, Austin (Zach Tinker) who is on his way to their cabin, through the snowstorm, to watch a football game.

Zach Tinker brings a much needed jolt of golden retriever energy. The opening act of the film is a little snoozy and very quiet and the script relies on flashbacks to tell us what’s happening more than allow the imagination to fill in the blanks. But once Austin enters the cabin, the entire feeling changes and the tension the film so desperately wants and needs starts to slowly escalate.

The script doesn’t give him too much to work with, but he brings a commanding and fun presence to the movie while also moving the story forward. I appreciate the twists Laced attempts to, well, lace throughout the narrative, but fans of these types of pressure cooker stories will know where it’s going way before the characters do. There’s a lot of fun ideas here, but they don’t completely coalesce into something that’s being brazenly marketed as “Hitchcockian.”