LA INVOCACIÓN
2025 · 3m · España
Directed by Darío Facal
Genres: fantasy, horror, thriller
In their family's old house, Carlota and Paula perform a ritual with their grandmother's antique doll. After invoking the dead, the two must face the consequences of a wish that should never have been granted.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The doll-as-conduit premise is horror shorthand, sure, but Facal's refusal to show us the actual wish—just the wreckage of it—is genuinely bold; most directors would've cut away from the consequences, not lean into them.
Three minutes of measured dread that understands the grammar of folk-horror cinema: the ritual space, the transgression, the price paid—Facal executes this with the economy and precision of someone who's studied how these stories *should* breathe.
The sound design of the invocation itself—that moment when the ambient house noise drops and something else enters—is the whole film; everything before it is setup, everything after is fallout, and that single audio choice justifies the entire structure.