Check This One Out! - The
Invitation
Pruitt: "Forgiveness doesn't have to wait. I'm free to forgive myself and so are you. It's a beautiful thing. It really is."
The
Invitation is directed by Karyn Kusama (Æon
Flux, Jennifer's Body, Girlfight) and stars Logan
Marshall-Green as Will, Emayatzy Corinealdi as Kira, Lindsay Burge as Sadie,
Michiel Huisman as David, John Carroll Lynch as Pruitt, Tammy Blanchard as
Eden, Michelle Krusiec as Gina, Mike Doyle as Tommy, Jordi Vilasuso as Miguel,
Jay Larson as Ben, Marieh Delfino as Claire, Aiden Lovekamp as Ty, and Toby
Huss as Dr. Joseph.
Will and his wife, Kira, are invited to a
dinner party hosted by Will's ex-wife, Sadie. Attending are all their friends,
but she and her new husband, David, invite some mysterious guests to the
private party. Then everyone starts acting a little stranger. Will becomes increasingly
suspicious of why the odd couple gathered everyone and he realizes that things
aren't all smiles and laughs. There's something much more ominous going on.
The
Invitation is one of those clichéd films that we have all seen before. What
a way to start off a quick review of a movie I'm recommending, right? While
that may be true, the film plays to the clichés so well that it becomes a
really good movie. Without spoiling anything, the twist in the movie is seen
from miles away, but the reveal to the twist uses a slow and tension filled
build-up that really draws the attention to think "when is it going to
happen?!?!". Oh, that slow built tension. It pays off in the end with a
horrifying and insane 30 minutes that, I kid you not, left my jaw open for the
entirety of it. Honestly, throughout the first hour or so, I couldn't tell if
there was a point to the creepiness or if it was just a boring horror/thriller.
Looking back on it now, it all makes sense on why the screenwriters chose to
take the direction that they did. Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi did a superb job
using dialogue to build up the mysteriousness of some of the characters and
using the tired old lines that we see in generic horrors to their strengths. Ultimately,
The Invitation is a film about
dealing with grief; some ways are helpful and some ways will just hurt you. It's
all about the decisions that can, sooner or later, save you. To tie it in a
pretty bloody knot around this movie is brilliant especially with such
ambiguous characters. The character backgrounds of both the protagonists and
antagonists are kept in secrecy for the most part. It helps to keep everyone a
suspect in the case of The Invitation,
even though you can guess who are the villains. I'm not really explaining
myself to well as to why I think you should see this movie. I think there are
two reasons: curling your fingers tighter and tighter every scene that someone
reveals a little more about themselves and the finale of The Invitation. It's almost like a game of Clue that leaves you thinking when the bad person is going to pounce
on the victim and ends gruesomely. One more point, the score is f****ing creepy!
The
Invitation kind of stems away from traditional horror, even though it uses
all the same tropes. It's sort of meta in a way. In a way, it brings the
psychological horror movie themes that we see in Rosemary's Baby or The
Shining to a new generation. To top it all off, the ending...that ending is
so crazy that if I were actually a character in the movie, I would sit in a
corner with a gun, tons of ammo, and some knives just to make sure I'm safe. Talk
about a society that deals with internal problems in a bad way.
The Invitation is not rated, but does contain language, violence,
and nudity
Click here to watch the trailer
The Invitation is now available on DVD, Blu-ray, some streaming
services, and digital download
Thanks for reading, everybody! I really do
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receive updates on new reviews and trailer drops. Also, if you've already seen The Invitation, comment and let me know
what you think of it. I'll post another Check
This One Out! next week. Thanks again!
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