The Invitation Review: An intelligent, atmospheric slow burner!


The Invitation is a thriller with some bloody/gory, horror-style scenes. There's loads of fighting, punching, slapping, bashing, bit**ing, shooting, and stabbing, with a decent bit of blood and many dead bodies.

This shocker of a thriller is such an intelligent, atmospheric slow burner that spends its early moments on interactions and emotions, avoiding obvious exposition or setups. Logically, anything could happen. Marshall-Green (Will) anchors the first part of the movie with his watchful/anxious, soft-spoken performance, dealing with pain and suspicion in equal measure. Will has re-entered his old house for the first time in two years after a terrible accident, and flashbacks to times with his son are really heart-rending, placing him perfectly off-balance from the rest of the characters, kind of making him the only one you want to route for.

Director Karyn Kusama (Girlfight, Aeon Flux, Jennifer's Body) uses the house as a vivid character, with muted lighting and clever staging to subtly highlight conflicts. The sounds from the violin where amazing, used quite excessively, which is the intention. Every time it screeched threw the speakers it had me cringing to the point of pure fear (for the characters). Two outsiders (played by John Carroll Lynch and Lindsay Burdge) are also ingeniously placed to brilliantly tense effect. A brutal climax upsets the mood ever so slightly, bringing THE INVITATION closer to a standard horror pic, but an eerie coda more than makes up for it. Another great "b" movie I have watched in recent days. All in all I loved it. Suspenseful from the start to the very end, lighting, acting, tone, sound effects, visuals and script where all great. This is definitely one to watch! 7.8/10 Thoughts?

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