The Invitation

3 / 10

Ancestry + Get Out + Fresh = The Invitation

An escalating, nocturnal horrification of a genealogy service, resulting from a simple DNA test, sums up Jessica M. Thompson’s The Invitation which follows Evie, a lone, young woman who works as a part-time waitress and ceramist in her leisure. As the writers let her step into the shoes of a very naïve journeywoman, her time at an ominous wedding event – taking place in a British gothic mansion – gets decorated with red flags left and right. The prior invite coming from an apparent, distant-related cousin named Oliver, played by a permanently creepy-looking Hugh Skinner, and a rough overview of her big family tree should have been two warning signs. Having arrived at the mansion, Evie gets confronted with overwhelming offers of luxury, living and service in contrast to her simple-structured life with her best friend Grace (Courtney Taylor) in New York City. The suspicions grow further as she encounters her completely white ‘relatives’ with their curious eyes which are topped off by Walter (Thomas Doherty), the lord of the mansion who looks like a strange and slightly drunk fusion of Richard Madden and Sebastian Stan.

A creepy cousin, a too big shift in her way of life, suspect relatives and an outspoken man craving for a relationship – there are too many dangerous signs which Evie ignores incredibly well while her best friend tries to warn her almost in Get Out-like fashion via desperate text messages. In the meantime, the plot moves on fairly slowly as mysterious events lead to killings carried out in the dark. The added ingredients for the story feel totally absurd, but make sense due to Evie’s stupid dive into the cultish family and her reluctance to simply say ‘nope’ to the whole situation. Her act of resistance during the finale fits into the stupid logic of the film, but the way everything collapses is just ridiculously funny with dumb deaths and very bad CGI fire combined with awkward shots lighting up the coldish, dark frames. What’s even more baffling is the cliffhanger ending after a time-skip which just feels like a deliberate exit forced by Sony’s executives in order to hint towards a sequel and a thorough cutting of Evie’s family tree, but this just feels undeserved considering the slapstick chain of events.

The Invitation feels like a 2 hour-long horror film with its slow pacing, which even comes to a halt at a certain point, and thrives through the protagonist’s infuriating autopilot journey through a wealthy, arrogant cult. The atmosphere and the location are fleshed out well enough, but there wasn’t much money left to properly invest into solid fire animations. Sean Pertwee makes a solid acting performance as the ruthless butler of the mansion, but the rest of the cast doesn’t stick out due to the dumb progression of the story. Fortunately, Thompson gives the viewer some life pro tips for the future: Take a deep look at your family tree, don’t accept invites from cousins with a creepy face, don’t take the wealthy way of life for granted, be suspicious towards overly generous people and get the hell out of there if all of your relatives don’t share the slightest resemblance to you!