The Invitation: Movie Review

"The Invitation" had us debating if it was worth the slow burn to reach its climactic unveiling. On one hand, the film was tense-filled but the reveal was quite predictable midway through the film. Unfortunately, while the journey was extraordinary to say the least, the ending was not worth the long wait.

Will (Logan Marshall-Green) is invited to a reunion dinner by his ex-wife Eden (Tammy Blanchard) together with their old group of friends. The invitation is weird from the get-go as the group has never seen each other for two years. Although the evening appears to be uneventful, Will gets a creeping suspicion that Eden and her new partner David (Michiel Huisman) are up to no good.

If there's one thing that "The Invitation" did well it was building the tension and confusion of what the heck was happening. It doesn't mean that the film was not flawed and unpredictable (because it was eventually) but there's always this uncertainty who the real culprit was most of its running time. The film pays well with the psychological and mental instability of its main character, Will, to add to the confusion and the tension throughout its one hundred minute running time. To add to that, the film had surprisingly deep and emotional acting led by Logan Marshall-Green and John Carroll Lynch. Sadly, the film really took its sweet time to develop its narrative to the point that it became easy to guess where it was leading to eventually. There are also some issues with how the characters acted and reacted to what's happening to them that really felt unnatural and conforming to the film's main objective instead. While the film was an amazing experience as a horror film, it falls apart on its own weight. Regardless, there's a lot of subtle thrilling moments to keep audiences on their toes most of the way.

Rating: 3 and a half reels






Why you should watch it:
- tense-filled from start to finish
- a different kind of horror experience

Why you shouldn't watch it:
- the narrative is just okay
- the long wait was not worth the reveal