The Invitation

this movie is just like the real reflection of a person being human. Believe it or not, but the topic is too mature for people who just love action, fighting, blood, and artificial ghosts in movies. but let me just tell you, here in this movie, you will get the real human being based horror, thrill, bitter truth, fake realities, and real fakeness. This masterpiece can never be understood by those who are living in the world of fantasy. ohh and that world !! is of course, made by them..

Sometimes I cannot understand the dissonance between me and a great number of movie reviewers on this page. I had not seen any trailers of the sort because I didn't want to preview parts that may spoil he movie. With that said, I'm so glad I watched this film. This ranks with Green Room as a real edge-of-your-seat kind of movie but for entirely different reasons. While Green Room is just a unhinged speed chase offroad in complete darkness, leaving you dizzy with blurting holy sh't every 10 seconds, The Invitation takes it's time while not letting the story flatline. The use of ominous shots and reverberating violins really give you that sense of unease. The buildup, the paranoia, the character-structuring, the heavy atmosphere all build up to a short and worthy second half of the film. Honestly, it's frustrating to see so many people give this movie a criminally low rating because 'nothing happens'? Was I watching the same movie? Because what I saw building up to the climax was some of the most gorgeous shots with very grounded characters that immersed me into the story. People react to a movie that they were expecting and it wasn't, so they rate it a 1. Really? This is a quality thriller that I recommend everyone check out.

I was intrigued by The Invitation due to the (seriously) glass of red wine on the poster. It looked at once mature and alluring but also incredibly dark. I convinced my brother to watch it with me one night and this is our story. The Invitation sets itself up as a dark tale from the opening scene. A car ride ends in disaster and our hero, while going to his ex- wife's home for a dinner party, has to put an animal out of its misery. Will is unreadable, clearly suffering some form of PTSD. His girlfriend is supportive but it's obvious she's kept outside of his thought processes. When they arrive at the dinner party, it's hard to believe they know any of the guests. Actually, they've all been friends for years but, as anyone who's ever gone to a dinner part would know, it can be hard to be comfortable when there is a giant, dead elephant in the room. Everyone is at once eerily cheery but also naturally superficial. Is it Will's attitude that's causing conversation to stop dead every time people are reminded of his presence? Eden enters and you realise she's struggling just as much as Will. Eden is Will's ex, newly remarried and eager to show off the lifestyle that has brought her peace. It's revealed that their son died in an accident and that the grief and blame tore the couple apart. The difference between Eden and Will is, she's trying (not very well, mind you) to get over it. And so there you have it. A middle-class dinner party that is about grief and madness and red wine. The guests are trying hard to forget the ugliness of the tragedy that rendered all their lives and Will is doing his damndest to drag the corpse into the light for everyone to gape at. Who's really crazy here? Is it the middle-class manners that mean avoiding harsh topics and not allowing your friends the chance to really grieve? Is it the grieving father who wants to find horror in everything just to cope? Or is it the grieving mother who has turned to a specific religion to help her understand life and death? As the tension mounts and conversation topics become darker and harder to avoid, Will's becomes increasingly paranoid. Both he and Eden are looking for answers to their son's death and perhaps they could be found if they weren't too busy with one trying to blame the other and one doing all they can to forget. The director does a stellar job in maintaining a mundane and banal tone to the first half of the film. These people are dull but their situation has forced them to be. As the evening continues, though, the sense of screws turning, pennies dropping and clothes shedding becomes palpable. People are not who they seem and it's difficult to tell who is being honest with their intentions and who isn't just plain crazy. The movie builds to a dazzling final act that is satisfyingly violent. Not only that but it offers a devastating look at grief and how easily those grieving can be manipulated. So when we started watching, my brother was complaining about the banality of the conversations. The lack of anything compelling. As the story continued, he began to quieten down. When it finished, he told me, two days later, that he couldn't stop thinking about it. Such was the impact that a story steeped in humanity gone awry had had on him. And myself, for that matter. I'd recommend it. EVeryone is talking about Get Out right now but The Invitation was there first. Go on, accept the invitation.

Yes,awful! Pretentious attempt with the writing to appear sophisticated yet it was annoying within 15 minutes. The flash backs and music...ugh! The last 15 minutes just made me angry that I wasted my evening watching this because IMDb had a rating of 6.7. IMDb ratings are usually right on target but this must have been a scam of abusers submitting bogus stats. If you watch this then review all the goofs to make sure they are accurate. I don't want to waste my time and even review it myself but there are a ton of them goofs especially with the locked doors....so easy to get out of the house in the end.....movie sucked!

First of all, movies like this should not be categorized as horror since it is a thriller at its best. There is a big difference between a thriller and a horror. Movies like 'The Exorcist', 'Paranormal Activity' are horror movies, whereas movies like 'Scream', 'Saw', 'Final Destination' are thrillers. Regarding 'The Invitation', the first 1 hour and 20 minutes just "build up" to what is coming next: 15 minutes of quick and easy deaths. It was very easy to predict what is the "big and unexpected" revelation or twist. The moment they played the video of the dying woman and you realize a cult is involved, it became obvious that a mass murder or suicide was the intention behind the invitation. I was expecting, or let me put it this way, it would have been much more dramatic if the characters were convinced to take their own lives. especially since it was mentioned that "everyone has suffered from a loss". The guy who showed up late for example, imagine that he had arrived 3 hours earlier for real and was convinced to take out his own life on video, and then the tape was played to his girlfriend, who thinks she has nothing to live for and was the first one to do it. I know this might sound a bit crazy, but I think it would have achieved a much better dramatic and intense outcome for viewers. The only surprising element was the ending when they realize that it was not only them in this situation. To sum up, the build up should have been much shorter and more suspenseful, and the last 20 minutes of the movie should have been more intense and better written and directed.

The Invitation is, in a word, irritating. It overflows with unnecessarily jumpy flashbacks and blurred memories in an effort to appear mysterious. The movie wants you to believe that it is complicated and deep. But it isn't. The movie is simple and shallow. The filmmakers spend so much time stuffing our faces with distracting, strange music and even stranger behavior of the dinner guests in an attempt to unnerve us viewers. They want you to find the evening weird (which it is) and confusing (which it isn't) so you will have doubts about what will happen (you shouldn't because the answer is obvious). Here is the premise of the movie (I will write this as simplistically as the movie presents it). Old friends who haven't seen each other in years all arrive at a dinner party hosted by one friend and her new husband. The night is basically a reunion except everyone is a little uncomfortable to see each other again. So actually it's just a reunion. As the evening carries on the hosts exhibit increasingly odd behaviors, which make the guests uncomfortable and the protagonist (a bearded, long-haired man named Will) suspicious. The hosts are both awkwardly happy, which the hostess explains is due to their choice to do away with negative emotions. As if human beings can simply choose not to experience any undesirable feelings. Her pontification is extremely irritating to hear and extremely false. Later, the hosts show everyone a video of a 20something year old cancer patient dying and beam about how wonderful it is, how wonderful death is because it is the only way to truly be free. "Are you guys in a cult?" One guest blurts the question that needed asking. They are. Obviously. Of course they deny half-heartedly then attempt to distract everyone with a bizarre new party game. I'll spare the details, just know that it makes the guests uncomfortable. After watching this scene, most viewers probably expect the remainder of the movie's plot to play out in a painfully predictable sequence. It does. Once again I will spare the details since certain readers may still want to watch this movie for some reason. Rest assured that nothing will surprise you. I mentioned how much this movie irritated me, and I want to briefly speak on that point once more. I will mention particulars about the opening scene and how it connects with the remainder of the movie. Here we go. *Minor Spoiler Alert* The film opens with a couple (Will and his girlfriend) driving to a dinner party that neither seems particularly excited to attend, a relatable concept for many of us. The car suddenly hits a coyote, which serves as the first jump scare of the movie. Will exits the vehicle to inspect the situation and eventually mercy kills the animal with a tire iron. I am uncertain about the purpose of this scene. Maybe it was merely an unsettling appetizer for the uncomfortable dinner party that followed. Perhaps it was just a red herring, like much of the movie. Maybe it was intended to introduce the cult's message that dying is the only way to escape from pain. Maybe, but I hope not because it's a terrible parallel to the beliefs of the cult member dinner hosts. The coyote's circumstances don't apply at all to any of the attendees of the dinner party. The coyote experiences excruciating pain and will die within minutes. The people were not injured. None of them were hit by cars. None of them are sick. They are going to live healthy and happy lives for the next 40 or 50 years. Sure, they have their struggles, but they will have plenty of opportunities to be happy. The coyote will not. *End of Spoiler* And I'm finished. Sorry for the rant. The whole movie caused me such irritation that I needed to vent to make myself feel better. To avoid similar irritation of your own, I recommend watching something else.

6.7?!? This movie was such a disappointment that I feel that I should be reimbursed for emotional distress (bored into tears). Whatever you think your time is worth whether it's $1 an hour or $1,000 dollars an hour you're better off just taking that amount of money and physically throwing it in the trash. That's how ripped off you'll feel after wasting an hour and twenty minutes on nothing but mindless small talk by the dinner guests, corny flashbacks, and intense stares from the protagonist. Only to get to the climax, which is much like a selfish lover; unsatisfying, quick, and with no apology or explanation.

The Invitation will certainly go down as a hidden gem in the thriller/horror genre in the coming months. It was recently released on VOD with damn near no publicity so hopefully word-of-mouth will save this movie. So far it is a critical hit (over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes) and was a hit at the numerous film festivals it premiered at months ago. LMG plays a damaged man who has been through a lot in his life and is still grieving for his past mistakes. He and a few others get invited to a mysterious dinner party where things go from normal to strange very, very quickly. But the interesting thing is only one character (LMG) seems to see the strangeness while everyone else is laughing it up and enjoying the night. It's interesting because he isn't afraid to speak his mind about how he feels the night is going and what he finds 'strange'. But the sad part is, he's seen as a damaged soul so his outbursts are immediately dismissed. It's the subtle clues he notices (something as basic as a drinking game or a bottle of expensive wine) that make The Invitation suspenseful. Tiny clues that leave you guessing that something larger is at play, which may or may not be the case. To say anything more would be potentially spoiling the movie, and with most movies, it's the ending that makes or breaks a movie and this one is no different. The ending is well worth the wait, so if you are a fan of suspenseful movies, this is one of the years must see thrillers.

Fast forward this film and just watch the last ten minutes. You'll be able to have a conversation with anyone who watched this and they won't be able to detect that you skipped ninety percent of it. Don't send a thank you card, this is a public service.