SXSW Movie Review: The Invitation

By Brad Henderson

Dinner party movies are becoming a favorite of mine. I love the premise of a dinner party because most of time we are dealing with a group of friends and usually the characters are relatively close to one another. These past few years I’ve seen films like Would You Rather, The Perfect Host, Coherence, and now, The Invitation. Each time I’m surprised at the routes the films take and how different each film is in its own way.

I enjoy relationships in movies and especially in horror films because we don’t get a lot of that these days. Filmmakers are so focused on how to keep us surprised at every turn but to be honest, a good group of characters and some flashy writing can keep people just as entertained. The Invitation has an amazing group of character actors as well as one of the most well-written horror film scripts that I’ve witnessed in the past few years.

This movie was directed by a woman, Karyn Kusama. How can that be? Women can’t make horror films, right? Wrong. Dead wrong.

It seems that there are these dudes who think women don’t belong in horror or that they can’t actually pull it off. Well, I hate to break it to you bros, but you’re incorrect. In fact, they kick ass and to be honest (and not sexist) it’s pretty freaking hot to me. Why wouldn’t you want that? Weirdos! Fuck off.

The Invitation takes us to a dinner party thrown by Eden, a divorced woman who has been away for a couple of years and has since embarked on a relationship with David. Her ex, Will, has also moved on since the breakup and has found himself a new lady. When they arrive at their destination they are met by an old group of friends with whom they share a long and happy past. But, something isn’t right. In fact, something is wrong. Very wrong.

As the movie takes us through these friends’ fun stories of the past, we are given a few dark ones that reveal some secrets about these dinner party guests. It’s up to Will to figure out why everyone was asked to come to this party after not seeing Eden for over two years.

This is by far one of my favorite films so far this year. Once you find out what’s going on, The Invitation becomes a very intense film. It’s a slow-burn for sure but it’s so well written and expertly paced that time flies by. Some slow-burn movies lose the audience because it takes so damn long to get to the reveal. With The Invitation I was overwhelmed by all the likable characters and the sense of dread that is building throughout the whole film.

In a way, The Invitation reminded me a lot of Halloween. Even though nothing major is happening there is a sense of horror that we are faced with mainly because we want things to happen, but we don’t want anything bad to happen to our characters. We want to see the story unfold but at the same time we want to spend the whole night with these people and just listen to them interact.

The Invitation will go on the list of my favorite movies of the story-horror genre (that I made up). I love when films do this. Instead of talking about just the plot we are given everything we need to know about these people; they are naked, exposing their thoughts, secrets, and motivations. I hope The Invitation will be a hit at SXSW as well as when it hits theaters and home video