Dinner party films are fun. It is a scenario in which all audience members can certainly relate. With some films that verge on the fantastic or absurd, viewers can gaze in awe but cannot truly put themselves in the movie. But a dinner party with the awkward silences, stranger introductions, and questionable food is something we have all suffered through. Often there are even ulterior motives, like selling Amway. Or sometimes, the intent is much more sinister.
Karyn Kusama, the director behind Jennifer’s Body and Girlfight, weaves a chilling portrait of societal politeness and personal paranoia and delivers it in taut package, set high in the Hollywood Hills. This beautifully shot film stars the handsome devil from 2010’s Devil, Logan Marshall-Green as Will who broods in a rich and layered character that is haunted by a dark past and an even darker future. We see through his eyes the unraveling of what seems to start as an awkward but mostly pleasant evening slowly change into the apocalypse it is destined to become. With realistic dialogue and a great ensemble cast, this film places the audience as another guest on the sofa. The sinister unknown visitor, the wonderful John Carroll Lynch and the eerie commune gypsy (Lindsay Burdge) elevate the guests’ growing paranoia and unease as the night creeps on. Lewd games, fine wine, chilling stories, and odd philosophies set their teeth on edge, and as we arc towards the third act, the tension is so thick it can be cut only with a serrated knife.
As beautiful metaphors of coyotes and red velvet cake allude to mercy killings and killers having no mercy, Invitation shows us a claustrophobic peephole view into grief, mourning, and the thirst to survive amidst pain. A pinch of Hitchcockian suspense, a dash of You’re Next (2011), and a whole lot of Jonestown, this film is one of the best psycho thrillers of the year. Accept this Invitation at your own risk.
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Please check out THE INVITATION available now ondemand and in select theaters.
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