Poster image for The Invitation (2015)
The Invitation is
a contained suspense film about a man and several other house guests
who attend a party hosted by a couple who disappeared from their
lives for two years and may have a sinister hidden agenda in store
for their guests. The story is told through the point of view of
Will played by Logan Marshall-Green. Will is a deeply conflicted
character who is put in a difficult situation from the beginning. He
arrives at his former home that he and his ex-wife Eden used to
share, a home with a history. A tragedy that happened there a few
years ago led to their separation and now, out of the blue, Eden
invites Will over where he meets the new man of the house, David.
From the start Will is suspicious of Eden's motives and in true
Hitchcock fashion these fears escalate the more Will learns about the
situation he and the other house guests are in. We the audience
tense up as Will does when David insists on keeping the doors locked
while everyone is inside, or when two outsiders crash the party,
Pruitt and Sadie. Eden and David are close friends with Sadie and
Pruitt, kindred spirits almost. As these well written character
dynamics are formed we get an us against them feeling between these
two groups of characters.
Sadie is first seen
waiting in the seclusion of a dark bedroom while the others arrive.
She springs out like a coil when she introduces herself and then
never stops. Sadie is an impulsive girl who is happy, a little too
happy. Then there is Pruitt, the perfect heavy who is thrown into
the mix. He is played by the brilliant character actor John Carroll Lynch, who has over 100 acting credits to his name. Whether it is as
a suspected serial killer in the David Fincher film Zodiac, or
his brief but memorable portrayal of Eastman on The Walking Dead,
John Carroll Lynch fully embodies the characters he plays and his
role of Pruitt is no different. The little we find out about Pruitt
is enough to scare anyone and under the surface we get a sense that
Pruitt is afraid of what he himself is capable of.
I will hold off on
saying more about the story as it may bleed into spoilers territory. I will speak to its many strengths instead. The Invitation is
a bold and promising new work from the director Karyn Kusama who
collaborated with her husband Phil Hay, who is one of the
screenwriters of the film. This movie has all the precepts of great
storytelling, metaphor, subtext, tension, well developed characters
and enough room for you the viewer to come to your own conclusions
about what happened once the end credits start to roll. If you are a
fan of carefully crafted, psychological suspense films, then The
Invitation is a must see. If that is not your cup of tea, then
don't drink this one, because The Invitation is exactly what
it sets out to be.
- Curt Wiser is an Author and the Writer/Director of the thriller Cam-Girl, which is due to be released this year on DVD and Video-On-Demand.
