FILM REVIEW: THE INVITATION (2015)

                             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.