 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. So this is for the 2015 release, The Invitation, which when I watch this and I'm now reviewing it and putting the video up, is available for streaming on Netflix. I know I usually do stuff streaming on Shutter, but I got a stray every now and then because I want to watch what I want to watch. And here's the review. So The Invitation is one that I had had in my Netflix DVD queue to check out and then found out it was on Netflix streaming. So awesome on that. But it's one that kind of popped closer to the top of my queue just because I had seen some people out there put it on their top 10 or top 20 or top 50 films of the 2010s related to the horror genre. And I was like, oh, I've been meaning to watch The Invitation, so maybe I should bump that up since some people are saying it's really, really good. So I will say up front, I did like it. I am going to do spoilers for this review just because it's almost like a five-year-old film at this point. I know there are probably a bunch of people out there who haven't seen it yet. So if you're watching this and you haven't seen it yet, I would say I definitely recommend it. It's definitely a good film. So stop this here. Go watch it. Then come back because going forward, it's spoilers because it kind of begs to be talked about in a spoilery way because you really want to break things down. And that's one of the things I really like about this film is that it made me think a lot. It brought up a bunch of themes, and that's what I like when I watch horror films. I mean, I also like watching kind of like dumb, mindless horror films, too. Like, I'm going to be doing a review for Godzilla, King of the Monsters, and I'm fully expecting when I watch that that it's just going to be straightforward, dumb horror because it's supposed to be set up kind of like the Toho Godzilla film. So, you know, two different modes. But this I particularly like, the thinker's horror films. So let's get into the backstory on this. It was directed by Karen Kusama, who directed the film's Girl Fight, which I have not seen, Eon Flux, which I have also not seen and not heard very good things about, and a very underrated horror film that I should review at some point, Jennifer's Body. That is, that movie got panned so hard when it came out, but it's actually starting to kind of gain more steam now since it's been out for a while. It's got a bit of a cult following, and rightfully so. It is a good film. So the writers for this were Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi. These two individuals have worked on a lot of scripts together. They worked on Eon Flux scripts, so they knew Karen Kusama. They did the newer Clash of the Titans, which I have not seen, and I don't know if I really want to. I might at some point. I really love the original, the really old one from the 70s, I think. That one's a lot of fun, but the newer one looked dumb. They did RIPD, I think is Ryan Reynolds in it. That always looked kind of interesting to me, so I will check that out at some point, but it's not like high up on my list. And then they did the movies Ride Along and Ride Along 2, which I just didn't have interest in. I won't see those. So kind of not a success story with this film. It had a $1 million budget, and at the box office it made $354,835. I wonder why that is, because, well, I have a theory. I feel like maybe they didn't market it really, because I didn't know about this film back in 2015. I didn't even think going into watching this, and before I did my research on it, I was under the impression it was just like a straight to video type deal or straight to streaming. I had no clue actually had a box office release, so that kind of tells you that probably they didn't market it enough to get people into the theaters to make money in the box office, so kind of mishandled in my opinion. Or maybe they just didn't market it the right way, because there's an issue with like when you do trailers or when you're really trying to push a film, you kind of give up too much about the actual film, and that's what gets butts in seats for the theater, but the problem then is you don't really want to ruin it, especially not with a film like this, where there's a lot of uncertainty. You're kind of uncertain like what is really going on. You have theories and you're kind of like, well, it could go this way or it could go this way, and until a certain point in the film towards the end, you're not 100% sure. So you really don't want to give that kind of stuff up, so it gets tricky. Also, this could have been one of the issues is when it was originally announced, they were saying that it was going to have bigger names in the film, because almost all of it is like kind of no-name actors, which for me, I'm totally fine with it. I have no problem with that, but for your common moviegoer, they want to see bigger names. That makes them feel a little more comfortable like, oh, there's a big name in it, or a few big names must be a good film. I don't think that way, but I know people who do. So originally, they said it was supposed to have like Luke Wilson, Johnny Galecki, and Tofer Grace. So I searched online, I couldn't find what happened with that situation. My theory is that maybe they had all of them tentatively signed up to do it, and someone canceled on it, which made another one cancel on it, which then the third one was like, well, if they're not doing it, then I'm not. That's just speculation on my part, because I've heard plenty of instances of those types of things happening with films. So maybe that's part of their problem as well. So I put in here, by the way, I really like John Carroll Lynch, the bald dude in this who played the character of Pruitt. He is good in everything he does, and I know everyone's seen him in at least something. I think he's an underappreciated actor, not in the sense that he doesn't get enough work, because if you look at his IMDb credits, he is continually working, it's just people don't really talk about him much. Whenever I see him, I am totally down. I think he does an outstanding job. He does an outstanding job in this film, once again. And I do want to say that one of my favorite roles of his that I've seen was his role in the Channel Zero season of Channel Zero called The Dream Door. He did an outstanding job with that. He had a cool character to work with, and he just did it really well. So if you haven't, first of all, watched Channel Zero. I haven't seen all the seasons, but it's a good time. Specifically the Dream Door one for John Carroll Lynch. He does an awesome job. So the beginning of the film kind of sets the tone with it being kind of like messed up and uncomfortable. And I say that from the standpoint of, you know, when Will and Kira are in their car and they hit the coyote, it's very uncomfortable, especially because he's like, well, gotta put it out of its misery. And he like beats it to death with a tire iron. So this scene does a few things. Like I was saying, it starts the film uncomfortable. It gives you a foreshadowing that the film is not afraid to go to very uncomfortable places, and it will, and it will also go to violent places. But it also sets up the idea that Will has the ability. He has the mental ability to kill. And that's important for later on, but they also kind of switch it later on where you assume that Will will be even more of a badass and take out Pruitt, but it ends up being Kira who does that. So in essence at the end, Kira is the one who beats the coyote to death with the tire iron and Will doesn't. And so it's an interesting juxtaposition because in the beginning when Will is killing the coyote, Kira is very disturbed by it. But then you have that switch towards the end, which I thought was a really cool, interesting touch. The other thing that kind of ratchets up the tension and disturbing nature of that opening scene is there's no music. And that's one of the wonderful things about this film in general is the use of no music. I talk about this all the time in reviews. You can overdo it with music. And I feel like a lot of people need to take a more minimalistic approach to the use of music in film because too often you're telling people how to feel. And one of the issues with that is it makes things feel predictable. And with this one, they use a lot of silence which creates audience confusion in a sense. Because you don't have that auditory cue to tell you this is how we're telling you you're supposed to be feeling right now. Like something's off or it's about to get violent or it's scary or it's hopeful or whatever. You are just sitting in silence which is uncertainty for you. Like how should I be feeling right now? And that plays particularly well with this film because there's a lot of uncertainty in is Will just losing it or is there really something going on with this kind of cult the invitation cult thing? And are they planning on killing people or are they planning on just killing themselves or are they planning something else? Who knows? And so I feel like instead of telling you through music how you should be feeling at any moment, they just let you sit with your uncertainty and that works really well. I love it. I really like that aspect of it. So well done. So when they finally do play music in the opening, it sounds a bit off which is a really interesting for shadowing technique. You know having the music kind of go along and it feels very melodic and like it makes sense musically and then there will be like a note or two like here or there that are just kind of off. So it's enough to kind of lay out the landscape that things seem normal and then there's this really weird thing that kind of like breaks your mind out of the song and you're like oh something's not right here which is the whole thing with the actual story and that's where the foreshadowing piece comes into. I really like that touch. That's very cool. So the host talking about enjoying what you have and pouring crazy expensive wine gives the impression in the beginning that people won't be alive much longer to live it up now. Yeah it comes off as more of like a either they're planning on killing themselves which I mean they really were or they were planning on killing everyone else or they were going to plan on killing themselves and everyone else which was kind of the ultimate thing. It just kind of seemed like they were like giving away this great greatly expensive wine and they were like pushing it on people and it was this big emphasis on well I mean might as well live it up and you're just like and I feel like that was almost pushed a little too strongly in the beginning. Maybe you should have pulled that back just a little bit. It also made you feel like because they were pushing the wine so hard that and this is what I thought immediately when they were pushing the wine hard I was like there are drugs in there that are either meant to sedate people or kill people and I ended up being totally right on that one. So they should have not pushed it as hard. Eden slapping Ben is the moment that you understand she doesn't fully have it together and is capable of violence. She seems very together when you first meet her like oh maybe she's gotten things together in her life and that moment when she slaps Ben is that little bit of an inkling that they're giving the audience to say she's not okay and she's capable of snapping at any moment so it makes you feel more comfortable and that helps with the tension going forward because you then know as an audience member she has that ability to get over the top to go violent. The door locking incident is another small thing that feels off and helps increase the intention. The tension because you know something's coming where they kind of make a big point of oh we like to keep the door locked and then they're like oh why? Well because there was a home invasion in the canyon and someone was like I didn't hear about that so they make a very pointed effort to once again make things feel off to drive the tension up and that makes a lot of sense. I like that because they just continually do that with things throughout the film which just gradually steps up the tension and steps it up and steps it up until you get to the blow up that you have at the dinner table which is satisfying. Watching the weird cult video in a group like that is uncomfortable and they did a good job of translating that to the audience. Partially by showing the characters looking uncomfortable and partially by not using music. Once again the not using music thing to make you feel uncomfortable to make you feel uncertain about what's going on and it makes you focus even more on the facial expressions of the party attendees who are very very uncomfortable with this very weird cult video. So excellent job on the filmmaking. The people at the door thing just looking for a party was super suspicious. They don't really come back to that though. I think that was just kind of in there as one of those extra things to like move the tension up make you feel even more suspicious and in a lot of the things it was kind of like it could go either way and at some point it feels that way because you do start to kind of question like is will the one who's losing it? Because especially with the moment where Choi actually shows up and I'll talk more about that later. That's when you start to question things and then you're just like oh so then you look back on some of these things like the people coming to the door and you don't view it as being as suspicious as you initially did. It's all about the context of what happened before it. The identification of the phenobarbital pills bolsters the suspicion about the wine situation that I was talking about about drugs being in there. That made it very clear to me that that's what was going on. I had a strong suspicion like I said initially with them really pushing the wine and then when they identified the pill I'm like they're making a very big point about this so obviously it's in the wine. One of the best tension increasing moments is when Will finally gets the message from his buddy Choi and he isn't actually there and he said oh I got here early but I need you to pick something up for me and then he's just like well where's this dude? And that leads to the most tension inducing portion of the film where there's the big blow up where he just starts calling people out and he's just like what's going on? This is nuts and I feel like a lot of movies like this don't go to that point. They don't go to the moment where a character starts calling things out and saying look this is suspicious. I think there's some crazy stuff going on. Usually they go the route of the person's like no I'm gonna maintain my composure. I'm gonna be polite and we'll just see where things go. Which isn't all that realistic. You know if you were dealing with as many things as Will was at that point you probably would just kind of come out with it and be like what is going on? And this is a wonderful moment not just because it feels very realistic but because it leads to the moment where you start to question Will's sanity because leading up to that point he kept having these flashbacks showing that he's stuck in the past and he can't get past the death of his child whereas he sees his ex-wife and he feels like at least the way she's acting that she's kind of over it and that's kind of making him feel like how is this even possible? So then you start to especially question Will's sanity when Choi actually shows up at the party and then that kind of casts so much doubt in your mind as an audience member of oh wow well then maybe the angle they're going with this is he's kind of losing it and has been losing it and then that makes you rethink about all those moments like the people coming to the door and the door being locked and all of those things and the pushing of the line and you're just like maybe they just framed it in that particular way to make it feel suspicious but it's just suspicious to Will because the film is from his perspective so it makes you think well maybe we're just seeing it through his mind and he's a bit unhinged and that's what we're gonna find out. So they did a good job of kind of creating that uncertainty and I really enjoy that. So the no reception thing I initially thought was very very stupid you know wherever it was like oh I have no reception on my cell phone and this is what I wrote down about it. The no reception thing is stupid and honestly lazy writing. There are a bunch of other houses there and in 2015 cell reception was everywhere. If they needed this excuse so badly they should have set it in the early 90s or before and I think this is a good point that if you wanna have people not complain about the no reception situation which I feel like a bunch of people would because they want it to feel realistic and that doesn't feel realistic they should have set it in an earlier decade because then you could say it was only landlines at that point and they didn't have a phone there or they cut the lines or whatever. It just makes it a little more neat. So I do think though in the very end maybe there's an explanation for the no cell reception and that is the fact that it kind of appears that all the houses in that area were involved in the same cult activity. That they were all these houses filled with people from the invitation cult and they invited people over and they were going to kill everyone. So it could have been a concerted effort and they made sure that there was no cell reception there so you know I mean they could have cut wires somewhere and whatever. So maybe that explains it but at least at first the no cell reception thing just rubs you in the wrong way. At least it did for me. You would think, oh like I said you would think that Will would be the one to end up killing Pruitt when that ends up going down but it ends up being Kira and I really like that switch because like I was saying from earlier where she's very appalled at what's going on with the Coyote and he's just like mindlessly like I gotta take care of this and he kills and it switches and she's like I gotta take care of this and she puts Pruitt down like the Coyote. Just beats him in, beats his head in. I dig the twist at the end with all the red lights indicating that there are a lot of other households involved and like I said that could account for the cell reception situation. So at that moment it made me feel like maybe it turned into a little bit more of a movie like The Purge where it's like these people will potentially not just get done within their house but leave the house and maybe kill some more people. I don't know. So it kind of sets it up where there could be a sequel which I would be kind of interested in to see what happens because I think they did a good job of handling this although not all stories lend themselves to having sequels really and I don't know what you would do but I'd be open to see what they would do with a sequel. I don't know. So let's talk about some themes and some overall stuff about the film. Directing and cinematography looked really good and I think it visually kept people engaged. The camera movements were really nice the way they framed a lot of the shots were good. The only thing that I really didn't like visually is a lot of the lighting was super low. So if it was in high definition it didn't really look like high definition. This is one of the problems with having things shot in high def in low lighting is it then doesn't look high def at all. You get a lot of like blurring that goes on and it just looks like digital. So that was kind of something that bothered me about the film. This film uses music sparingly like I talked about and I love that. Like I said it increases your uncertainty about a lot of stuff and that's important for the audience member to sit with. Big kudos for doing that. It was a great, great choice. So thematically this shows the tensions of how it can become so toxic when someone involved with the trauma deals with it and someone else doesn't. They feel alienated and resentful that the other person has worked past it because they're still stuck and suffering. And you see this especially and this theme comes through especially when you don't fully know what's going on yet. You feel like well maybe it's Eden and her new spouse that are the problem or maybe it's Will that's the problem. You see that they're butting heads because he even makes some comments to her about, oh you're just like over it, like how can you be over it? Because obviously she's acting like she's moved on and she's in a better place and she's gonna be better which I don't, that isn't actually the case in the end because she does admit that she really misses a kid and she keeps thinking about it before she dies but she's giving the appearance that she's moved on and that kind of sets Will off even more because he's obviously stuck. Like he cannot get past it. He cannot, it's like he hasn't even fully grieved. He doesn't know how to deal with it really. He doesn't know how to move on and that's clearly seen too in all the flashbacks that he sees when he goes around the house. I mean that's a very good visualization of showing you that he is stuck. He is 100% stuck in those memories and stuck in the pain and the trauma of that time. So this speaks to a social issue actually where people judge how others grieve and deal with trauma especially deaths within the family and that scene in the, you know, the budding of heads between Will and Eden when he's kind of like, how do you, how are you past this? Like our kid died, like how can you be okay with this? And it gets the heart of a social issue that I've thought about a lot which is people judging how other people grieve because people grieve differently and then the issue of people judging when someone moves past a death or they do they're grieving and they get through the process and they find a way to move on. And I see it most when there are situations where it's a spouse that passed away and I hear it from people. I've heard it many, many times where someone's like, oh, they're seeing someone else now. That feels kind of soon, doesn't it? But it's like, how are you gonna pass that kind of judgment? Like you're not that individual person. You don't know how they deal with that type of thing. And maybe they didn't even deal with that type of thing. Maybe they jumped into a relationship because that's their way of distracting because they can't deal with it at that point. Doesn't mean that the relationship's necessarily a good one, but that's how they're choosing to deal with it, choosing to grieve, choosing to try and move past it. And some people don't wanna move past it. Some people like being reminded of what was or what the trauma is. It's not necessarily healthy, I don't think, but everyone's got their own way of doing it. And I think that people need to give everyone some space and be understanding that you are not anyone else. You are one unique individual. Everyone is a unique individual. And everyone thinks about things differently and deals with things differently. We have similarities as human beings, but everyone's unique. And the last thing I had a quote that I thought was really great from this film that kind of exemplifies what I was just talking about, is said, letting go is not a betrayal. Just kind of signaling that you don't have to judge. It's fine for you to move past something. And I just thought that that's a very important quote from the film that people should take away from it. So that said, this is a good film. I highly recommend it to people that should definitely check it out. Is it a perfect film? No, but I quite liked it. I don't, having seen it now, I would not change the list that I have for my top 20 horror films from the 2010s, which, by the way, that video is on this channel. Go check that out, because I think I did a pretty good job with my list, to be honest. But having seen the invitation, it wouldn't crack my top 20, but top 50, yeah, potentially top 50, maybe even top 30, I don't know. Yeah, potentially top 30, actually. It's good. So that said, rating-wise, five stars with half stars in play, I'm gonna give it a four-star rating. I think it is a solid four stars. Quite good film. So, I would love to hear what other people have to say about this film, because it's one of those thinker films. So I probably missed something, or people are seeing it from a different perspective. So put some comments down there, if you've seen it, really, really want to hear from you on this one, because I love kind of deep diving on these types of movies. So comment about it, let's talk. Do me a quick favor, hit that subscribe button. If you like any of the videos that I do, that's your best way to motivate me and say thank you, is just hit that subscribe. And if you've already subscribed, just hit the like button, that'd be nice. But if you haven't subscribed, don't hit the like, hit the subscribe, or if you wanna go the extra mile, you can do both. And I would appreciate that. But thanks everyone for checking this out, and until next time, keep it brutal.