The Invitation

Dir: Karyn Kusama

2015

****

Horror thrillers have been a little samey in recent years and I worried at first that The Invitation would be no different. However, it took very little time to realise there was something unique and special about it that separated it from its contemporaries. There is a wonderful uneasiness to it that I really admired and it continues all the way through until its dramatic conclusion. I believe that the viewer should never be comfortable when watching a horror/thriller and that can certainly be said of my personal watching experience. While I had an idea what the film was about and where it was headed, I didn’t expect the refreshingly clever finale. The cinematography is beautiful from the outset and it really adds something to the overall mood of the story. Luke Wilson, Zachary Quinto, Topher Grace and Johnny Galecki were originally cast as the film’s main characters but after a couple of years of re-writes a lesser known group of actors were cast and I think it was for the best. As much as I like the actors originally attached, I think the less-famous cast gave the story a more believable edge, and they all did a fantastic job too. Logan Marshall-Green’s performance as our unhinged protagonist was fantastic and something of an antidote to the usual male lead in most contemporary horrors. While some of the supporting characters could have had more development, at least they weren’t outright stereotypes. The real key to The Invitation’s success however is in its patience. It’s a slow-burner and utterly unapologetic about it. Most modern horrors jump straight in with gruesome murder or at least a jump scene but The Invitation treads slowly and with caution. It revels in its awkwardness and doesn’t pretend otherwise. This adds something of a profound sense of suspense that most horror films fail to understand while reminding us that the most frightening thing on this planet is other humans, and what we let them get away with unchallenged. The story isn’t without a sensationalist twist – which I thought worked really well – but at its heart is a very believable scenario. The overall conclusion eludes to something much bigger though, and that is what makes the film so clever. You could attach almost any way of thinking to the film’s ending and realise that us humans are more than capable of it and are, indeed, guilty of it. Gore is easy, slasher films are cheap and masked monsters wielding knives and chasing teenagers are no longer scary, but when you can insert a feeling of impending doom in the viewer and sustain it for the entirety of a film, then you have mastered the true art of horror.