The Invitation (2022)
Directed by: Jessica M. Thompson
Written by: Blair Butler
Starring: Alana Boden, Nathalie Emmanuel, Stephanie Corneliussen, Thomas Doherty
USA
IN CINEMAS NOW
RUNNING TIME: 100 mins
REVIEWED BY: Dr Lenera
In New York City, struggling artist Evelyn “Evie” Jackson uses a DNA kit to find out that she has extended family in England and is messaged by her cousin, Oliver Alexander, who, when they meet, tells her about the scandal of her great-grandmother, Emmaline Alexander, who, while engaged to be married, had an affair with a black footman and had a secret child. Oliver invites Evie to an upcoming family wedding in England so she can meet everyone, and Evie reluctantly agrees. Once there, she seems to be the centre of attention, especially from the charming lord of the manor Walter DeVille, though not everyone takes kindly to this visitor from across the waves, and somebody or something is killing off the help….
As I exited the cinema screen showing The Invitation, a couple in front of me remarked that the trailer had given the big twist away and had therefore ruined it for them. I usually avoid trailers these days and that’s one of the reasons I do so, though I had managed to see this one and hadn’t thought that the obvious fact that the villains are vampires was intended to be a big surprise. I still wondered for a minute whether I should not mention what the twist is, something that could hopefully cause me to write a shorter review for a change, but then I said to myself “To hell with it”, because, even if I hadn’t seen said trailer, it would have been blatantly obvious to me what was going on quite early on while watching the film, the clues being unsubtle and therefore rendering its attempt to create mystery rather pointless. Ready Or Not with vampires is kind of what I expected, though the similarities aren’t as big as one might expect, and this includes quality. Ready Or Not might have faltered with its final act, but The Invitation is clumsy right from the off, with poor writing and mediocre filmmaking that possesses no real inspiration or style except when its genuinely bad, and this includes the jump scares which are so cliched and obvious that they’ll have little effect unless you really haven’t seen many horror films at all. Romance and eventually action are brought in, but when there’s zero chemistry between the two leads, shoddy cutting and about one hundred vampires who all decide to split up and hunt for the heroine in pairs or on their own, one almost feels like giving up because it’s obvious that things ain’t going to get any better. Oh – and I haven’t yet mentioned the unpleasant heroine who’s clearly supposed to be in her late ’20s but who talks like an older teenager. But then what do you expect with a film which uses extremely blurry shots as one of its devices to avoid gore and get a ‘PG-13’ rating?
So we begin with a woman fleeing in peril in a dark house before hanging herself, but the choppy cutting virtually ruins its effect. I’d like to think that director Jessica M. Thompson [even though this is her second feature] and editor Autumn Eaken do know what they’re doing, but there’s evidence throughout that they’re not quite sure. Now we meet our lovely heroine, and she soon shows how lovely she is by saying “He’s the whitest guy I’ve ever known”. Now, considering how up tight many people are these days about racial matters, this should theoretically be considered as racist, not to mention bizarre seeing as Evie is mixed race. Now such things don’t bother me that much – however much some might like to deny it people do often say things that are “off” without actually being bigots. But here’s the thing – just imagine is Evie was white and saying “He’s the blackest guy I know”? Well, first of all such a thing wouldn’t even be shot, and secondly the hoards of moaners would be moaning about it, accusing the filmmakers of being racist. What a bonkers climate we live in, and it’s best to just laugh at it, but unfortunately it’s seriously affecting the cinema. Screenwriter Blair Butler probably thinks the “blackest guy” line is hilarious since she repeats it at the end, and can’t resist having Evie’s friend Grace mention “colonial guilt” when referring to Evie’s recently discovered family. Thankfully Evie soon leaves her and jets off to England once the charming Oliver Alexander has filled her in on her past. The estate is named New Carfax Abbey, which ought to give out warming signals to any visitor. I was going to say that Evie is probably the person who doesn’t like reading books by dead white men so she may not have heard of Carfax Abbey, but then she’s happy to sleep with white guys so who knows? It’s possible that we’re in Whitby, though it’s obviously in a different place to the original Carfax abbey as we see no sea.
Evie arrives and is “offended” [yet, that’s the word she uses] when one of the servants is told off for something that she did; knocking down some boxes being carried by said servant and therefore smashing some of the glasses therein. Indeed the butler Mr Fields [get it?] isn’t the nicest guy. Even colder to Evie is Viktoria, one of the maids of honour, being condenscending, sarcastic, and clearly lording it over the bubbly Lucy [well fancy that] who succeeds in partly befriending Evie. Meanwhile one maid is killed in the kitchen by something and two others are sent by Mr Fields into the wine cellar where you know that something’s going to get them too, though to be honest some of the scenes involving Evie and the family work better, there is indeed a bit of simmering tension at times, though the Evie/Walter relationship is rather awkward, which in a way I guess is kind of appropriate but we never get a sense of why these two would actually want to go go to bed together. There’s a hilarious scene where Evie finds out that Walter had been researching her background, from her Facebook profile to her criminal record, and after Walter gives a lame-ass excuse she’s alright with this! Oh dear god, why is it, as soon as this film seems to be getting reasonable, a god-awful scene such as this comes along to drag it down again? It’s not long before the big s-called “revelation” scene which seems patterned after the dinner table scene in A Company Of Wolves, but is largely botched through lousy cutting, deliberately out of focus shots so we can’t see the gory bits, and poor performing from Nathalie Emmanuel, though by now we’ve come to expect this kind of almost spoofy horror acting.
The scenes of the maids being killed employ many of the tricks from “Horror Filmmaking For Dummies” but have no real vibe of their own. Jump scares have to be accompanied by that loud musical thud otherwise they probably wouldn’t have any effect all. A light going off and on is a potentially neat way to conceal what would have been nasty visuals, but there’s no rhythm to the scene. There’s one quite frightening moment of clawed hands appearing through a bed sheet but it peters out too quickly. Likewise there’s a potentially grim scene where Evie is placed near a dead woman who’s clearly been fed on, and who we actually see have a bite being taken out of her leg. We do actually get to see a bit of blood here, but instead of creating disgust or fright, we feel neither and finish off with a mildly comic comment from the vampire doing the biting. It’s all rather anaemic, with Thompson clearly unable to work well within the restrictions of a ‘PG-13’ rating in creating horror, something which some other filmmakers can clearly do even though there are still far too many films being made in this genre, indeed several genres, that would have been far better at ‘R’. The final act has some fight scenes where the antagonists seem absurdly careless, but again the biggest problem is the editing.
On the other hand, worthy of some praise is the set design, this house being potentially a great Gothic setting with its ceiling, its paintings and a great statue of a knight looking like it’s losing a fight to a dragon. In many scenes, my attention was diverted to the backgrounds, in fact this film might bd a better experience if the people had been taken out so all we had were the backgrounds, which, exuding as they do decadence and greed, really do make for a worthy setting for a really good vampire movie, but not this one, especially as Autumn Eakin clearly doesn’t know how to light it so we have the right effect. Much effort has clearly made with the costumes too, so let’s praise both Felicity Abbot and Danielle Knox for their sterling work in these two departments. Stephanie Corneliussen and Alana Boden are fine as Viktoria and Lucy; they work well together and suggest a sexual charge, both with each other and with others, that’s virtually missing from the rest of the film. In fact, they seem to acting in a very different, much better piece. Emmanuel has to play a character who veers from being strong and level headed to being very stupid and almost bad, so it must have been very hard to get a handle on it, but did she have to act like someone ten years younger than she’s supposed to be? Or maybe she is supposed to be that young and it’s just bad casting? Why am I even taking the trouble to ask myself questions like that in a movie where I also ask myself how did the baddies knew that Evie would do the things she does right at the beginning. Evie even has a stereotypical obnoxious sassy sidekick, who thankfully isn’t in it much, but ruins the few scenes that she’s in.
One thing’s for sure, this is an utter loser of a film which, what with some of its references and links, partly feels like a Dracula film which was turned into something else. Maybe Universal, still trying to revive their Monsterverse [just give it up Universal], had a word? Maybe Dracula is partly founded on the idea of racial polution, but the Count is also a symbol of social and sexual liberation which is why he’s always been popular and exciting. Turning him into what seems like a metaphor for British Imperialism is as cheap a pandering to a certain crowd as can be, even if in the right hands it could still have been interesting. This is one invitation you might want to decline.
Rating: 
Be the first to comment