THE INVITATION : Tuesday 30th August 2022.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'THE INVITATION' earlier this week, and this American supernatural horror film is Co-Written, Executive Produced and Directed by Jessica M. Thompson in only her second feature film making outing following 'The Light of the Moon' in 2017, although she has Directed a number of short films and six episodes of the TV series 'The End' in 2020. The film opened in the US and here in Australia last week, has so far recouped US$10.2M in Box Office receipts from its production budget of US$10M and has garnered mixed reviews from critics. 

The film opens up with a woman locked in an empty room. As the door is opened she manages to escape and run down the hallways of a very gothic looking mansion, and into another room where there is a grand piano. We next see the same woman with a couple of lengths of piano wire wrapped around her neck. She ventures out onto the hallway again and wraps one end of the piano wire around the balustrade at the top of a grand staircase. She climbs on to the balustrade clutching a large and clearly very heavy marble bust and lurches herself off down into the foyer below breaking her neck in the process as the bust shatters below her hanging feet. We later learn that the woman was Emmaline Alexander (Virag Barany). 

We then move to New York City and struggling ceramicist Evelyn 'Evie' Jackson (Nathalie Emmanuel) helps support her meagre earnings by working as a waitress for a seemingly upmarket catering and events company. At one event she is working at her good friend Grace (Courtney Taylor) hands her a show bag that she has purloined from the event organisers containing a DNA test kit. Sometime later after checking out the website, Evie sends in the test kit. She has no surviving relatives (or so she thinks) as her mother recently passed away and her father died when she was much younger. She also has no siblings. 

It's not too long before the results of her DNA test come back, revealing that she has an extended family in England and has subsequently been messaged by her cousin, Oliver Alexander (Hugh Skinner), who by chance is also in NYC on business and asks to meet over lunch. Evie is quickly charmed by the hapless yet energetic Oliver, who tells Evie about the scandal of her great-grandmother, Emmaline Alexander, who, while engaged to be married, had an affair with a coloured footman and had a secret child. On the spot and within an hour or so of them meeting Oliver invites Evie to a family wedding in a couple of weeks in England so she can meet every one of her new family, who are already aware of Evie's being. Evie agrees albeit reluctantly.

Evie makes the trans-Atlantic flight and duly arrives at a beautiful mansion in very rural England and is almost immediately bowled over by the handsome lord of the estate, Walter DeVille (Thomas Doherty). Evie is welcomed with open arms and warm hearts by her new family who make her their guest of honour. During the first night, three new maids go missing, the first in the library sent in their to clean and two others in the cellar sent down to search out bottles of a rare 1896 vintage wine. They are attacked by shadowy figures lurking throughout the house, and Evie has nightmares about her great-grandmother, Emmaline, killing herself.

The next morning after a restless night, Evie is invited to take part in pre-wedding activities beginning with a spa treatment with the two maids of honour - the tall dark condescending and sarcastic Viktoria (Stephanie Corneliussen), and the diminutive blonde puppyish Lucy (Alana Boden). Viktoria upsets Evie and plants doubts in her mind about Walter. Evie leaves after a manicurist accidentally cuts her finger and Viktoria sidles up and sucks at her bloodied finger. Storming out Evie walks into the foyer and gains entry to the library leading her to discover that Walter ran a background check on her before she arrived. Evie confronts Walter about this revelation and is already packing her suitcase in readiness to leave, but the two reconcile after he provides a seemingly rational explanation.

Evie enters a grand dining room wearing a red gown chosen for her by Walter, for a masquerade dinner, expecting to finally meet the bride and groom. Walter stands and announces that he and Evie will be married tomorrow. Mr. Field (Sean Pertwee) the head Butler of the house slits the throat of one of the maids pouring her blood into a punch bowl, and then dispensing the warm crimson liquid into a wine glass which is given to Walter. As Walter drinks it is revealed that he is a vampire and the three families pledged a covenant to provide him with three wives, one from each family, in exchange for prosperity, protection, and power. The Alexander family had given only boys since the birth of Emmaline and were over joyed when Evie came into their lives meaning that they could once again fulfil their pledge to provide Walter with a bride of their own blood line.

Viktoria and Lucy are Walter's existing vampire brides and the pair take Evie down into a cellar to prepare her for upcoming wedding ceremony and nailing her securely inside an upright coffin for the night. Evie is freed early the next morning by her maid, Mrs. Swift (Carol Ann Crawford) and escapes to the nearby village seeking help. She is taken in by an elderly couple loyal to the Alexanders, who beat her over the head unconscious, and she is brought back to the DeVille estate. 

Evie comes round in Walter's library still half dazed and out of sorts with the events that have recently unfolded. However, Evie exchanges vows with Walter and as he opens up his artery for her to suck on his blood she takes in more than he bargained for leaving him temporarily weakened and in the process becomes half-vampire herself. Instead of completing the blood exchange, whereby Walter had to suck on Evie's blood to fully complete the ritual, she overturns several burning candles setting the wedding chapel alight. She then grabs a wooden candelabra and stabs Walter through the heart, and runs off to the foyer. Viktoria and Lucy huddle around a now instantly ageing Walter, as his end is nigh. An enraged Viktoria chases after Evie and after a brief fight, Lucy attacks Viktoria. The two brides fight before Lucy impales both Viktoria and herself onto a spear for them both to also age instantly and their bodily dust to be swept away in a breeze. 

Evie is chased by a now much older and frail Walter, who attempts to choke her before she breaks free and kicks him into the growing fire, killing him and avenging her great-grandparents. As he finally dies, she reverts back to human form and flees the mansion now engulfed in flames. Two weeks later, Evie is in London with her good friend Grace. They see Oliver entering the offices of Alexander Realty one evening and then follow him in, seemingly with the intention of exacting their revenge. 

'The Invitation' borrows heavily from the likes of 'Ready or Not', any one of the numerous 'Dracula' films in the canon and the 'Twilight' saga. This film certainly looks the part with its grand mansion, gothic interiors, subdued lighting and set pieces but is light on the jump scares and any sense of real 'horror'. The dialogue is at times banal and the plot twists and turns are predictable that ultimately turns the promising premise of this film into an also ran, that alas you have probably seen done plenty of times before, and more often that not, probably done better. The Director Jessica M. Thompson has achieved a lot on a relatively modest US$10M budget, and the efforts of Nathalie Emmanuel as the struggling ceramicist turned vampire slayer is commendable enough, but these facts alone are not sufficient to prevent this invite from being relegated to the lower half of the pile. 

'The Invitation' warrants two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-