¡QUÉ HORROR! 2016 [3 of 13] THE INVITATION (2015)

A Rundown of the 13 Best Horror Movies I've Seen in the Past Year

[3 of 13]

THE INVITATION

(March 2015)

While I wasn't particularly crazy about Karyn Kusama’s previous genre efforts (the live action adaptation of Aeon Flux and Jennifer’s Body)*, her latest feature, The Invitation, is another matter entirely.

Working from a screenplay by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi (who’d previously worked with her on Aeon Flux), Kusama crafts an exquisite example of slow burn horror as a group of friends who haven’t seen each other in a couple of years are brought back together by the titular invitation, for a night of talk and drinks and a gradually escalating sense of wrongness.

Now, given that that’s all you’ll get here in terms of what the film is about, if seeing familiar genre faces makes you more comfortable, then the likes of John Carroll Lynch, and Michiel Huisman (who’s been conspicuously absent of late from Orphan Black, though is very much present on Game of Thrones), and Logan Marshall-Green, are here for the festivities.

Marshall-Green, in particular, needs to be singled out, as he pretty much anchors the film’s proceedings as Will, who is still dealing with the trauma of a personal tragedy, and is the one most attuned to the wrongness I made mention of earlier.

So, yeah. The Invitation.

RSVP, regrets only.

* I’ve still to find the opportunity to see Kusama’s feature debut, Girlfight, so, who knows, she might have kicked my film geek a$$ really early on, if only I’d caught it when it was first released…

(The Invitation OS’ courtesy of impawards.com & aintitcool.com.)