The Invitation (2022) Review

Director: Jessica M. Thompson

Casts: Nathalie Emmanuel as Evelyn “Evie” Alexander, Thomas Doherty as Walter De Ville, Hugh Skinner as Oliver Alexander, Alana Boden as Lucy, and Stephanie Corneliussen as Viktoria

Introduction

The Invitation (2022) is a romantic horror thriller directed by Jessica M. Thompson and written by Blair Butler. It was produced by Screen gems and Sony Pictures distributed it. The invitation is based on Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula.

Synopsis

After losing her mother and having no other known relatives, Evelyn gets a DNA test and learns she has a distant relative. She gets invited to a wedding by the newknown family while at the event, she unearths some dark mysteries about her family’s past.

A bit about The Invitation

Evelyn “Evie” Alexander, a catering company waiteress, just lost her mother after losing her father when she was 14 years old. She feels alone in the world since she has no family or relatives, only her and her friend.

She is concerned and curious to discover if she has at least one living relative, so she follows the instructions of an internet firm and sends her DNA sample to a postal box.

After some time has passed, she receives a message from Oliver Alexander, who claims to be her cousin and wishes to meet for coffee, to which she agrees. Soon after, he informs her that she is invited to a spectacular wedding in the English countryside.

Oliver convinces her to attend the wedding, and she reluctantly agrees.

When she arrives, she is met by Lord Walt, a lovely young man. The family also greets her and expresses their happiness that she is present.

Walt, an extremely kind yet flirtatious Lord, attempts to make her feel at ease in her new home. On one occasion, he even asked her to dance with him.

Lord Walt presents Evie as his bride at a wedding to her own surprise. The Family’s true plans are gradually revealed, and Evie has no way out. She now has to depend on herself to get her out of the house.

Review

Starting with the actors’ and actresses’ performances. Thomas Doherty’s portrayal of Lord Walter De Ville was excellent. He wowed me with his performance as the Villain. I could tell he was going to be the antagonist from the beginning of the film. In my perspective, he was the show’s star.

Alana Boden as Lucy and Nathalie Emmanuel as Evelyn both had excellent performances. Alana delivered an outstanding performance. Her performance brought the film to life. Nathalie played a fine role, yet I believe she did not add enough passion to her performance to convey her emotions.

In a scene where she was supposed to be terrified, her facial expression was just unfrightened. Not just for this scenario, but also a few others.

I enjoyed the actors’ and actresses’ accents. It was very smooth. I also liked the costumes worn by the characters. Excellent selection.

The storyline of The Invitation is nice yet predictable. I like the film but it would have been even better if it had been a romance thriller or mystery rather than a horror film. It’s full of suspense, as is expected from a horror movie.

The invitation is okay. It’s neither too good nor too horrible; it’s just about in the middle.

Though it wasn’t terrible, The Invitation, in my opinion, has several major problems.

Some characters or character behaviours were not well developed. The character of Viktoria, for example, was underdeveloped. Some development occurs at the end of the film which I feel is out of place.

I objected to the effects employed. It was in no way impressive. Okay, just a few were good; the rest were awful.

The action sequence in this film was poor. Some of the fight sequences made me laugh because of how unreal they seemed. This scene would have been fantastic if the Director had given it a bit more attention.

The darkness used in some scenes made several settings difficult for me to see. The darkness, in my opinion, ought to have been moderate to reveal the settings and the character while keeping us, the viewers, in suspense and not giving away too much.

I left the invitation with a lot of questions which is not a good thing. The first hour of the film was fantastic, but the last few minutes was dreadful. The ending part of the movie seemed rushed.

Some of the songs used in the film had little to do with the plot, tone, or even the events that were depicted.

Did you know?

The original name of the movie was The Bride, that Jessica M. Thompson would be directing it, and that Emile Gladstone would produce. Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula served as Butler’s primary source of inspiration while Thompson made adjustments to Butler’s original script. The film’s new name, The Invitation, was revealed in June 2022.

In conclusion, The Invitation is an intriguing ‘horror,’ yet I doubt it will scare or frighten anyone. If you go to watch The Invitation expecting a horror picture, you will most certainly be disappointed, but if you think of it as a thriller, you will like it.

Because of the sex, profanity, and violence, I suggest this film to horror thriller fans above the age of 18.

Similar genre – The Black Phone

You can watch The Invitation on Paramount+ or download it here

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