The Invitation: Really Real Reality (Kinda)

-Written by guest reviewer Keith Beshwate

“The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people’s reality, and eventually in one’s own.” 
 -       Susan Sontag

If films are on a spectrum, from one end being the most honest depiction of reality (documentaries/home videos) to the other being the most fantastical (creations of worlds and languages that extended beyond what is on camera), I would say my viewing pleasure lies somewhere in absurd reality, marked by hyper-concentrated scenarios of good, evil, love, and anger that more than likely exist in the world, sometimes even in my own neighborhood. Director Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation combines all of these elements in a reality thriller I imagine would require me to have stranger neighbors with much more time on their hands.

Along with the previous tag, I am also an absolute sucker for an oddly specific type of film: one that (for the majority of the runtime) takes place in a single location. This is more than likely why I have such a penchant for horror/thriller films, often one-night-in-a-house stories that attempt to make creative use of the space given. In The Invitation, location is everything, as it represents past, present, and future in unfortunate symbiosis unveiling truth.

The film opens with Will (Logan Marshall-Green) and his girlfriend Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi) driving to Will’s former home with ex-wife Eden (played by a frustratingly bipolar Tammy Blanchard), where they will reconnect with Will’s old friends, as well as meet Eden’s new husband, David (Michel Huisman). Strange feelings abound, Will senses early on that this encounter will be troubling, as it’s the first time in two years he’s not only seen Eden, but that he’s returned to the home where we come to learn their son died. He’s not wrong.

Kira (and the audience) meet the former cohort (played by a convincing ensemble cast of veritable likeness and personality), as well as Eden and David’s newest “friends,” Sadie and Pruitt. The tension builds throughout the night between Will and David, as Will notices locked doors, anti-depressants, and a stirring in the neighborhood. It’s after this lengthy meet-and-greet of characters (admittedly the biggest drawback of the film) that we are introduced to the reason everyone has been gathered: as an “invitation” to free themselves of the pressures of fear and depression, in which time David presents a video of a New Age leader explaining the “spiritual psychology” of the process of letting go of past provocations.

Basically, it’s a cult. You think it, they think, everyone thinks it.

For the majority of the rest of the evening, we find these friends grappling with their own insecurities and desires, and their attempt to express themselves in support of or argument against this ideology, all with the strained civility of maintain friendships. They play a confessional game, some laugh through it, others leave in haste; all the while, Will is wandering the property, coping with his struggles both in remembering his lost son, and Eden’s seeming lack of awareness for the weight of their reconnection.

I’d be quite the a-hole if I went any further, but the devil’s in the details here. It goes where you expect it to go, yet leaves you with so many questions, not all connected with Will and Eden’s past, and everything to do with the severity of their situation. Writers Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi have created a unique spin on a fairly standard thriller trope, where the audience is not entirely trying to figure out what just happened here, in this house, but what’s happened. Period. The ending is truly engaging by very subtle image-play care of Kusama and cinematographer Bobby Shore. It’s a rare feat to conclude on the tensest note, so terrifying that its reality is still hitting you as the credits roll.

And that is exactly what the film is about: confronting reality. While our group addresses their past indiscretions (drug addiction, abuse, sexual desire, and even murder), Will realizes he can no longer ignore the sadness he feels for the loss of his son, culminating in a scene in which he finally enters his son’s old bedroom. It is after his awakening that reality gets real-er, then really real-er, then really really really real-er.

I’m gonna go watch Slumber Party Massacre now.

The Invitation is in select theaters, and available to rent on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Google Play, and more.

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