Main cast: Logan Marshall-Green (Will), Tammy Blanchard (Eden), Michiel Huisman (David), Emayatzy Corinealdi (Kira), Lindsay Burdge (Sadie), Jay Larson (Ben), Michelle Krusiec (Gina), Jordi Vilasuso (Miguel), Mike Doyle (Tommy), John Carroll Lynch (Pruitt), Karl Yune (Choi), Marieh Delfino (Claire), and Toby Huss (Dr Joseph)
Director: Karyn Kusama

The Invitation technically falls under the slasher genre, but it’s actually far harder to neatly categorize into labels. This isn’t because the movie is groundbreaking and label-defying, mind you. It’s just that the kills are unlikely to hit the right spots with slasher movie fans, and the whole thing is too slow for the most part for the movie to qualify as drama or thriller.

Let’s start with the story first. Will and his girlfriend Kira are invited to a dinner by his ex-wife Eden and her husband David. The invitation came as a surprise, as Will hadn’t seen Eden since their divorce. They split after the accidental death of their son tore them apart. Now, however, Eden seems perfectly happy with David, whom she met at a grief support group. There are also other guests here, all friends of theirs except for Sadie and Pruitt, whom Eden claims to have befriended through other mutual friends.

As the evening drags on, Will starts having painful flashbacks to his son’s death, causing him to ignore Kira most of the time. Eden and David eventually reveal that they are part of a cult called the Invitation, led by one Dr Joseph who taught them how some kind of technique to exorcise their grief out of their lives. See, they are so happy now! Well, that and Will finds some drugs stashed away by Eden. What is going on here?

I wish I can say that, for once, this is a cult that practices organic living and productive contribution to society, but sadly, this is supposed to be a slasher movie, so we’re dealing with a more stereotypical “Die, die, die!” cult here.

The first two-thirds of this movie revolve around the soap opera of Will and Eden, along with a large cast of people who are never given much character because they aren’t important. Well, some of them survive to the very end, so I’d assume the movie would give them a chance to let me know about them more than their names, but clearly those folks beg to differ. Because I don’t care about these people, I am bored for the most part.

Then the fun part that gives this movie its slasher movie label begins, but it’s hardly likely to scratch the itch as most of these folks die quickly without any ceremony. They are basically here now, oops, dead now. The rest of the movie are standard chases and hiding in corners before going all out to fight back – the usual song and dance, really. The whole thing ends with a dramatic revelation that makes little sense whatsoever. How on earth did everyone in the cult somehow manage to live so close together anyway? That and so many more questions that revelation will give rise to will remain unanswered… mostly because I don’t care enough to want to find out.

The Invitation isn’t a very inviting movie at all. It’s one of those movies on a streaming service that can be harmlessly played in the background while one is doing the housework or getting frisky. Folks that do pay attention to this movie may end up feeling that it’d be more productive to do just that instead.