Fridays of Fright: You Are Invited to The Invitation
The Invitation’s Poster
As we make our way into October and Halloween draws nearer there’s no better way to experience spine-chilling fear than curling up with a thrilling horror film. Every year countless lists are published vouching for “the best horror movie of all time,” but these lists include an unproportional number of male directors. It’s more than time to shed some light on all the astonishingly talented women directors that specialize in the horror genre and there’s no one better to kick off this month other than Karyn Kusama. Now imagine a house in the hills filled with all your favorite people: your closest friends, your girlfriend, your ex-wife, and her new husband. Sounds like everyone’s ideal combination for a normal dinner party, right? This is the premise of Kusama’s hidden gem The Invitation (2015) starring Logan Marshall-Green as Will alongside Tammy Blanchard as the enigmatic Eden. A departure from her usual female lead, Kusama explores the once partners and parents now estranged coming back together for an evening of cocktails, suffocating small talk, and a side of cultist ideas. Kusama concocts a perfect balance of ambiguity within The Invitation to leave her audience wanting more and leaving even more up to interpretation.
Kusama drives us through the hills of Los Angeles toward certain doom only to be met with eerie stillness for most of the film. Once arrived at their destination Will and his girlfriend Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi) are enveloped in the strangeness that is Eden and her husband David (Michiel Huisman). While slyly mentioning bad reception, a missing party guest, and locking the only exit in the house is cause for some concern, the continuous piling of these perplexing and disturbing factors only adds to the deeply unsettling atmosphere Kusama builds within the house. These disturbances make the audience hungry for more, yet wary of what is to come next in fear of something more horrifying occurring.
The Guests Cuddle up to Watch a Cultist Recruitment Video
This is the magic that Kusama casts over all her work; she expects her audience to understand and interpret underlying messages so she can continue with the story. She knows when to leave things unsaid because nothing is more terrifying than our own imagination. Kusama uses this technique multiple times throughout The Invitation. The first being the odd circumstances around why party guest Choi hasn’t shown up yet. Choi’s absence is mentioned jokingly from the moment Will and Kira arrive at the house, but as the night progresses and he is still nowhere to be seen, jokes turn to distress. This distress soon turns into distrust as Will discovers a voicemail from Choi stating he got there before anyone. So if Choi was the first to arrive, where is he now? Kusama allows the audience to fabricate far more horrifying scenarios than reality.
Kusama deploys the same method with tender-hearted guest Claire (Marieh Delfino). It’s not long after playing “I want…” where Pruitt confesses to some more than startling information about his wife that Claire attempts an escape. She is met with resistance from everyone except Will who advocates for her comfort. Sensing all prevention of Claire’s departure is futile the group lets her go, but not without Pruitt following under the guise of moving his car from behind her. Kusama teases us by letting us watch Claire leave through Will’s eyes up until she actually drives away, once again leaving it up to the audience to decipher what Claire’s fate is. Did she drive away safely, yet shaken or did Pruitt do unimaginable things to her like he did his wife?
The Chilling Final Image of The Invitation
The last time Kusama employs this device is so mind-melting that it is better left to be experienced first hand. Karyn Kusama is a master of keeping her audience suspended in disbelief through the almost painstakingly slow way she reveals clues. From any other director, this would be a demerit to them and the film, but Kusama knows how to walk that fine line between exasperation and satisfaction captivating audiences and leaving them begging for more. In all its awkward conversations and horrifying implications this is not an invitation you want to decline.