Editorials
5 Things You Didn’t Know About ‘The Invitation’ Including a Shocking Revelation
Karyn Kusama’s paranoid thriller of manners, The Invitation (read our review), hits Blu-ray next week, and we got an early taste of some of the special features including the audio commentary featuring Kusama and co-writers Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi. As far as commentaries go it’s a good one. The trio dive deep into the themes of the film as well as some of the inspirations behind the project. Kusama also discusses the process of shooting the film along with some of the challenges of shooting in a single location.
I’ve assembled five interesting facts about the film you may not have known including a shocking revelation about the fate of a character that will forever change the way you view the film.
[Mild spoiler warning]
1. The original cast was full of stars
Sometimes familiar faces can ruin a good story, hindering suspension of disbelief or creating narrative expectations that lead viewers wandering from the filmmakers’ intentions. The talent of these actors aside, The Invitation may have dodged that bullet when it ended up losing its originally announced cast, which included Luke Wilson, Zachary Quinto, Topher Grace and Johnny Galecki.
In the end, Logan Marshall-Green (Prometheus) leading a cast of virtual unknowns allows audiences to focus on the film’s mounting dread and not the star power.
2. Kusama was inspired by 70’s thrillers
While All the President’s Men, Three Days of the Condor and the early work of Brian DePalma don’t share a similar narrative to The Invitation, they set the stage for Kusama’s approach to the style of her film. Even The Invitation‘s simple title card, which Kusama describes as “spare and offset,” gets attributed to All the President’s Men and other films of the era that she says took a radical approach at the time.
3. They put a big tent over that house
Instead of filling a schedule with grueling night shoots, the production team tented the house where the film takes place to create the illusion of darkness outside while they shot during the day. The only scene Kusama insisted they shoot at night was the dinner scene at the center of the film which had the cast surrounded by windows.
4. Claire didn’t make it
This one really bums me out, folks. In a particularly tense moment at the center of the film, one of the dinner guests, Claire, decides she’s had enough of the strange evening and announces she’s going to leave early. Despite everyone’s best efforts to convince her to stay, she stands firm, grabs her bag and gets the hell out of the house.
Tensions rise when Pruitt ( The Walking Dead’s John Carroll Lynch) , a character we’re already on edge about, says his car is blocked her’s in the driveway and he needs to move it before she can leave. The two venture outside and we’re left wondering if Pruitt has anything more sinister on this mind, or if Claire made it home unharmed. Since the film has a strict main character POV, we’re left inside and wondering along with Will.
I always liked the ambiguity of Claire’s fate and saw her decision to leave as a cautionary tale of sorts. Too often we adhere to social morays at the expense of better judgement and even personal safety. Even when our mind cries out that a situation may not be safe, we stick it out and hope for the best rather than rock the boat. It’s an odd human trait and Claire’s firm stance to leave the party when it was getting too weird for her gave me hope that it meant she’d beaten the odds in this case.
But, alas, my hopes have been dashed. Kusama reveals in the commentary that Claire was indeed attacked off screen bu Pruitt and a scene of her in the bushes, dying from her wounds, was eventually cut from the film for story reasons. This will forever change the way I view the film.
5. The director and screenwriter are married
Karyn Kusama’s is married to Phil Hay, the screenwriter of big Hollywood films like Æon Flux, the recent Clash of the Titans remake and R.I.P.D. When Hay and his writing partner Matt Manfredi were working on The Invitation, they approached Kusama for her thoughts on the story at which point she expressed an interest in directing the film.
Editorials
‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel
The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.
The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.
Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.
With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).
It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.
The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.
The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.
Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.
Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.
Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.
The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.
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