Movies
[SFF ’15 Capsule Review] ‘The Invitation’ Is a Seething Slow Burn
While I really dug Karyn Kusama’s last film, the Diablo Cody scripted Jennifer’s Body, it seemed like a lot of people didn’t feel the same way solely because it was trendy to trash Megan Fox (it still is, isn’t it?). Either way, all bets are off six years later with Kusama’s latest film The Invitation – a completely different beast than the poppy sweetness of Jennifer’s Body. The Invitation addresses very adult issues and is a very dark slow-burn that escalates towards a wickedly shocking climax.
Two years after the tragic death of his son, Will (Logan Marshall-Green) is still a man weary with grief. Now he’s attending a dinner party at his former home, where his ex-wife Eden (Tammy Blanchard) has invited him and a group of their former friends for a quaint reunion of sorts. After their son’s death, Eden disappeared to Mexico and the dinner party will be the first time Will meets her new flame David (Michel Huisman) and her newfound spirituality that borders on the creepy. Well, “border” is too light a word. It’s full on unnerving.
We’re being held to a capsule review until The Invitation is closer to release, so I can’t say much. The film is worth the wait as it’s currently burning up the festival circuit. Kusama and writers Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi do a masterful job keeping the audience in their grip – with each new revelation more questions are brought to the surface. The film addresses adult issues such as the loss of a child and the fear of being considered impolite in an impossibly polite society. It’s a dinner party, no one wants to be the first to say, “Hey Eden, why the hell are you acting so weird? Something’s not right.”
The tension absolutely seethes until The Invitation erupts into violence. Despite the sudden shift in mood from anxiety-ridden mystery to survival thriller, the filmmakers maintain that palpable tone rich with suspense. And it all leads up to a seriously jaw-dropping and wholly satisfying conclusion.
The Invitation has been acquired by Drafthouse Films. We’ll keep you updated on any new information as it comes along. Join us.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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