It’s inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula, they said. Ghost House Pictures was to produce it, they said... Fast forward to 2022, and The Invitation is a result of joint labor among the director Jessica M. Thompson, The Curse of La Llorona producer Emile Gladstone and executive producer of upcoming horror movie The Devil's Light Michael P. Flannigan, who'd all been working with the script by Blair Butler.
When it comes to production design, The Invitation’s aim is for everything to be lavish; think fancy restaurants, costumes and out-of-this-world Nádasdy Castle in Hungary, Eastern Europe (the castle can also be seen in Underworld films). This is if not the main, then certainly one of the main pillars, thanks to which The Invitation can exist and is capable of impressing the spectator. Unfortunately, I have to say that the style and design overweigh the substance, and in the end even all those grand settings end up having a value of a momentary and illusionary trick with little that would stick in the memory; a lack of imagination that’s supposed to animate the cinematic magic. The perhaps most terrifying feature of it all; the dark shadowy figures in the cellar are given so little screen time and almost zero gallimaufry of dark odds and ends that, after the film’s finished, one might ponder having a Diablo or Bloodrayne session with their Playstation to try and compensate for the lack of vampirism and survival fights one might’ve been expecting to see. With that said, The Invitation is an anticlimax, and as such could serve as a catalyst for other filmmakers to visit the castle and make their own films. Other than all that, the film really is a pleasing endorsement for a tourist attraction.
It would be unfair to say nothing of the performances here. First of all, I was pleasantly surprised to see the ever so underrated Danish actress Stephanie Corneliussen, who plays Viktoria. In my humble opinion, whoever cast Ms. Corneliussen in Mr. Robot series, had made an awesome decision back then, and it was a thrill to see the actress not having lost the charm in this new vamp picture; a to-die-for wife as a part of well-to-do family with focus and dedication, being always so supportive of her husband. I wouldn’t however say that I really liked the role she had to play here; while in Mr. Robot her character Joanna had more power and somewhat fascinating mind, in this film all of that had been taken away, and Viktoria is suffering from perpetual desire to level up from being No. 2. Which is imo the reason why someone should try and persuade her to star in a different vampire flick, preferably with the power of dominatrix; it could end up being a vamp cosplay worth remembering.
Nathalie Emmanuel in The Invitation.
Nathalie Emmanuel’s (Missandei from Game of Thrones series) lead role of Evie is designed to create the contrast between the century we all live in and that which is represented by Thomas Doherty’s Walter. Both lead characters are doing a good job of telling the story of a too good to be true affair using the theme of vampirism as a selling point. A planned marriage model with little concern for wife’s wishes is the primary focus of the film, and here the vampires go to great lengths to dupe women of particular bloodline into staying with them. Nathalie Emmanuel journeys through all of that like a clueless girl, who has entirely different worldview and values, being accustomed to common everyday concerns such as earning enough money to pay the bills by doing job one is not particularly fond of while still being able to dedicate time to the art craft of ceramics. Her performance is unaffected, self assured, and she easily adapts to other actors on screen. This is particularly interesting to note given that she’s essentially been thrown into a different world.
Thomas Doherty and Nathalie Emmanuel in The Invitation.
Self assurance is something Nathalie shares with Mr. Doherty, who’s character feels constructed to embody traits Danielle Steel had created for another of her bestsellers. (But then along came Anne Rice, and Walter just wasn’t the same ever since, but he never ended up being in any book because he just wasn’t Anne’s type.) “Level headed” is the middle name for Thomas in this role, and as unnatural as the character itself may sometimes come across, it looks like the work between any one actor, including Thomas, and the director is perhaps the second best thing about The Invitation after the extravagant production design. Casting director Suzanne Smith indeed deserves a praise because even the actors in supporting roles, such as Sean Pertwee (Dog Soldiers, Event Horizon) and Carol Ann Crawford manage to overshadow the details of the whole story with their performances.
All in all, The Invitation comes across as a horror for those, who are not into horror. As a gothic fiction it looks like a well dressed but pale aristocrat’s corpse that’s been already drained of blood.
Peer Ynt
Read my review of Netflix's 2021 vampire flick Night Teeth here.
Read my review of director Mike Flanagan's 2021 miniseries Midnight Mass here.