The Invitation - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Invitation



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
I’m going to admit that I completely forgot seeing the trailer for The Invitation until I started watching the film. It looked vaguely familiar, but the trailer I remember seeing was about vampires, and this movie seemed to be about ghosts and jump scares. Then the middle of the movie came around and it hit me. Yes, this was the same movie, and holy cow, what a weird genre jump.

The Invitation starts out simply enough, with a woman hanging herself in some musty old mansion, only for us to jump forward to the main protagonist of the film, one Evie (Nathalie Emmanuel) by name, working as a server in New York City. Upon taking a DNA test she finds out that she has an entire unknown family tree in London, and things take a turn for the interesting when one of them reaches out to her to meet up. Turns out that she was descended from an affair in their family and with a wedding coming up, they would love for her to come out and re-unite.

Upon arrival to England Evie tries to make do as she’s shuffled off to the Groom’s house to stay where she meets the charming Mr. De Ville (Thomas Doherty). Sparks immediately fly between the scullery made and the rich heir, and soon the two of them are falling for each other. However, dark things appear to be happening in the house as a specter seems to be haunting the house. Little by little Evie begins to notice small changes, and before long she’s in over her head the motivations of her host are finally revealed.

I’m not going to lie, I was actually a bit bemused by the film’s first half. The entire first 45 minutes or so feels very much like the classic old “haunted manor” vibe. We’re privy to a dark clad figure just outside of our character’s vision, and what appears to be the cliched veiled dead spirit of the former mistress. However, right around the half way point the film pulls the rug right out from underneath you and throws you into the heart of the REAL story. Yup, it’s not a ghost story, it’s a vampire story and Evie is caught in the middle of an ancient curse that involves literally everyone in the creaking old manor.

If I have to say anything, it’s that the movie has some very weird pacing. The entire first half is a jump scare ghost story (or is made to appear that way), but once the big reveal happens in the second half it dives head long into a full on action vampire plot line, with Evie and the “brides” engaging in supernatural hand to hand combat, slicing and dicing the good Butler (played by the ever amazing Sean Pertwee) and generally rushing straight into a “reverse role” ending. What makes it even more frustrating is that the movie had some serious potential with the themes going on. Jessica plays home to some classic Dracula tropes (the three brides, the linked life span) whole aiming for a more horror ended role than the typical action Dracula stories. But it’s all squandered as the film rushes pell mell towards the ending and basically just gives us a light dusting of the back story. In fact, most of the back story and plot development happens in the last 20 minutes, and by that time it’s too late as the previous 1.4 hours was simply misdirection and setup.

The ending is beyond ridiculous too, as they try and make it jokey and comedic, ala a modern day girl boss film rather than the horror oriented vampire story that unfolded. As I said above, tone jumping is the biggest issue that I had with the film. That is besides wondering why in goodness sakes they released this movie in theaters as a PG-13 film? The Unrated cut isn’t much longer (only a little bit) but it’s got a ton of gore, blood and some nudity that makes it feel more like a good vampire movie instead of the constant cutaways that the theatrical release had. Watching both back to back makes it a shocking juxtaposition too, as the theatrical cut is tampe and rather boring, while the unrated cut at least as the FEEL of a good gory vampire flick (although still a bit boring).




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for terror, violent content, some strong language, sexual content and partial nudity. / Unrated




Video:

One thing that really kind of sticks in my craw is the fact that this didn’t get a 4K UHD release. Sony used a native digital 4K master for the film, and gave the digital version a 4K option, but we only get a Blu-ray for home video. I know it’s a minor gripe considering the volume of 4K UHD discs sold, but it would have been great considering how excellent the Blu-ray looks. It’s nice and bright and shiny for outdoor shots, with stunning color saturation levels and fantastic details. Facial tones are warm and fine detailing on things like clothing and the mansion’s architecture are great. The movie gets nice and dark part way through, with deep inky blacks and great use of shadows for the jump scares. There IS some pretty noticeable banding in scenes such as where the maids go to the cellar and some other dark shots, but not too horrible. All in all, a very nice looking encode from Sony.









Audio:

Every horror movie deserves a good audio mix, and the 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is simply superb. It’s loud, aggressive, and hits hard with some really serious bass throughout the jump scare moments. The dialog is strong and clear, with good vocals and the panning effects of the creaky old mansion makes for some delightful surround usage. But like I said, that deep slamming bass is PERFECTLY balanced with the rest of the track, making it not too bloated and LFE heavy and not too light. Simply put, an excellent mix that should please just about anyone.












Extras:

• ALL-NEW UNRATED CUT OF THE FILM
• Behind-the-scenes featurettes:
-- Lifting the veil: Story
-- The wedding party: Cast
-- Till death do us part: Design
• Deleted & extended scenes including an alternate ending
• Outtakes & bloopers

Final Score: ​

The Invitation was interesting. It had a lot of promise with the themes toyed with, but too much time was spent distracting the audience and simply jumping from one plot point to the next so quickly none of them had a chance to solidify with the audience. Interesting premise, a bit wonky on the execution, and the final scene is pretty eye roll worthy. At the same time it was kind of nice to see a more horror aspect to the vampire lore, and both Sean Pertwee and Thomas Doherty are both fantastic in their roles (Emmanuel not so much). Silly little jump scare flick, but Sony’s Blu-ray looks and sounds great. Low rental is my reccomendation.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Nathalie Emmanuel, Thomas Doherty, Sean Pertwee, Carol Ann Crawford, Alana Boden, Stephanie Corneliussen
Directed by: Jessica M. Thompson
Written by: Blair Butler
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, Spanish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Thai
Studio: Sony
Rated: Unrated / PG-13
Runtime: 104 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: October 25th, 2022

Recommendation: Low Rental

 

[Asere]

I am glad you got to review it because I have been wanting to watch it. I may catch it one day. Thanks for the review..