The Invitation

2015 Directed by Karyn Kusama

There is nothing to be afraid of.

Will and his new girlfriend Kira are invited to a dinner with old friends at the house of Will’s ex Eden and her new partner David. Although the evening appears to be relaxed, Will soon gets a creeping suspicion that their charming host David is up to something.

Logan Marshall-Green Tammy Blanchard Michiel Huisman Emayatzy Corinealdi Lindsay Burdge Mike Doyle Jay Larson Michelle Krusiec Karl Yune Jordi Vilasuso Marieh Delfino Toby Huss John Carroll Lynch Aiden Lovekamp Danielle Camastra Trish Gates

Alternative Titles

La invitación, La invitación 2015, Приглашение

thriller

100 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Grooveman ★★★★½ 4

My wife and I got a diner party invitation to one of her co-workers place in the next few weeks. We are not Fucking going!!
Review by DirkH ★½ 21

So here's the thing.
Foreshadowing is a powerful storytelling tool if used correctly. It can give you a feeling of unease in a story that conveys a sense of normalcy. Without being able to put your finger on it, you get the sensation something is off, making you feel tense without knowing why.
The Invitation gets this. For about ten minutes. What remains is 60 minutes of foreshadowing with bits of story and character development in between. It lacks any and all subtlety. The main character literally keeps telling everyone something is wrong for two thirds of the film.
We get it. You're leading up to something.
I love slow burn thrillers. I love films that start out normal and…
Review by davidehrlich ★★★ 5

undeniably tense as fuck, Kusama works wonder on a tiny budget and also there's Lindsay Burdge, but this is the latest in a long line of kinda cheap / formally excellent domestic horror stories that feel content to be genre exercises, and deny themselves the opportunity to become more than that. it's a hell of a ride, but it's all surface... it's all putting the right beats in the right places... it works, but it might work too hard.
Review by maria ★★★½ 5

at some point i thought they were gonna start a 10 people weird orgy thing or something... close enough
Review by josh lewis ★★★★ 5

"... that was mercy"
the destructive, wavelike nature of grief as a communal experience that permeates every space we occupy, every movement we make & every interaction we have. kusama's formal grace is the obvious star here, the masterful staging, gestures & spatial awareness she shows off in particular, but as the film goes on & the screws tighten agonizingly slowly all the way until its haunting final image, kusama achieves something far beyond form -- her genre thrills deeply woven with a sense of the pervading, inescapable pain that, whether we're struggling to remember or forget, can blind us as easily as it brings us together.
Review by Leticia Fernandes ★★★★½ 4

But Why Did They Go To His Ex's Dinney Party In The First Place
Review by Kurdt ★★ 5

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

- Boy, these people seem suspicious
- Oh, turns out those suspicions were all valid
- The end.
What do you expect when you invite the zodiac killer to your dinner party???
Review by SilentDawn ★★★★½ 3

88/100
A story of distance fed through the impenetrable barrier of grief. LA is seen as a glowing mirage within a hazy landscape, and the hills appear seductive, even flirtatious, in the face of looming modernity. It is where the damaged and the fearful, the deranged and the affected choose to reside, literal detachment encasing their unease. Karyn Kusama builds an entire universe - people as planets and spaces as mysterious areas of darkness and unknown conversations - so that the eventual horror unravels organically, all a singular puzzle although each piece is utterly fractured. And Will - played by a terrific Logan Marshall Green - is the audience surrogate, spinning around uncertain friends and foes in a woozy state,…
Review by demi adejuyigbe ★★★ 9

Genuinely shocked at the rollercoaster of ratings my subsequent viewings of this movie have taken me on, especially because this time it really reminded me of some bad student films I had to watch in Austin during college.
Review by Lucy ★½ 3

fucking dinner parties
Review by Hollie Horror ★★ 25

Was Logan Marshall-Green trying to look exactly like Tom Hardy or was I just obsessing over it so much that I began projecting his image onto LMG? Either way, I found it quite distracting as I tried to settle into The Invitation, it became a struggle of trying to force myself to just allow its methodical ambiance wash over me (despite the never-ending barrage of complaints launched by my restless brain).
The first hour had a simple (albeit sleek) formula, Tom Hardy has a confrontation with someone -> wanders through his old house -> has a flashback -> stares into the void -> someone interrupts and says something like "let's just leave" or "come on, let's go back inside" ->…
Review by kailey ★★ 5

this movie sure has themes and it really does execute them!- theo
the agonizing pause between conversations with old friends you haven't seen in a while because of your choices and theirs. the lingering boredom of a dinner party that is taking way too long. old vintage wine that you couldn't give less of a crap about but your friend's new husband keeps blathering and so you take a sip. slowly unfolding puzzle pieces. the secrets of their lives unravel before you. discordant music plays and you lurk in the background.
this is totally my shit is what i'm trying to say. yes, i did just give it two stars.
the movie's real problem is that it plays its hand…

Recent reviews

Review by Zachary G ★★★

This was not especially good? The whole concept of "let's get everyone together in a big house for a dinner party where definitely nothing will be afoot" is a bit tired, the writing is a little rough at times, and anyone who has seen a few horror films like this can completely foresee what will happen.
The closing shot is a nice twist, but I'd prefer that there not be a sequel.
Review by Henry

i can't tell if these characters had shit for brains by design or if it was just to move the plot forwards and that means i can't give this movie an educated rating
Review by callie ★★★½

Interesting commentary on grief. Where is CLAIRE
Review by 🧚🏽‍♀️maya

let's see
slow pacing
terrible acting (excl. the mc)
too many white people
too obvious token black/poc
irritating plot
...these directors bouta stop making me watch thrillers fr
Review by Pantoja ★★½

The Exact reason I carry... and you should too.
As for the movie; 80 minutes of build up was a bit too much.
Review by Steve McDonald 🌵 ★★★★

Woulda dipped out right after that garbage cult video. The disrespect 😤
Review by Mustafa ★★★★

Hurt people hurt people
Review by Stijn ★★★★

Am I glad I don’t accept invitations from people I haven’t heard from in two years!
Also, don’t these people know how to break a window?
John Carroll Lynch once again proves he’s the best underrated actor of all time.
Review by makrikonst ★★★½

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

The only thing that really frustrated me was the back and forth. And obviously the fact that Will was fucking stating the obvious (!) about the other four being suspicious and creepy and nobody was acknowledging it! Grief is one thing. Suspicion is another. Just because somebody has a bad feeling or is behaving abnormally, it doesn’t mean it’s because of grief
Review by Tulio_Kalife ★★★★

I watched some thousand movies during my life and the best tip I can give any cinephile aspirant is: don’t you ever watch the trailers! Always avoid them and try to get into the theater right before the film starts. Use this valuable extra time to have a an espresso or a sugarless filtered coffee (if available). Prepare yourself to the delightful hours to come.
Thrillers will always have a special place in my heart and NYC-born director Karyn Kusama had good references enough to prepare a pressure cooker about to explode. According to herself, her favorite films include Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Elem Klimov’s Idi i Smotri (1985) and Warren Beatty’s Reds (1981). If you seek a creepy but triggering psychological deep experience for tonight, try The Invitation (2015) and let me know your thoughts.
As I told before, don’t read reviews nor watch the trailer, just feel the atmosphere inside that “bunker”.
Available on Netflix.
Review by Gaven Krogh ★★★★★

Predictable? Yes.
Tense? HELL YES.
Do I love every moment of this movie? FUCK YES.
The slow build up to its explosive finale is worth every minute. Every person gives an good performance especially Logan Marshall Green and John Carroll Lynch (give this man a leading role already!).
I cannot wait to see what Karyn Kusama does with Dracula.
Review by Sebastien Balembois ★★★½

A movie that was perfected a few years later by Jordan Peele when he made Get Out. The tension definitely rises as the film goes along since you’re still not completely sure what’s happening. The fact that a lot of the guests in the movie are trusting the hosts just because they’re providing them with fancy food and expensive wine. The only person willing able to see through the hosts’ strangeness is Logan Marshall-Green’s character Will, a man who has never been the same after the death of his son. He and his wife divorced and he is now being invited to a dinner party she and her new husband are hosting completely out of the blue.
A large sense…