The Invitation - Film Review

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Evie Jackson is an artist who makes her living working as a waitress. She has no family, so when she takes a DNA test she is excited to find that she has a cousin, Oliver Alexander, who invites her to a wedding in England. Evie agrees to fly over and meet the family. Once there she finds that all is not well at New Carfax Abbey, the venue for the wedding. The Alexander family are welcoming, but there are bars on the windows and the servants are disappearing one by one.

The Invitation (2022) is a horror thriller directed by Jessica M Thompson (director of The Light of the Moon). Nathalie Emmanuel (from Furious 7 and Army of Thieves) is excellent as Evie. Thomas Doherty (from Gossip Girl and Decendents 2) sizzles as the charming De Ville.

I don't want to say too much and spoil the plot, but there are some pretty heavy hints in the trailer as to what this movie is about. As a fan of the novel on which it is based, I was initially excited at the premise, but I thought that some of the references to the book were a bit too obvious. The setting was great, with lots of eerie surroundings and creepy statues, and the effects were well-used.

However, the way things panned out was predictable, and the ending seemed implausible, with Evie being a bit of a Mary Sue .

The Invitation is a fun, if slightly predictable, adaptation of a classic gothic horror novel. It is currently streaming on Netflix.



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