Review of The Invitation (2022) [ESP – ENG]

Contains spoilers.

Greetings to all members of the community, how are you? Reading the synopsis of the cinematography I honestly did not imagine that the direction of the plot would end up going for supernatural creatures but it turned out to be a breath of fresh air because it had a lot of time within the genre of psychological horror with plots that play with deranged minds, certain degradation of human beings and situations that arise around all this. I must say that an acceptable job was done to keep the viewer wondering if their suspicions are true, leaving little details as the cinematography progresses, but that perhaps one of the scenes early in the film gave away too much to the point of revealing a secret that should have been kept more, but you would have to be somewhat perceptive and experienced, because it was as subtle as an effect used in the scene that is common when portraying these creatures that are present.

Who hasn't been curious about whether we have a family member out there in the world that we never knew about? Our protagonist, Evie Jackson, feels lonely after the recent death of her mother, she is looking for a sense of identity because she feels she no longer has a family, so she decides to take a genetic information test using one of these international platforms where they tell you if you have matched with other people. Thanks to this, she discovers that she has a cousin, Oliver Alexander, with whom she decides to make an appointment because he happens to be visiting the city where she lives for business and wants to meet her, what a coincidence, right? Evie's friend, Grace, seems to have more common sense because she warns her of the immense danger of meeting someone she met on the Internet, but she does not pay any attention because we are in the horror genre, wanting to fill the emptiness she feels after supposedly being left without any family.

It seems important to me to highlight that from the beginning, all the dialogues show a tremendous fluidity and dynamism where you feel that they are actually people interacting as a consequence of life itself, starting with the way Evie and Grace relate to each other as best friends in current times full of humor, little rudeness, annoying each other... sometimes it is hard to give the characters a personality of their own, but it is a problem that here at least is not present. I liked this dynamic as well as Evie's with Oliver because even though the difference in backgrounds are notorious between the two, say, Evie is a person of humble origins who is just getting by in life while Oliver belongs to aristocratic circles of money, he has an enthusiastic attitude in appearance, they get along without any problems and even joke around at times, which makes the early stages of the film very bearable.

In order for her to meet the whole family, Oliver invites Evie to an important wedding soon to be held in the English countryside and even offers to cover the expenses considering she has no money for such things. It's a bad idea, we have to agree on that, but she's still determined to get close to them and ends up on a plane going there because life is one. The wedding plot is something to hold on to, one of the plot twists I liked the most because they seriously knew how to save it until the final stretch of cinematography, leaving little details that hinted at what was to come and with which I began to suspect. It is something minimal but there is a scene where Evie talks to the supposed bridesmaids asking them about the bride calling her by her name, the answer was a little strange because she doesn't understand what they were asking her and she hides it very well using a nickname, as if she didn't understand why it is not usual to call the bride by her name.

For a large part of the film, even though the beginning of the film is a shocker with a shocking death and strange situations going on around the maids under the table while Evie is too focused on her love at first sight for Walter, the viewer feels to some extent that he is being enveloped by a cloud of romance novel-like romance where the poor woman meets the rich man who is willing to give her a life full of luxury simply because he loses out on her, the feeling the viewer has up to a certain point is of being enveloped by a cloud of romance novel-like romance where the poor woman meets the rich man who is willing to give her a life full of luxuries simply because he fell madly in love with her, and yes, it's printed all over the place that it's not going to go well because at some point the surprise is going to come with the shock of the open secret that's been going around but who cares about that when you're watching a spectacular kiss with fireworks in the background? Besides the fact that up to that point all we had seen of Walter was a very polite and kind man who comes across as quite the gentleman.

For me, this effect generated is closely related to the chemistry shown by both actors Nathalie Emmanuel and Thomas Doherty, knowing how to get the maximum potential out of each of the scenes that gradually built that sexual tension between two people who desire each other, from those looks they gave each other to their body language, were well cared details that helped to feel the romance as if it were the star genre in cinematography. In this there is also a lot of dialogue that with its fluidity brought a lot of authenticity to the developing relationship of both characters, there is a scene when they are together in bed with Walter talking only because Evie had already fallen asleep, where I wondered if the plot would take a turn where this man was really someone sweet, a person misunderstood by the world that maybe he was trying to find that someone who was able to love him as he really was?

I was too innocent because the dialogue applied but it made reference to finding someone capable of loving him for what he was really like, a monster. In the universe of this film these vampires are particularly terrible as they feed on people in a voracious manner, with no regard for the lives of human beings, Walt being the worst as master. Arguably, there are many indications of the presence of vampires but I feel that they were very subtle and the horror elements that were incorporated are not explicit in this fact before the backstory of the plot is revealed. We had the presence of this strange creature that is never shown properly and who we saw disappearing one by one to the maids but we knew it was something fierce for its claws, Evie had nightmares where a voice was heard, the typical flickering light made an appearance and a spider appeared for a moment in a scene of tension, all very classic.

I consider that all sections stand out, starting with the aesthetics of the cinematography that is a real delight even for me, many dark scenes with a predominance of a bluish tone and yellow spotlights that give shadows, as well as very beautiful shades. The argumentative plot is solid and they knew how to execute it to perfection so that it was entertaining in the mystery of what was going on, its just twists and turns well executed. Perhaps the only but I have found was the decision to use a slow effect in some scenes with the idea of generating greater impact on what was happening, to me it seems a little tasteless but it is a matter of personal taste. The rest seems to me that everything was achieved to perfection, the mix between romance and terror in the plot is appreciated, the quality of the performances were wonderful, without a doubt I do not regret having seen it, I would even watch it a second time to internalize certain details.

Thank you very much for reading my publication, I hope to meet you here in the next opportunity.