Invitation

An author (Lance Henriksen) invites six friends to his house, poisons them, and offers them the antidote only if they will reveal their darkest secrets.

The best thing The Invitation has going for it is its premise. It’s full of potential, and for the first 20 minutes or so, the movie works very well. It’s the other hour and change that go from a stumble to an outright free-fall.

Henriksen is workable as the mysterious author who may or may not still be grieving the loss of his wife, but the rest of the cast all feel very artificial, both in appearance and manner. These people just don’t feel like a group that’s known each other for years, instead they all look like actors. Soap-opera actors to be exact. They all seem to have that artificial polish that keeps the movie feeling stagy and goes a long way toward destroying whatever tension writer-director Pat Bermel builds.

The script itself holds together through the first two acts, but the third act is anything but satisfying. Instead of evolving based on the characters involved, the script veers abruptly to an apparently tidy conclusion that in effect, negates large portions of the movie. While there was clearly no way to easily resolve all the plot threads in 85 minutes, this ending lacks the originality necessary to stick the landing.