The Invitation, a boring, skipable, vampire affair

The Invitation - Jessica M. Thompson - 2022

★★-Released the last week of 2022, so I count it as this year pretty much for “New Horror.” 

Supposedly draws inspiration from Bram Stoker's Dracula, the story revolves around a young woman who (Nathalie Emmanuel) who recently lost her mother. She encounters her long-lost family members in England, visiting the old country for a wedding at a country mansion. However, as she delves deeper into the lives of the people at the manor, she stumbles upon sinister secrets, plunging her into a world of chilling revelations.

Stars Emmanuel from Game of Thrones and Army of Theives (she is really pretty), Thomas Doherty (whom I've never seen), Sean Pertwee who was Alfred in the series Gotham and apparently always plays a butler, and Hugh Skinner from Fleabag and Les Misérables.

There are some red flags that she ignores. Like, who the hell prints out social media pages other than a complete psycho. Why not just save that shit in a digital file? Oh, he conveniently hates technology so that it has to be printed and found. Alright, I'm out. 

Best part of the movie is the setting. The mansion is beautiful, as are the people and clothing. These folks make the rich private school kids I went to high school with seem middle class. I'd make a great rich guy, just saying, if anyone wants to leave me something in their will. I'd be great at entertaining, telling war stories with a 120-year-old wine in my hand, and I wouldn't even kill anyone in my murder library. 

Speaking of, you would think someone would start asking questions when three maids go missing in less than 24-hours. But I guess when you are this rich, it doesn't matter who you kill or whatever in any country.

Feel there is a decent movie here somewhere, and the ending is pretty satisfying, though improbable. But it's just your standard vampire movie. Nothing too memorable. Waste the setting, and it drags a bit until shit hits the fan. Takes an hour and 10 minutes to get that somewhat predictable twist, but I wasn't expecting it to come about the way it did. But if you've watched the trailer, even that won't come as a surprise. Then the last minute of the movie was terrible.