The Invitation

OK, so this is about as derivative as it is possible to get - but you know what, I actually quite enjoyed it. It's a short and sweet tale of the young "Evie" (Nathalie Emmanuel). She does one of those online DNA tests and before she knows it, is having a posh lunch with "Oliver" (Hugh Skinner) - a posh British lad who claims that she is his long lost cousin. After about thirty seconds, she is invited to come to Yorkshire for a wedding and, as you would - readily accepts. Upon arrival, she encounters their irascible butler "Fields" (Sean Pertwee) and then the hunky lord of the manor "Walt" (Thomas Doherty). She is smitten, indeed they are at it within twenty four hours - but soon she starts to sense that things at the new "Carfax Manor" are ...

The Invitation wastes great potential and ideas by trying too hard to be clever and failing.

Reviews for The Invitation are mediocre at best but as harsh as they seem, they aren't too far off. The Invitation takes the successes of Ready or Not and blends them with the Dracula story putting a fresh new take on a familiar story. The film benefits from this new approach and introduces new characters and ideas. But that is where the good runs out. The first hour of the runtime forces a romance between the heroine and a painfully suspicious and uncomfortable forward rich guy. Unfortunately, the story gets so caught up in trying to fool the audience into thinking it is a simple romance movie, so it could shock with the vampire twist that i...

The Invitation started off so well, but eventually morphed into a generic film that I could have predicted from a mile away. The set up to the movie was decent, but the second act was when I really thought this movie nailed it. I really enjoyed the somewhat sadistic back and forth between the two leads. On one hand, you see a woman ready to give herself over to the thought of love for the first time. While on the other hand, the audience knows this chance at love is built on a lie. Despite this fact, I found the chemistry incredibly strong between the two leads. I was smiling as their love story progressed, even though I knew it was not going to end well. Nathalie Emmanuel and Thomas Doherty do such an excellent job in this film. I loved ...