The Daily Stream becomes the Daily Scream for spooky season!
An invite to a Los Angeles dinner party becomes a haunting exercise in paranoia and suspense in 2016’s The Invitation. The vibe is uncomfortable, to say the least, in director Karen Kusama’s chillingly crafted portrait of quiet menacing uncertainty, as the hosts of a swank Hollywood Hills soiree start espousing some rather cultlike ideas about dealing with all the bad in the world. Rarely have I seen a film replicate so balefully the precariousness that comes with not being able to trust one’s own instincts, of not knowing whether danger is an outside force or the misfiring of your brain (and, honestly, which is worse?). This is a horror movie for grownups, with layered, subtle notions of terror and a perfectly eerie ending that still sticks with me all these years later. (Read my 2016 review.)
US: stream on Shudder (via Prime and Apple TV), AMC+ (via Prime and Apple TV), and Kanopy; rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
UK: stream on Shudder (via Prime); rent/buy on Prime
See The Invitation at Letterboxd for more viewing options.
