Cross the tendencies of Jane Austen with those of Bram Stoker, and you have the surprisingly frightening and fun new gothic-horror picture “The Invitation.”
The movie caught me off guard. My expectations were low going into the theater.
Late August through September is often a studio dumping ground for hard-to-market movies.
Going into the theater, my greatest hope was not to fall asleep halfway through the movie.
I shouldn’t have worried. “The Invitation” was one of the most surprising and fun trips to the theater for me this summer.
Don’t get me wrong. The movie directed by Jessica M Thompson from a script by her and Blair Butler revolves around an oft-told B-movie plot;
however, the film’s execution and production values are A-list in my book.
Thompson and her cinematographer Autumn Eakin collaborate to create a beautifully staged and shot film that offers what appears to be A-list production values despite the film’s pulpy fare.
The movie is exquisitely crafted in its darkness, and is sumptuous to enjoy despite its foreboding sense of doom, set up in the opening scene of the film.