The Dinner Party is one of my favorite modern sub-genres, with Coherence, Cheap Thrills, It’s a Disaster and this. Like the others, The Invitation isn’t really about a Dinner Party, but what it is really about is the engine of this deeply involving story and not knowing is the film’s great strength. Karyn Kusama’s career is reborn with this project, offering something I hadn’t seen in her before, the confidence to effectively manipulate the viewer.
From the opening scene she keeps you off balance. You can credit the script, but it’s also in the moody lighting, an unusual bit of nudity at the beginning, casting John Carroll Lynch as Pruitt who looks and acts like he’s at the wrong party, and only makes it worse when he engages with the group. Kusama never tries to confuse and in the end I’m surprised how many bread crumbs she actually left. The reveal is not a cheat and it’s not a wild genre-bending plot twist, though you’re ready for anything including ghosts, aliens and vampires. And as if I wasn’t already impressed every step of the way, the script drops a honey of an ending with a chilling final image.
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