Film overview / ‘The Invitation’

“The Invitation” (MA) **

ACCORDING to IMDb, author/director Jessica M Thompson’s enterprise into the most recent shifting speaking picture foray into Bram Stoker’s legacy was out there to Australian audiences on the identical day as I noticed it, which was a day after its absolute world-first launch in France and the Philippines.

Does that portend some advertising wizard’s judgement of talent of the Australian viewers to evaluate a brand new launch at first sight? I believe not. The one different individual once I sat down to observe “The Invitation” in a cinema able to seating a number of hundred folks was a younger lady sitting a number of rows behind me. No one else got here in.

By the point it had completed, she had voted together with her toes on its inventive values. I noticed the tip alone. It was my job. It was additionally, to one of the best of my recollection, the primary vampire film I noticed ever, or at the very least since I used to be a child promoting empty soft-drink bottles as a penny a’piece to boost the worth of a ticket to the Saturday matinee to see the most recent episode of the serial, a film style that TV killed.

Right here’s what Ms Thompson informed a publication known as “Bloody Disgusting” about her causes for making the movie: “It was to me, the ‘Bride of Dracula’ origin story. That was what captivated me as a result of we haven’t seen that. We’ve performed ‘Dracula’ so many occasions; let’s do the brides.

“There are new tales we wish to see and wish to find out about, and we use that as a jumping-off level. It’s extra of an inspiration level than attempting to remain true to the ebook or retell it.”

Shot on the Nadasdy Fortress in Hungary taking part in an English nation mansion, “The Invitation” shares a reference to the notorious blood-guzzling lady-killer Elizabeth Bathory, which Ms Thompson felt made it uniquely excellent for the vampire theme. 

Right here’s a fast abstract of the movie: because the unsuspecting younger lady caught in an internet of exsanguination  [process of draining or losing blood] woven by a group of outdated males, following her mom’s loss of life and with no different identified kinfolk, Evie (Nathalie Emmanuel) takes a DNA check… and discovers a long-lost cousin she by no means knew she had. 

Invited by her new-found household to a lavish wedding ceremony within the English countryside, she’s at first seduced by the enticing aristocratic host however is quickly thrust right into a nightmare of survival as she uncovers twisted secrets and techniques in her household’s historical past and the unsettling intentions behind their sinful generosity.

Don’t say you’ve not been warned.

At Dendy