The Invitation

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jessica M. Thompson directs. Autumn Eakin behind the camera. Dara Taylor scores. Tom Elkins cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Portuguese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Made its money back 3.4× over at the box office.
• 2Released 4 years ago.
• 3Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Portuguese.
• 4Directed by Jessica M. Thompson, shot by Autumn Eakin. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 5Original score by Dara Taylor. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 6Editor Tom Elkins shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 7Nathalie Emmanuel and Thomas Doherty and Sean Pertwee carry the top of the cast.
• 8Marketing tagline: "You are cordially invited to a nightmare generations in the making.".
• 9IMDB entry: tt12873562 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 10Classified under 9 themes, including "suicide", "countryside", "vampire", "marriage".

The technical file

Cinematography

Autumn Eakin

Original score

Dara Taylor

Editing

Tom Elkins

Production design

Felicity Abbott

Costume design

Danielle Knox

Makeup / hair

Adrienn Schön

Runtime

105 min · 1h 45m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$10,000,000

Box office

$33,628,000

Return

336% of budget

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

PG-13

IMDB

The Invitation (2022) ↗

Also by

Jessica M. Thompson

• 
  The Light of the Moon

  2017 · ★ 6.2
• 
  The End

  2020 · ★ 6.2

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper Wallpaper Wallpaper Wallpaper Wallpaper Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Clip - Bride and Groom

  Clip · Official
• 

  ▶
  First 9 Minutes

  Clip · Official
• 

  ▶
  Worst Invite Ever

  Featurette · Official
• 

  ▶
  Special Event

  Featurette · Official
• 

  ▶
  You're welcome

  Teaser · Official
• 

  ▶
  Save the Date (Get Tickets Now)

  Featurette · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• CinemaSerf2022-08-29
  ★ 6/10

  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 not quite what they may seem - not least because there is a distinct lack of bride and groom; and the waitresses employed to cater for the occasion have a habit of disappearing. What could be going on...? Well, it's fairly clear to us from the start who the baddie is, and that "Viktoria" (a sort of Angelina Jolie-esque Stephanie Corneliussen) and her pal "Lucy" (Alana Boden) are in on the cunning scheme too. It has clearly been done on a limited budget, but the direction is still just about adequate. The story, though, is pretty thin and the acting is drama school stuff for the most part before an ending that really does let the whole thing down rather badly. Still, I watched it with considerable trepidation in a pretty empty cinema, and left thinking it passed 100-odd minutes amiably enough. Not great, no - but not rubbish either.

  Read full review ↓
• The Movie Mob2022-09-17
  ★ 6/10

  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 it didn't leave time to make the conclusion feel rewarding or earned. Once the monsters finally revealed themselves, The Invitation sprinted to the end, with the inexperienced heroine easily besting Dracula and his minions; corrupt families and monsters had survived and thrived for hundreds of years. The victory sadly does not convince or satisfy. If The Invitation had spent less time on the failed love story and more time developing the vampire story, this could have been a good movie.

  Read full review ↓
• Nathan2022-10-14
  ★ 5/10

  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 their chemistry and Dohery does such a great Jekyll and Hyde with the unearthly vampire masked by the charismatic lord. Super entertaining watching them do great work here. The creepy disturbing nature of the trailers was not overly present here, almost all of the unsettling imagery was used for the trailers and leaves the rest of the movie feeling pretty generic. This is even more evident when the movie turns into a vampire action flick reminiscent of the Twilight movies. At this moment, I was completely ripped out of the movie and was ready for it to end. This drastic change in tone really did not fit well here for me. Even though the last quarter was a disappointment, there is still good elements to the movie that is worth watching for those that were initially interested. Score: 55% | Verdict: Average

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Screen Gems

  US

• LA

  Latchkey Productions

  US

Key crew

• ProducerEmile Gladstone
• Executive ProducerJessica M. Thompson
• Executive ProducerMichael P. Flannigan
• Costume DesignDanielle Knox
• EditorTom Elkins
• Art DirectionJiri Karasek
• Set DecorationZsuzsanna Sipos
• Makeup ArtistAdrienn Schön
• Prosthetic DesignerIván Pohárnok
• Set DecorationClare Keyte
• Key Makeup ArtistOrsolya Petrilla
• HairstylistKieron Lavine
• Makeup ArtistEmma Trachtenberg
• HairstylistZsuzsanna Dezs
• Supervising Art DirectorAlistair Kay
• Art DirectionAndrew Orlando
• Production DesignFelicity Abbott
• CastingSuzanne M. Smith
• Script SupervisorDóra Sárközi
• SongsTeddy Sinclair
• Additional MusicMatthew Wang

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• suicide
• countryside
• vampire
• marriage
• mansion
• caterer
• drinking blood
• ceramics
• dracula

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical2022-08-26PG-13
• Digital2022-09-16PG-13
• Digital2022-12-24PG-13· Netflix
• Physical2022-10-25PG-13· Blu-ray / DVD (Theatrical and Unrated Cut)

Also known as

International titles

• The BrideUS
• วิวาห์ผวาTH
• La invitaciónES
• 世紀婚魘TW
• ПоканатаBG
• DəvətAZ