The Invitation (2022)

 

**This post contains spoilers**

The Story- After her mother’s death, Evie (Nathalie Emmanuel) accepts an invitation from her long-lost cousin, Oliver Alexander (Hugh Skinner) to go to England for a big wedding. Evie will finally get a chance to meet her family, so she accepts Oliver’s offer.

In England, Evie is charmed by the lord of the manner, Walter De Ville (Thomas Doherty). Evie receives a warm welcome from De Ville, Lucy (Alana Boden), and her personal maid, Mrs. Swift (Carol Ann Crawford). But on the flip side of that, Evie is met with an icy reception from Viktoria (Stephanie Corneliussen) and Renfield (Sean Pertwee). 

Evie slowly adjusts to the possibility of living a new life, but things change, when De Ville reveals his true intentions.

My Thoughts- Evie’s character has a good amount of noticeable cliches. She’s single, living in the big city (New York), and she’s a struggling artist? Evie’s character is a bit of a conundrum, because the cliches are there, but her character also feels real and relatable. Evie shares a good bond with her best friend, Grace (Courtney Taylor), and you can you buy into Grace as the only person who’s truly a family member in her life. Emmanuel brings a genuine authenticity to Evie. She comes off as a person with real problems, who’s just trying to make it in this world, and Evie’s presentation helps a lot. 

Evie is confident in who she is and how she carries herself, and she doesn’t conform to the snobbish lifestyle, when she’s in England. There’s a handful of scenes where Evie helps the staff at De Ville’s mansion to clean up after her accidents. She never wants to feel like she’s better than or above anyone. The scene where Evie stands up for the maids, after Renfield tries to scold them perfectly encapsulates the approach they took with Evie’s character. She’s grounded, and Emmanuel did a wonderful job as Evie.

Thomas Doherty brings a genuine charismatic presence to De Ville’s character. You get the feeling that there’s something too good to be true about De Ville, but he has this smooth and welcoming personality, so you could see how Evie easily fell in love with him. Doherty and Emmanuel share some solid chemistry together. You can believe they’re in love, so when De Ville reveals his true identity, you can clearly understand why Evie is heartbroken.

Viktoria and Renfield are both bullies in their own way. Stephanie Corneliussen plays the role of a smarmy mean girl, and the interactions between Viktoria and Evie are either tense or hilarious, because you can tell Evie wants to punch her, but she has enough restraint not to do so. Renfield is basically that callous boss that treats you like dog crap on the bottom of his shoes, and Pertwee is a believable jerk. 

Carol Ann Crawford did a fantastic job of showing emotions through facial expressions and body language. If you pay close attention to Mrs. Swift, you’ll quickly notice something bad is going to happen at some point, and Swift’s bond with Evie adds another solid emotional layer to the movie.

Vampires! That’s the big secret. De Ville is actually Dracula, and Viktoria and Lucy are vampires. The invitation from Oliver was a ruse to lure Evie to England. Why? Because Evie is an important piece of the puzzle for a pact between three families. De Ville gets one bride from each of the three families, and in exchange, De Ville awards them with wealth and power. Emmaline (Virag Barany), Evie’s great grandmother and De Ville’s former wife, committed suicide because the guilt of living a murderous lifestyle was too much for her to handle.

The setup for revealing De Ville as Dracula was perfect. Evie had reached a point, where she finally lowered her guard to accept De Ville as the man of her dreams and she trusted him. She’s finally happy, and Evie is ready to start her new life. Out of nowhere, De Ville blindsides her with the big announcement of their marriage, reveals himself to be Dracula, and now she’s stuck in a deadly situation. Everything happens at a break-neck pace during the big dinner scene. Emmanuel did a good job of selling Evie’s panicky and desperate reaction. There’s a gruesome moment, where Renfield slits one of the maid’s throats, so the vampires can drink her blood. The maid’s sudden death really adds another jaw dropping moment to the shocking series of events in this scene.

The big finale delivered a good amount of thrills and suspense. Evie’s gutsy plan to take out De Ville, and his entire crew added a bold layer to her character. The way she aggressively bit into De Ville’s wrist to drink his blood caught me off guard. Before the wedding ceremony, Evie was scared. She had basically given up, but then she remembered words of encouragement from her mother. Evie drinking De Ville’s blood to get the vampire powers to have a fighting chance really worked as a last resort desperation play.

De Ville’s death scene had a strong ironic ending. He’s got Evie by the throat, and he’s mocking her for being an ordinary woman with a pathetic life. De Ville arrogantly calls himself a “god” right before Evie uses a clay wire cutter to slice off a part of his arm. Evie kicks him into the fire, and that undeniable proud look on her face, as she watches him burn to death? It’s just perfect. Imagine that, the all mighty vampire was destroyed by the simple woman with an ordinary tool she uses for something she’s passionate about.

The Invitation is a solid enough vampire horror movie, but it’s a film that has a lot of mainstream Hollywood horror polish on it. Predictable jump scares, and some stretches of step by step storytelling. I never bought into Evie’s escape from De Ville at the end. They just had to throw in the usual bad horror movie decision. Mrs. Swift explicitly told Evie “don’t stop running until you’re on a plane out of England,” when she helped her escape. What does Evie do? She stops at the small town after she escapes the mansion. 

The old couple, who obviously benefits from De Ville’s influence, subdued Evie and temporarily spoiled her chances at freedom. As soon as Evie walked into that couple’s house, you could tell something was off, and I just didn’t see the need to put that scene in the movie.

The Invitation ends with a cliffhanger, or I guess you could say it’s almost a cliffhanger? Evie and Grace plan to ambush Oliver, and well, Grace has a baseball bat, so it’s easy to see they mean business. They don’t actually show an attack or a confrontation happening, but I can’t imagine a sequel happening, because it’s not necessary. Evie took out De Ville and literally burned his entire empire to the ground. Still, the thought of a weasel like Oliver getting his comeuppance is worth a good laugh, especially when Oliver foolishly believed Evie was no longer a threat.

Rating- 6/10