I used to work with a woman who invited me to join her at seminars that had changed her life. She said to me, and this is a direct quote: “People say it’s a cult, but it’s not a cult.” The first time this happened it was just an informal conversation. The second time she invited me was through an email with links to the program’s website. The third was a paper invitation, printed and delivered, for a more intimate seminar. I never attended, but I never rejected the offer, either, or told her how creepy it all sounded. I just played it off. I was busy that day or couldn’t get away from the kids.
No one had ever evangelized their strange new age seminars to me. Eventually I took to the internet and did some research and found that this program has been called “the new est,” which at the time meant nothing to me.These memories resurfaced as I watched Karyn Kusama’s new film, The Invitation. The film is set at a tense (to put it mildly) dinner party of old friends, convened by a couple not seen by anyone for a few years. During their absence, this couple has joined a group called The Invitation, and one of the guests knows the name, by reputation. “They’re like a new est,” he says. Shiver.
The Invitation, in The Invitation, is a spiritually organized set of beliefs that aim to remove fear from death. The practitioners have suffered great tragedy, a lost child and spouse in this instance, and they have replaced the living of life with the embrace of grief. According to the leader of The Invitation, this grief can be transcended through, well, adopting the new age principles of The Invitation. There’s not a lot of clarity in these principles, but the words are pleasant, and stringing together pleasant language into semi-coherent religious platitudes can be an effective way to gather followers. The Invitation is part self-help program, part ponzi scheme. Essentially, the new est.
Eden and David (Tammy Blanchard and Michiel Huisman) are the couple who have joined The Invitation, and who have invited their friends to their home in the hills overlooking Los Angeles. They have gathered all of Eden’s closest friends, and despite the long absence, everyone seems happy to have Eden and her new beau back in the real world. Among the guests is Will (Logan Marshall-Green), Eden’s ex-husband. The couple split after their child, Ty, died in an accident while playing with friends.
The dinner party brings Will back to the home where his child died, an experience he is not psychologically prepared to handle. He and his new girlfriend Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi) settle in for what they expect to be an emotionally complicated evening. As the guests slowly begin to realize what this dinner party is all about, The Invitation becomes an awkward reunion. But as the night gets more unsettling, politeness trumps reality, and guests play games and endure strangers baring their souls with smiles and sideways glances. Will suspects something more sinister brought everyone together, but has no evidence beyond the strange behavior of his ex-wife.
Kusama seems intent on critiquing the impulse towards etiquette and manners, and as a midwesterner that critique lands like an anvil on the head. We are programmed not to speak out loud what might be deemed rude, and that’s a hard lesson to deprogram. Kusama asks us, rightly, how far can a situation progress into madness before someone will break and just say: what the fuck?
Suspense like The Invitation depends on mood and control, and director Karyn Kusama does masterful work creating a complex, unsettling environment. Her direction reminded me of last year’s fantastic Queen of Earth, or classic cult-paranoia films like Rosemary’s Baby. Will is nervous about coming, unhappy to be there, and suspicious of the strangers who come to event. He knows Eden, and notices her behavioral changes. He notices that David keeps the doors locked from the inside. That he really doesn’t want anyone to leave this party.
Kusama captures the heartache and suspicion that Will experiences in tight close-ups and unsettled gazes. She lingers on doorknobs and shoots people at the foot-level. Her characters stand at long distances, observing silent behaviors in silent scenes while simple yet excruciating music turns knots in your stomach. Intercut are Will’s memories of Ty and Eden, when they were a family. When Ty appears in a scene, viewers are distorted, and we ask ourselves about Will’s reliability, and our own grasp on reality.
The Invitation walks the line of classic paranoia thriller. Will is either succumbing to a deteriorating mental state or his fears will be realized in some horrific, cult-worshipping fashion. The choice that The Invitation makes depends on building suspense that eventually bursts into revelation. Kusama earns her reveal, and once it comes the push to consequence cannot be slowed.
Like any story built upon a revelation, The Invitation demands our attention. It asks something of the audience, namely patience, but it rewards our patience even if the conclusion takes an unfortunate step or two beyond the limits of the story. There are some issues to find in the film’s finale, but they are minor compared to the significant, powerful achievement that precedes them.
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