A different way of telling a story

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

This film is labeled as a horror/thriller, and the audience could be easily fooled into thinking it is because of the Ouija board concept. Alas, The Invited is little more than a romantic love story between husband/wife wrapping itself around a convoluted horror plot. Along with the muddied plot and love aspect is an overwhelming use of religious subtext. This movie literally makes mention about how important faith is throughout and degrades the aesthetics characters as being the ruin of mankind. So, just to get this straight, horror fans ARE NOT INTO romance or having a religious agenda shoved down their throat. That's why we watch horror-strictly to avoid said things. As for the ending, it made absolutely no sense. It was a sad attempt at a twist. It didn't work. This is not a psychological thriller. Why did you bother?

I don't do a lot of reviews but this one is more of a warning to horror fans than anything. I love all kinds of horror and have since I was a child. But haunting and possession have always been my favorites. So I try to never pass up on those. This movie started out OK and I didn't even mind the occasional religious nod. Hell, lots of really good horror movies do it. But they don't OVERdo it. The story was going along fine even if it was slow in spots. The acting was decent. Not Academy Award decent, but decent all the same. Most of the cinematography was alright. There were parts that were unnecessary like the 4 different shots of the main character shutting a door and nothing climatic happens. Or some of the slow motion shots. There was absolutely no purpose for any of that. And then the religion starts up again. Only people of faith can be saved from the wrath of the board. If you have no faith and you smudged your blood on it even accidentally you have to give up your soul to it like those before you (this type of stuff was repeated numerously by several different characters). This movie should have been touted as religious propaganda then a horror film. The only reason why I gave it a 4 instead of a 1 is because: 1) they had a guy in it with actual real tattoos that weren't stickers and he wasn't portrayed as a convict, gangster, drug addict, street thug, satanist or a biker which is almost unheard of. 2) Pam Grier is in it and I love that lady 3) Lou Diamond Phillips is in it and even tho he doesn't have the best track record when it comes to blockbuster movies at least he's consistent and 4) I liked the Papa Roach song at the end. And I'm not even a big fan of Papa Roach.5) the ending was pretty cool and true to the genre, FINALLY! Oh,and the male nurse was kind of funny. If it wasn't for those things this movie would have earned a much lower score from me.

This movie was made on a realtively small budget in a very much larger landscape of feature films, and was impressive to me because of the smartly written plot and how much was done with so little. I am a writter and tend to analyze movies from that standpoint. What I decided after watching this movie at the Crest Theatre--it was the marquee film for the Sacramento 2010 Film Festival--was that this dude Ryan McKinney is smart, very smart, and does not treat his audience as if they were any thing less. He lets your brain work out details rather than step-by-step going, "Ok audience, 1 + 1 equals 2, and 2 + 2 equals 4...." No, no, no, no, McKinney respects his audience and takes you on a journey (ride!) that kept me beguiled from start to end because I, frankly, did not know what was going to happen next.And then, BAM!, came the ending. It was as if, on a clear blue day, a piano fell straight from the sky. It, if I can show my age and use an expression from back in the day, "Blew my Mind!"

I too saw the Sacramento Film Festival showing. I really, really WANTED to like this movie. I didn't. It was disjointed and at times illogical. The elements are there, but it definitely needs more editing. A lot more editing. I think it is telling that in at least one of the cast lists online one of the main actor's photo(Carlos Alazraqui) is represented by a cartoon monkey, which doesn't seem like a ringing endorsement. Oddly, Carlos' character was portrayed the most interestingly. I also thought Megan Ward, who played the primary protagonist, did a good job. Lou Diamond Phillips wasn't up to par, but, again, that could be an issue with editing. Or not.