Who Invited Them

It's not a bad film from relatively newb filmmaker Duncan Birmingham, who wrote and directed this drama. I'm not sure why it's listed as a comedy and horror, because there were only a few chuckles, nothing horrific, and only about 10 minutes of any actual thrills or suspense. The rest of the time is mostly dialogue-based scenes that really don't add much to the film. Birmingham's directing was decent, but the screenplay needed more action to fill in all the social awkwardness of the scenes with mostly irrelevant dialogue. Plus the the final act needed more of a punch, instead of just a push on the shoulder.

Who Invited Them has the same premise as most home invasion thrillers, but where it sets itself apart is in their antagonists' backstory. It takes way too long for the film to get to its foregone conclusion, and by then, any steam for thrills have already vanished. All the characters in the film are grey to the point of not caring for their eventual survival. The characterization of the leads is just bizarre. One moment they're acting right and the very next moment, they're making a series of naïve, pointless decisions. It becomes obvious very early on that the antagonists are gas-lighting them, but these rich protagonists act way over their heads, fueled by alcohol and coke.

There is hardly any humor (even of the dark kind) or horror except for a couple of killing scenes. The performances are pretty good across the board (except for one truly idiotic character who is shown to be driving around the neighborhood all night instead of using Google Maps), and that's probably what keeps the film afloat even when the screenplay has little to offer. Shudder backs some good horror ventures sometimes, but this definitely ain't on that list.

There is definitely a fun idea here and the cast, especially the two antagonists, really had my attention. The absolute glee that came from them as they caused chaos was just so interesting to watch.

The story is incredibly predictable. I do wish they could have worked out something that was a tiny bit more subtle rather than a very basic plot device that gave the ending away.

Speaking of the ending, I found it to be lacking. There wasn't really any resolution and it kinda caved in on its self. It seemed messy. Maybe that was the point and it was meant to be like a farce. I just wish it was a little tighter at the end.

It's an ok movie to kill time with. Besides that the film lacks any real depth, which probably wasn't the point but still it's short and I didn't really want to watch anymore so that's a plus.

The premise is cool enough, but there are too many poor character decisions, nearing the end especially and too many tie-ups around characters being in the right place at the right time, that bridge the plot (aka lazy writing).

The acting was good and held it together during some shaky dialogue scenes. 5/10. I did like the overall effort but in the end it just wasn't enough for me to recommend to someone else.

This is a dark comedy. It is not scary though neither funny. A better description is dark (offbeat) comedy. Still it's intense and kinda entertaining. It didn't bore me. Actors were very good, ending is satisfying, script didn't have plot holes. Nothing is unexplained here, there is no ambiguity.

I can not recommend it though because it is not a MUST WATCH movie. It is not very interesting/original/creative. But i cannot also not recommend it. If you have a lot of time to spent, maybe you will not regret watching it. It is not a bad movie. Not very good either. It's watchable and somewhat interesting. Ending is good. I predicted a lot of things watching it but not the whole ending entirely. There are some minor surprises about characters motives. I think that every character here is being portrayed well, nice work by the writers. Although, some characters' mood changes seem unnatural and forced.