Convite Maldito

I was excited to see this because I knew the lead actors for playing support roles only like Nathalie Emmanuel in GOT and fast and furious or Thomas Doherty in high fidelity and legacies. I love how it starts off dark, it's not uncommon for recent horrors to ease you in by starting out like any regular movie before throwing you into the dark. It maintains it's gloomy nature despite the characters having a more cheery aura, but you feel something's off. It's like a blend of midsommer, Ready or Not and Get Out, with a fantasy element to it. Midsommer and Ready Or Not were more bloody thrillers than actual horrors in my opinion while this was actively trying to scare you. It has a more old fashioned horror feel compared to recent 'blockbuster horrors' (I don't know if that's a thing); everything happens in the dark, there's a lot of build up and I loved how 3AM was made the hour the devil comes out to play. It also leaned on it's gloomy atmosphere and jump scares for the horror element.

There's a lot of build up to most scenes so it was slow paced, I felt some silences were literally just 2s too long. Second twist in the third act of the movie wasn't pretty underwhelming, and this was meant to be the big closer. I also try to avoid trailers but i saw a teaser that ruined the suspense and thrill of one of the scenes, so I suggest doing a better job at avoiding them than I did. For that same reason, when everything unveiled I was pleasantly surprised it's not the genre of horror I thought this was going to be, won't say 'cause I don't wanna spoil it for you but I haven't seen a horror in this fantasy genre in a while so I loved it.

All in all, I think it's a good movie that was supposed to be better than it is because the climax scenes don't hit as high as they're meant to, with a rushed finale to top that. Otherwise the movie doesn't do much wrong and is worth a watch for me. Somebody said it's a feminist movie, I see where they're coming from but that's such a reach man.

One of the biggest faults of this movie, funny enough, isn't anything to do with the movie itself but the promotions for it. If you have seen the trailer for this movie then you've pretty much seen the entire movie, including the big twist reveal, which sucks as the story has so much potential. In the right capable hands, a story of someone trying to find their long-lost family and then ending up in a horror situation can be pretty good but here, it falls flat. The story takes forever to get going and once it does start to pick up the pace the movie was almost over. I know that horror movies need time to set up the setting and dynamics but this movie just did WAY too much of that. I've heard a lot of people say this and honestly, I agree with them that this story would be better as a RomCom. The two leads, more on them later, have chemistry between the two of them that just gets wasted because of the story of this movie. If it had been a RomCom movie it might've been one I actually enjoyed as it would've been a unique movie. I quickly touched on this earlier but my biggest issue with this movie wasn't the story for this movie, I already figured the trailer spoiled the whole movie, but the pacing of the movie. This movie is a horror thriller movie and the pacing for this movie didn't match that one bit. It had slower pacing to it which can be effective in the right kind of horror movie but definitely not here. I guess the slow pacing of this movie was supposed to help keep the suspense of wondering what's really happening in the manor but like I said the trailer already ruined that mystery so it wasn't effective. Also due to the slow pacing of the movie the ending for this movie gets severely rushed.

The ending for this movie just isn't satisfactory and just leaves the audience scratching their heads wondering what just happened. The ending also leaves on kind of a cliffhanger that doesn't need to be a cliffhanger and I wish it had ended earlier. While watching this movie I was preparing myself to say other than the acting in this movie the cinematography for this movie was great and then the more I thought about it the less I enjoyed it. The part I enjoyed of the cinematography was the set design for the manor. The manor itself was gorgeous and had this unease about it right from the get-go. I feel like I would rewatch this movie just to try and pick up the subtle details in the design work for this manor as I feel like I missed a bunch. Another element that works but only to a certain extent is the lighting for this movie. The lighting for this movie creates a great atmosphere and adds to the gothic nature of the manor but it also has a downside as I said that's because this is a horror movie and horror movies are supposed to have scares in them and due to the darkened lighting it's hard to see them. You can kind of tell based on the shadows if something scary is going to happen but for the most part, you can't see them and it just seems like something in the background. Now, these kinds of scares can work but they need to be directed properly and unfortunately for this movie that didn't happen. Now, I know that Jessica M. Thompson did her best with this movie especially with this being her first feature film but unfortunately there were some questionable directing choices. As I said most of them just surround the scares in this movie but also with death scenes in this movie. I won't fully go into detail about the death scenes for this movie but all I'll say is they don't match the 14A rating at all. I already mentioned this but really the only fully good element of this movie is the acting in it. The acting for this movie both worked for whichever story you decide to watch this movie as. If you decide to watch this story like it's a Vampire romance or a horror movie it is the acting works for both versions.

This fully steams to the main two actors Nathalie Emmanuel and Thomas Doherty, who plays Walter. The two of them surprisingly had decent chemistry together and made this movie slightly enjoyable. I really enjoyed Nathalie Emmanuel's performance as Evie that even without the romance element she would've stood out the most. She plays Evie in such a modern final girl way and even though she might not be the best final girl out there she still proved how smart she is even with the story does have her making some dumb decisions. But for me personally, the standout performance of the movie is Thomas Doherty. He plays Walter in such a manipulative and conniving way that if you were in this situation you would trust him. When you first meet Walter you can easily tell there's something off about him and if you didn't watch the trailer you're wondering what's fully up with him. Even the side actors were really good in this movie even if you don't get to see them as much. In the end, The Invitation had the potential to be a really good movie but because of the trailer it just falls short. If you go see this movie just play the fun game of switching the genre depending on what's happening in the scene.

Where has all the good writers? I think there was a Hollywood purge where all the good writers have been booted out and the only ones left are socially corrupt morons. I'm not sure that we will ever have a good industry ever again. Maybe one day people will wake up and get their act together Where has all the good writers? I think there was a Hollywood purge where all the good writers have been booted out and the only ones left are socially corrupt morons. I'm not sure that we will ever have a good industry ever again. Maybe one day people will wake up and get their act together. Good luck with this garbage.

Evie traces back her family tree, and travels to England to meet her relatives, it isn't long before she discovered her family's dark secrets.

Wasted potential, that's the first thought I had a jury this movie, it could and should have been a good watch, but ultimately it disappointed.

First off, this ridiculous portrayal of The Brits, how come Americans ways get it so wrong, Britain felt like a strange setting for this vampire story, but the first stumbling block, the setting. Clearly not Britain, actually Hungary, it looked totally foreign, Hungary itself may have been a better setting.

That house looks as English as an Eagle sat on top of The Capitol building.

I really did enjoy that initial setup, and the characters, but as the horror element is revealed it just falls apart, the mystery and intrigue vanishes, along with the enjoyment.

Too predictable, it offers nothing new, and almost every other vampire film I can think of offers a whole lot more. The only plus, some of the special effects looked decent.

4/10.

According to Hollywood, everyone in England is either insanely rich and lives in manor house, or is a servant for someone who is insanely rich and lives in a manor house.

Or possibly they may be a farmer. Or Sherlock Holmes.

This is a fun, yet gigantically predictable tale about poor, orphaned American girl who is swept of her feet when she discovers that she is related to a rich English family. Then bad stuff happens, but the bad people don't realise that their target has more fight than they bargained for.

If you can get past the avalanche of cliches, then there is some entertainment to be had here. We've all seen this story (in one form or another) a thousand times before. Just go with it...