The Invitation

Runtime: 85 Minutes

Studio: Lions Gate Films

Director: Pat Bermel

Writer(s): Pat Bermel

Staring: Lance Henriksen, Christopher Shyer, Stellina Rusich, Sarah-Jane Redmond, Douglas O'Keeffe

Description: Roland Levy invites his close friends to a supper at his mansion on an Island. He tells his friends stories of his travels around the world, and how messed up he was in life. He ends the night telling his friends that on his travels he had an epiphany, and that he wants them to have an epiphany too so he poisoned the food they were eating, and they must do what he says to get the antidote before they start dropping like flies.

Gore/Violence: There is gore/violence in this movie. Roland ends up poisoning them through the food and when the poison takes effect they just drop to the ground. There is no blood spewing anywhere unfortunately.

Body Count: The body count is ok for thriller/horror movie. About 5 people "die" in the movie. The reason die is in quotes is because something happens at the end that changes everything.

Nudity & Sexuality: Nothing for this category.

Death Scenes: All the death scenes are the same throughout the movie. There is no variety on how the character "dies" or how the poison effects them.

Acting/Storyline: I thought the storyline was creative, and the whole premise of the movie was well thought out. The problem is that I never felt urgency for them to find the cure to the poison. Roland is such a compassionate character that you never get the sense that his friends are in trouble or that he would ever hurt them. The compassion that Roland portrays toward his friends takes the horror out of the movie, and you are left with more of a drama/thriller.

The acting was pretty good all around. Lance Henriksen (who plays Roland) does an amazing job at showing how much he cares about his friends and how he wants them to live "free lives" Ultimately, this ended up being the downfall of the movie, which isn't Lance's fault, its the writers' fault.

Final Rating: I had high hopes for this movie after reading the synopsis, but I was left kind of disappointing. The story does end up relaying a beautiful message to the audience, and the storyline was well thought out. What disappointed me the most was there is no sense of urgency in the movie, because I knew throughout the movie that Roland would not let anything happen to his friends.