Trailer For THE INVITATION Invites You To Dinner, With A Side of Terror

Karyn Kusama's The Invitation has been playing the festival circuit for nearly a year, and in that time, has justifiably picked up a few awards, including Best Picture at Sitges Fantastic Fest, and International Critic's Jury Award at Neuchatel Fantastic Fest (I was a member of that jury). It will finally get its US release on March 25th, released by Drafthouse Films, and we have a trailer.

Will (Logan Marshall-Green) and his girlfriend Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi) are attending a dinner party hosted by Will's ex-wife Eden (Tammy Blanchard) and her boyfriend, along with a small group of friends. But Tammy has also invited a stranger, Pruitt (John Carroll Lynch), and the conversation starts to take strange twists. Will becomes convinced that they are all being held captive for some kind of sinister plot.

This was one of the best movies I saw last year, a wonderfully tense slow-burn thriller that makes you constantly second-guess everything. It seems that almost nothing is happening, and then suddenly everything is happening, and this constant pendulum swing is riveting.

(Full disclosure: ScreenAnarchy founder Todd Brown served as a producer on the film through his work with XYZ Films. But I loved it anyway.)