(Spoilers ahead) 

The Invitation is one of those rare movies that make you second guess your adoration for the supernatural genre. It is a feeble attempt at being a good vampire movie. It absolutely cannot be taken seriously. It is riddled with cliches and predictable plot twists that make you question your own intelligence. 

The film ends up falling flat since you get to know the end of the movie before it even begins. You find yourself yearning for something else, something more but you leave the movie empty handed. The background and history of the main antagonist, Walter De Ville, is never touched upon during the entirety of the film. While one would normally appreciate the mystery surrounding the character, this movie had nothing else riding for it. Thus, you find yourself wanting to know more about how and why Walter is a vampire. The plot line is so intriguing yet the story does not really go anywhere. 

The film did not explore the plethora of possibilities the story could have gone in. It did not even extensively use the art of gore and spookiness to uplift the film. It felt like a film for children. The film would have benefitted way more if it had an R-rating. Instead we are left with a low scare, low surprise and middling sort of a horror flick. It is basically a very gothic love story with a little bit of drama and action at the end. 

The topic of vampires has been done to death. Especially in Hollywood. The question to be asked is that how will directors and screenwriters still keep this topic fresh and different? Classics like Nosferatu, Horrors of Dracula, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, etc, have already laid the foundation on which modern vampire flicks are supposed to grow on but retelling a tale as old as time will tire the audiences very fast. 

However, The Invitation does a fantastic job in creating the perfect atmosphere with beautiful gothic cinematography. The actors are stupendous but even their talents succumb to a bad script. The traditional gothic ambience of the film and the very eerie soundtrack are two huge reasons to still watch the film though! Sometimes, a storyline isn’t nearly as important as how the film looks and feels. For people who love films like ‘Sleepy Hollow’, ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, etc, The Invitation could amount to a decent one-time watch.