There is nothing to be afraid of

Unpacking "The Invitation"

If you’re new to The Rebel MFA Way, welcome! This is an essay in my Trigger Warning Series — where I unpack and dive deep into the intersection of trauma and storytelling of film, tv, and fiction. I love having conversations around these topics, so share your thoughts in the comments!

Warning — there are spoilers for the film The Invitation in this essay.

The Invitation is the most deliciously slow-burning, potent psychological horror film I’ve seen in years. It’s not new (released in 2016) and it never really floated into my radar until I got serious about studying horror.

I’d watched and loved Karyn Kusama films so I figured I’d give this one a go and I have to tell you, I don’t scare easily, but this one blew my mind.

The Trauma Line

The film opens with Will (Logan Marshall-Green) and his girlfriend Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi) driving to a dinner party hosted by Will's ex-wife, Eden (Tammy Blanchard), and her new husband David (Michiel Huisman). The invitation itself is strained and awkward as Will and Eden share a traumatic past in losing their son before the events in the film. This gathering is the first time they’ve seen each other since their divorce.

One of the most profound aspects of trauma depicted in the film is the way it manifests in different characters and their coping mechanisms. Will is consumed by his grief and guilt, and throughout the night, he struggles to maintain a calm façade while grappling with his pain. Eden, however, appears to have found a way to move on from the loss by adapting to an ideology she and David share. She dodges and refuses to talk about the trauma and instead says, “I’m free. All that useless pain, it’s gone. It’s something anyone can have, Will.”

The other guests at this dinner party are friends (or were friends) with the couple before tragedy struck and even they have a hard time understanding the depths of grief and trauma Will and Eden have experienced. When Will starts to question the motives of this dinner invitation, the other guests believe it’s his paranoia and inability to process his pain that is leading him to these outbursts.

As the night progresses, tensions and conversations become more worrisome as David and Eden begin talking about their experiences with the self-help group known as “The Invitation” where the teachings focus on accepting death as an inevitable and positive part of life, and the members believe that by embracing death, they can achieve a sense of inner peace.

If this wasn’t enough tension, Pruitt (John Carroll Lynch) and Sadie (Lindsay Burdge), members of The Invitation also become guests of the dinner party though their presence only strains the already tense atmosphere. He then tells the group the story of his past — he accidentally killed his wife during a dispute. But the horror isn’t in the trauma, exactly. It’s in the way Pruitt explains how he “healed” that trauma by finding The Invitation. With Dr. Joseph and The Invitation’s teachings, he’s now “free of guilt.”

While Pruitt may believe that, the other dinner guests certainly do not. Thus, the tension of this stranger and Eden’s uncharacteristic behavior with David starts to feel more sinister than when they arrived.

It’s Will who sees that the trauma of losing their son has pushed Eden and David to embrace this extreme belief system, and they are attempting to convince their guests to believe it too.

In this way, the film brilliantly highlights how trauma can distort one's perception of reality. Will's memories and flashbacks show the audience the truth of what happened, but the distorted version of events that Eden and David present to their guests is a shockingly different narrative. This manipulation of storytelling is a direct result of their trauma, which has clouded their understanding of what is real and what is not. Will, on the other hand, holds onto his memories, even though they are painful, as they represent his connection to the truth and his son's memory.

For most of the film, the tension is heightened and centered around Will and Eden but the second half is where the real-time trauma takes place.

As Will predicted, Pruitt, Sadie, David, and Eden did not call everyone together for a simple dinner. They specifically brought them together to share in The Invitation’s ritual — mass death. And when the characters finally start to realize this truth, it’s too late. Their agency has been mostly stripped from them. The sudden trauma of realizing that these people you barely know are going to dictate the terms of your death and there’s no escape is horrifying.

As a viewer, we watch as the realization hits all of them. Of course, Will had been prepared for this… had sensed something was off. And perhaps that’s the biggest reason why he can fight back.

There’s a poignant moment in the film when Will and Eden are alone after David and Pruitt have become killing the guests when she says, “It wasn’t supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be beautiful.” We understand then that even Eden was tricked and manipulated. We see how The Invitation warps trauma and grief into denial of those feelings and seems like death is the best option.

I don’t want to spoil one of the best parts of the movie (the ending) so I’m going to vaguely touch on it by saying that the end works so brilliantly in this film not only because it’s unexpected, but because rather than a happy ending, we get an ambiguous one. Instead of feeling grateful for survival, we see our characters realize their night of terror isn’t exactly over.

It’s the kind of ending that blows your mind and makes you sit back and think… wow, what the fuck did I just watch? (In the best way possible).

The Storytelling

A lot of what I said about the Trauma Line could be echoed here in the Storytelling because it’s such a vivid and realistic depiction of the way trauma influences and changes us all. But there are a few storytelling aspects that I want to touch on that made this film one of the best horror films I’ve watched.

It doesn’t have nearly the amount of jump scares, gore, or killing that other horror films have, but in a way, that makes it more terrifying.

This is a claustrophobic film (most of it takes place in Eden and David’s home) that doesn’t let up on the tension and suspicion. Every minute is used wisely in asking the viewer to determine what is happening. The dialogue, though sparse, is another way the tension and suspicion ooze from this film.

Take for example when Pruitt says, “Forgiveness doesn't have to wait. I'm free to forgive myself and so are you. It's a beautiful thing. It really is.” This may be a profoundly beautiful thing to say or think in a normal conversation. But in the context of this film, Pruitt is talking about doing harmful things (like killing someone) and forgiving yourself for doing those horrible things. Sometimes, it’s not what is being said but how it’s being said… and in what context it’s being delivered.

Great storytelling requires the audience to be actively engaged. By that, I mean that storytelling that makes you think about what you would do if you were in the character’s situation or how you would navigate an issue similar to what you are watching is active engagement. And this film has that component.

Think about these questions yourself and see how big and expansive they are without having the movie in front of you for context:

• What would you do/how would you react if your ex invited you to a dinner with their new spouse and part of the reason for your divorce is shared trauma via the loss of a child?

• What would you do/how would you respond if your instincts and gut were telling you to RUN but you ignored it and stayed?

• What would you do/how would you respond if you’re being told that it’s time to die and your friends are being killed in the process?

• What would you do/how would you respond if the only option available to you to get out of the situation is to kill those who are hunting you?

See, these are extremely difficult questions to consider without the film’s context, but add that in and you come face to face with figuring out the answer. This is why I find this film so terrifying… because the questions it poses have pretty horrific answers.

Lastly, the “twist” of the film (if you can call it that) as I mentioned above, works so well in this film. It’s not a twist you see coming, at all. But it’s also an ambiguous twist that forces the viewer to end with ambivalent feelings. Will the surviving characters make it out alive? Will they understand the heaviness of the trauma they just experienced? What do you do with the knowledge that your ex-wife and many of your friends are dead?

It’s a heavy-handed ending for sure, but I love it. I love the ambiguity of it which ultimately, makes the entire film a bit more horrifying.

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Want to see what films could be up next for this series? Check out my Letterboxd account → https://boxd.it/pktaA