After watching Circle (a very entertaining movie), I was pretty sure that the second recommendation of @kingscrown would impress me as well. And to be honest, The Invitation happened to be even better than I could expect. I was sitting on the edge of my seat from the very first second of the movie. And what surprised me the most is the fact that the ending was superb (I usually hate thriller movies' endings). So, thanks, buddy, I can now fully trust your taste of movies!

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I was very surprised how The Invitation (2015) was so similar to Get Out (2017). To be honest, the first 10 minutes of the movie were basically the same, and I have this feeling that Jordan Peele copied the car crash with an animal scene, which I'll talk more about later. And to be honest, the whole plot was similar, and the way directors built the tension was also similar. The only difference was ending. I was super disappointed with the ending of Get Out, then The Invitation surprised me with its perfect execution (@andytherbg you should watch The Invitation as you asked me what kind of ending I wanted for Get Out before). Also, if you liked The Invitation, you might want to watch Cheap Thrills and 13 Sins(could be better, but still entertaining)

The Plot

The Invitation is one of those movies in which the action happens in one location. This time, it is the house of crazy ex-wife of Will (Logan Marshall-Green), the main protagonist. We learn through some flashbacks that Will and his crazy ex-wife, Eden, got separated because their child died and they couldn't cope with the loss. Those two got separated and haven't seen each other for two years up until Eden invited Will to her fancy party. Actually, Eden invited all the gang of old friends to hang out at her super luxurious house. Strangely, she has done that after two years of silence. However, only Will was smart enough to suspect that something was going wrong.

In the first scene of the movie, we see how Will and his new girlfriend Kira are driving to Eden's house. They are having some "we don't have to go if you don't want to" conversation when they hit a coyote with a car. It was a brilliant scene to set up the mood of the movie. This scene was shouting "We might see a lot of blood!" and even though it had nothing to do with the plot later on, it was very well placed and perfectly served its purpose.

So, Will and Kira arrive at Eden's and her new husband house a little late, to find out that all the people are already there. Everyone, except Will, is trying to have a good time and relax, while Will is very distant and strange. Of course, we learn that after his boy had died, Will was always depressed, but this time he was also suspicious of the reason for this invitation out of the blue. Others, on the other hand, were enjoying fancy meals and expensive wine.

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Suddenly, Eden and her husband David started talking about some sort of cult which they joined in Mexico. They even invited two creepy friends from the cult to join the party. This cult was all about letting go of pain, but somehow the only way to let go was dying. David even played the tape which showed how one of the cult members dies. Everyone got freaked out... but stayed in the house because "We are in the middle of the city, nothing can hurt us." Also, they wanted that free food!

The night went on, and tension kept building. One of the creepy friends turned out to also be a killer. He told a story how he killed his wife in a cold voice. Naturally, everyone freaked out even more, but only one of like eight people decided to leave. Others were still in "We are safe here in LA," mode.

Eden and David were acting even stranger with every passing hour, and Will could not handle it anymore. He finally confronted them. And that is when shit got crazy. I don't want to spoil things here and tell you what that strange party was all about, but it was ugly. And after that, things started evolving very fast, leading to the end of the movie. It was a bloody ride, I can say that much, but watch it and learn who/why/when/how.

My thoughts

1. When your ex offers you some crazy-ass expensive wine, you should consider this kind of generosity being a trap. Yup, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably ain't.
   
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2. Don't ever get fooled by fancy words, clothes, food, or ideas. Always look at things with your clear mind and analyze the facts instead of letting your emotions decide for you. Or else, you'll be f-ed.

3. Whenever you hear about a distant community with one enlightened leader, whose methods are condemned by the world, run away as fast as you can. Yup, those utopic ideas sound cool, but they are always toxic and boy, you don't want to see where it leads.

4. It is very easy to fool the majority of people with some promises of the better tomorrow. in this movie, it was Dr. Joseph who made people act evil. In the real world, we had Hitler, who stood up on a f-ing barrel and convinced the Germans to follow him.

5. People don't look at the facts; people look at the ones who present the facts. If for instance, things in the movie were happening in some old and stinky house, everyone would have left after the first sign of Eden and David acting strangely. However, because it was all in a fancy house, people decided to stay. Yup, if a homeless man told you your life goal, you would never listen. However, you would always listen to some millionaires advice even if it was wrong (we all make mistakes).

6. We can never know what others intend to do, so we should be careful with judging before we see the final result. In the movie, everyone thought that Will was acting crazy, but in the end, it appeared that he was the sanest of them all.

7. I have a cousin who is quite obsessed with the religion (call it a cult at this point, you may) and I can see how it drives him further away from the reality. All those cults do the same - they tell you that they bring you peace, wisdom, and truth, but it only creates delusion which destroys you sooner or later.

8. From directing point of view, it was a mistake to build the tension around Choi and instantly kill that tension in the middle of the movie. I kind of lost my attention at that point of the movie and it took me a while to feel the emotion again. After all, it was already clear that Eden was not just hosting the party to catch up with everyone. I would have prepared the tension getting built without any interruptions.

9. John Carroll Lynch gave a very solid performance. For me, he was the best actor of the cast. He creeped me out from the beginning!

10. We all went through some terrible stuff in our lives, and we all choose different methods how to deal with it. From my experience, I can only say that lying to yourself and pretending that things are different than they are is wrong and never helps. It is all about facing the truth and letting it be the way it is. Cheers to that!

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