Overview
A dinner party becomes a nightmare as old wounds resurface and dark secrets threaten to unravel.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Moderate
- melancholic
- foreboding
- claustrophobic
- late night horror viewing
- rainy night
What critics said
Critics broadly praised the film as a confident, adult psychological thriller that converts grief, social politeness, and a dinner-party setting into sustained dread, while some found its premise familiar within the subgenre.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
The entire central confrontation unfolds during a reunion dinner whose polite rituals conceal an increasingly terrifying agenda.
Will and Eden’s lives remain defined by the death of their son, while competing responses to grief drive the reunion and its threat.
Will’s haunted state and growing suspicion repeatedly raise doubts about whether he is correctly reading Eden and the guests.
The house Will once shared with Eden becomes the confined setting for alienation, suspicion, and mounting danger.
Films like The Invitation, and why
The Perfect Host
shared dinner-party-from-hell premise, psychological paranoia, grief, and slow-building dread
Hereditary
shared intimate social setting, unreliable perceptions, relationship trauma, and escalating psychological horror
Martha Marcy May Marlene
shared cult anxiety, domestic unease, ambiguous threat, and mounting paranoia
Coherence
shared contained setting, social deception, suspicious guests, and twist-driven suspense
Movie Details
- Director
- Karyn Kusama
- Release Date
- 2016-04-08
- Runtime
- 100 min
- Rating
- 6.4 / 10 (2966)
Cast
- Logan Marshall-Green
- Tammy Blanchard
- Emayatzy Corinealdi
- Michiel Huisman
- John Carroll Lynch
- Lindsay Burdge
- Mike Doyle
- Jay Larson
- Michelle Krusiec
- Karl Yune
Where to watch in United States
- Streaming
- Peacock Premium, Peacock Premium Plus, ARROW
- Rent
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
- Buy
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is The Invitation about?
- At a grief-stricken reunion dinner, a haunted ex-husband suspects that his former partner and her new circle are turning consolation into a deadly conspiracy.
- What is The Invitation like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of The Invitation as measured, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is The Invitation violent?
- Somewhat. Ember rates the violence in The Invitation as moderate.
- What did critics think of The Invitation?
- Critics broadly praised the film as a confident, adult psychological thriller that converts grief, social politeness, and a dinner-party setting into sustained dread, while some found its premise familiar within the subgenre.
- Which films are like The Invitation?
- Films with a similar feel include The Perfect Host, Hereditary, Martha Marcy May Marlene, and Coherence.
- How long is The Invitation?
- The Invitation runs 100 minutes.
- Where can I watch The Invitation?
- In United States, The Invitation streams on Peacock Premium, Peacock Premium Plus, ARROW.
