Ten Days of Terror!: The Invitation

Films: The Invitation
Format: Streaming video from Tubi TV on Fire!

Typically, when I watch a movie that I’m going to review for this site, I write it up right afterwards or later in the day. Sometimes, I might wait 23 hours before I think my thoughts have finally congealed enough to be coherent. In the case of The Invitation, I’ve waited several days to start writing about it, and I’m still not sure I’m ready. I’ve even watched two or three movies since finishing this one and have written a full review of a film since seeing this as well. I simply haven’t really figured out the best way to approach The Invitation, because a lot of the discussion feels like it would dip into spoiler territory.

The Invitation is a slow-burn movie, one that takes until the third act to really step into high gear. For people who need their horror movies to be immediately bloody and gory, this is going to be a problem. The Invitation instead sets up a mood of things being just a little bit off. Or maybe it’s all in someone’s mind. Or is it a little of both? We don’t really know until the third act when all hell breaks loose.

Off Script: Jennifer's Body

Films: Jennifer’s Body
Format: DVD from Cortland Community Library on The New Portable.

I went into Jennifer’s Body without a great deal of knowledge. I knew that it starred Megan Fox, best known for saying Michael Bay was just like Hitler and then working with him again. I didn’t know it also starred Amanda Seyfried, an actress of whom I’ve never been that fond. I also knew that this is a movie that has mixed reviews. I’ve seen more than one person list it as a guilty pleasure or suggest that by saying they like it they are putting themselves out on some limb or another.

Jennifer’s Body is a member of that large subset of horror movies that takes place in and around high school students. Most or many films of this stripe end up being slashers, and Jennifer’s Body is very much not a slasher. This is because in addition to being a high school horror movie, this is also one of that much rarer breed of film: a feminist horror film, or at least one that can easily be read has having a feminist storyline.

Wednesday Horror: XX

Film: XX
Format: DVD from Sycamore Public Library on laptop.

Say what you will about anthology films like XX, there is a section of the market that likes them. I can go either way with them. On the one hand, I appreciate that in horror anthologies, there’s not a lot of filler, mainly because there isn’t any time for filler. Since the film has at most about half an hour to go from start to finish, we’ve got to get down to it right away. The downside of an anthology is that we never really connect to the characters.

That lack of connection is important. For me, at least, horror works in only a couple of ways. The best horror connects us deeply with the characters, gives us some incentive to want them to be successful or at least survive, and deals with the existential problems of life. True, deep existential horror is difficult, but wonderful when it’s achieved. That takes time, though, and in an anthology film, time is exactly what we don’t have. What that means is that we’re going to get the cheap horror film answers here: jump scares and gore. With XX, there’s a real desire in some of these shorts to attempt that deeper horror. There’s just not enough here.