“Each one of us is on a journey and we feel it’s important to be on this journey with the people you love.”

Made for “only” $1M, The Invitation is a return to Karyn Kusama’s indie roots. She began her career with the surprise hit Girlfight, but her next two features were bloated mainstream productions (Æon Flux, Jennifer’s Body), so a return to a small budget and small cast is a welcome change. The film takes place almost entirely within the confines of a Hollywood Hills home, and, aside from a few moments of startling action late in its runtime, is composed mostly of conversations. What makes The Invitation work so well is the aura of mystery that surrounds the central event and Kusama’s restraint in the revelation of details. A group of old college friends are reuniting at the behest of Eden (Tammy Blanchard), who has been out of the country for a few years discovering herself as she processed the death of her son (it feels very Big Chill-esque in its setup). The hook—one of them, at least—is that the protagonist is Eden’s ex-husband Will (Logan Marshall-Green). Will is returning to his own home, the place where his son died, where another man now lives with his ex-wife, where he finds Eden smiling and happy and seemingly over the traumatic event that still haunts him.

Almost as soon as Will and his girlfriend Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi) arrive at David (Michiel Huisman) and Eden’s home, it is clear that something is off. They are welcomed by a beady-eyed Eden and a calm, cool and collected David, who both speak with a language and tone that seems completely fake. This initially threw me way off—I almost thought these initial scenes were poorly acted before I realized that Eden and David were themselves putting on an act. Some catching up ensues as we are introduced to the rest of the guests—Ben (Jay Larson), Gina (Michelle Krusiec), Miguel (Jordi Vilasuso), Tommy (Mike Doyle) and Claire (Marieh Delfino). Plentiful alcohol loosens some of the initial tension but things quickly get weird when a hyperactive nymphomaniac bounds out of David and Eden’s bedroom just before a toast is made. It turns out that Eden and David had befriended Sadie (Lindsay Burdge) during their self-discovery trip to Mexico and invited her to stay with them for a time. Even more disturbing is the lurking presence of Pruitt (John Carroll Lynch), a quiet man whose measured drawl is completely unnerving, especially when he speaks of his past sins. Lynch’s presence is made doubly sinister if one is familiar with his work in Zodiac.

Once this little group is assembled—minus Gina’s boyfriend Choi (Karl Yune), who has a reputation for late arrivals—David and Eden finally get to the point. They explain to their friends why they seem so different and how they’ve been healed of their sorrows and “negative energies.” On a laptop, David shows them a video of Dr. Joseph (Toby Huss), a spiritual guru that has helped him, Eden, Sadie and Pruitt. In the video, Dr. Joseph calmly talks a woman through her final moments on her deathbed; she is surrounded by fellow disciples of the guru, all of whom seem happy that she is dying. The scene reaches an excruciating level of eeriness when Pruitt describes how he murdered his wife in a moment of rage and was delivered from his guilt by Dr. Joseph.

“The Invitation” is extended to all but most in the group find it a bit unsettling, if ultimately harmless. Claire decides to leave, while Will grows suspicious of the whole event. He begins seeing malicious signs everywhere he looks—the doors are locked, there are bars over the windows, Choi is still absent, and there’s spotty cell phone coverage. But David has an answer ready for every question to put him at ease. The personal trauma that Will is dealing with, amplified by the return to his old house, serves as a good distraction from the strangeness of the reunion and keeps us uncertain of the validity of his suspicions.

Eventually things come to a head. Some frightening revelations are made that decisively answer the nagging questions that have plagued Will (and the audience) throughout the film. Though the pacing could have been improved there is still plenty of tension gripping us when the truth of Dr. Joseph’s cult is revealed.

I always like economical films that can entertain for their duration while remaining in a single location. The Invitation excels in this regard, using different areas of the house, the backyard, the driveway, etc. to keep things from becoming too repetitive, and the dynamic camerawork keeps things interesting. I’m uncertain that Will’s trauma really matches well with Eden and David’s spiritual cleansing as dual storylines, but the suspense is ratcheted up enough that I didn’t really think of it while I was watching the film. Will has frequent flashback snippets that gradually reveal how his son died, and I think that these would have worked better as a single, larger flashback, perhaps as a prologue. I also found it completely implausible that Will would return to his and Eden’s house only two years removed from the death of his son and his divorce from Eden. She’s living there with her new husband and he will be seeing her for the first time since she left. Their old friends will be there and he’s bringing his new girlfriend along. It just seems like the kind of party that any sensible person would turn down. Perhaps this says more about me than the film, but with much of the rest of the film so carefully ensuring our characters act in a mostly believable fashion, it was a little annoying to have to look past this.

Another personal hangup is that not enough time was spent making Dr. Joseph’s cult seem believable or coherent. It’s not really described so much as bragged about by its adherents, and the clues we get are mostly spiritual-sounding mumbo jumbo. Although I was convinced that Eden, David, Sadie, and Pruitt were up to no good before I knew just what their plans were, I never understood how such an obvious fraud had duped them. This is tough because if you watch any documentary footage of real cults, it seems almost trivial to point out how crazy their teachings are. But real people devote their lives to them. And so perhaps any attempt to flesh out Dr. Joseph’s mystical teachings would have felt shallow and incoherent no matter what.

With its action concentrated in the film’s final few moments, The Invitation seems to drag at times, but if you find yourself hooked by the initial tone of unsettled tension, the conclusion is certainly worth getting to. In its final moments, the scope of the film suddenly, sickeningly widens to include more than just a single home. It’s a solid, modest little horror film.