Who Invited Them

The movie is not bad. I did enjoy it.

It's surely not a horror though, don't know why put that tag. It's straight up a thriller.

There's nothing flashy about it, it's all set in the same place and you see where it is going from miles away. I guess it's not claiming or pretending to be any kind of great or genius stuff. It's simple and it's probably something around something you already seen before. I sure did. Still there's something about it that kept me watching.

I guess, I liked the actors and the characters, and the ending is well played, abrupt, but makes sense. And yes, one other thing, I believe it was light. You know, like there are many high tension, pressure thrillers, dark, gory, violent. This one it not like that. It's like a dark comedy, although comedy is lacking, but in a sensible way, because comedy tends to make movies unserious and ridiculous. This one remained sensible.

It's like one of those movies that you watch during your lazy Sunday. It's not for Friday eventings.

It's strangely creepy how much we seem not to notice or inquire. Who Invited Them present us the modern man who has blurring personal boundaries and a compromised individuality. It's so common these days that what this plot offers seem to be a scary possibility. Strong performances by Ryan and Melissa to portray a couple still settling in a new set-up. Great dialogues and indeed a satisfying story that would have been a little better if there was a third party who would have attended to the friend who visited back for the toy. Tension was not present nore was sound effects. But when all things considered Who Invited Them is a interesting plot that deserves your time.

It's not a bad film from relatively newb filmmaker Duncan Birmingham, who wrote and directed this drama. I'm not sure why it's listed as a comedy and horror, because there were only a few chuckles, nothing horrific, and only about 10 minutes of any actual thrills or suspense. The rest of the time is mostly dialogue-based scenes that really don't add much to the film. Birmingham's directing was decent, but the screenplay needed more action to fill in all the social awkwardness of the scenes with mostly irrelevant dialogue. Plus the the final act needed more of a punch, instead of just a push on the shoulder.

Who Invited Them has the same premise as most home invasion thrillers, but where it sets itself apart is in their antagonists' backstory. It takes way too long for the film to get to its foregone conclusion, and by then, any steam for thrills have already vanished. All the characters in the film are grey to the point of not caring for their eventual survival. The characterization of the leads is just bizarre. One moment they're acting right and the very next moment, they're making a series of naïve, pointless decisions. It becomes obvious very early on that the antagonists are gas-lighting them, but these rich protagonists act way over their heads, fueled by alcohol and coke.

There is hardly any humor (even of the dark kind) or horror except for a couple of killing scenes. The performances are pretty good across the board (except for one truly idiotic character who is shown to be driving around the neighborhood all night instead of using Google Maps), and that's probably what keeps the film afloat even when the screenplay has little to offer. Shudder backs some good horror ventures sometimes, but this definitely ain't on that list.

The good: All 4 actors nailed their role. This is especially true for the "uninvited guests". They really fed off of each other.

Humor. This wasn't a scary movie. The director kept it clever and embraced the ridiculousness.

The bad: You could see the ending from a mile away.

I kept thinking things would ramp up into a wild finale. That never came.

It was beyond implausible and, at times,, you'll find yourself rolling your eyes.

Overall, I do recommend it, though. The acting alone makes some of the silly moments less silly and actually quite amusing. If you're looking for scares, however, this is not the plsce.