The Invited (2010)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

One of my all time favorites.

Brilliant and touching

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The problems with this movie are three: 1. It is too muddled. It is impossible to know what is real, what is a dream, what is a hallucination, what is a flashback etc.. The attempts to do it more interesting by turning the camera around and taking shots from "interesting" angles also just made it more confusing. The ending was strange and unsatisfying.2. There is simply too much of everything. Ghosts, demons, snakes, an Ouija board, a portal to another world, the magic circle, the doll, the old lady, the medium... yes even the Devil himself. Did I forget something..? One gets used to it, tires, and stops reacting by shock/surprise very early on. It is much better to chose only one or a couple of those ingredients, and concentrate on that.3. There is too much blood and gore and mutilated bodies here. This does not make the movie more scary in any positive sense - but only unpleasant.The only thing that redeems this movie a little are the very good actors - considering what they had to work with!

This movie is not for wimps. Its many plot twists and surprises will have you on the edge of your seat, if not hiding under it. Ladies, be sure to have your man beside you when you go to see this film. It is far better to have someone you know whose arm you can grab, rather than to scare some poor, strange guy next to you. Veteran actress Ellen Dow was great as Natalie Shaw, as was newcomer Rhett McKinney as Roger, and the setting of the foothills of the Sierras was beautiful. Mr. McKinney artfully told his story within the time and budget constraints of an indie film. Although a basic story line, the plot had plenty of depth for thinkers.I viewed this film in the vintage Crest Theatre in Sacramento. I look forward to seeing its release in modern venues where theatergoers will benefit from up-to-date sound and projection equipment. Northern California is fortunate to have Ryan McKinney at the helm in promoting the movie industry in the Sacramento area. His passion, drive, and ethics are inspirational. I cannot wait to see where he takes us next.

This movie was made on a realtively small budget in a very much larger landscape of feature films, and was impressive to me because of the smartly written plot and how much was done with so little. I am a writter and tend to analyze movies from that standpoint. What I decided after watching this movie at the Crest Theatre--it was the marquee film for the Sacramento 2010 Film Festival--was that this dude Ryan McKinney is smart, very smart, and does not treat his audience as if they were any thing less. He lets your brain work out details rather than step-by-step going, "Ok audience, 1 + 1 equals 2, and 2 + 2 equals 4...." No, no, no, no, McKinney respects his audience and takes you on a journey (ride!) that kept me beguiled from start to end because I, frankly, did not know what was going to happen next.And then, BAM!, came the ending. It was as if, on a clear blue day, a piano fell straight from the sky. It, if I can show my age and use an expression from back in the day, "Blew my Mind!"

I too saw the Sacramento Film Festival showing. I really, really WANTED to like this movie. I didn't. It was disjointed and at times illogical. The elements are there, but it definitely needs more editing. A lot more editing. I think it is telling that in at least one of the cast lists online one of the main actor's photo(Carlos Alazraqui) is represented by a cartoon monkey, which doesn't seem like a ringing endorsement. Oddly, Carlos' character was portrayed the most interestingly. I also thought Megan Ward, who played the primary protagonist, did a good job. Lou Diamond Phillips wasn't up to par, but, again, that could be an issue with editing. Or not.