The Invitation-- My take on the movie with spoilers!

 Plot: Desperate to connect with family, Evie accepts her cousin's invitation to attend a wedding. Once there, she learns the grim truth about her origins.

Imagine using a website to find your ancestors and then finally meeting someone who readily invites you to a wedding at a castle. Sounds too good to be true. A once in a lifetime of an opportunity, or so it would seem.

Even if that person is your family, you have just met this person. Would you just go and put your complete faith in that person.

While anyone would be wary, Evie is quick to jump at the invitation.  It's free after all. All her travel expenses are going to be covered! Yay!

Now of course she didn’t do her research properly and ended up getting into trouble.

The Invitation initially plays out as a romance. Evie goes to London, attends a wedding, and meets a man she gets instantly smitten by. It's all sweet and romantic until the truth about her newfound family is revealed.

The movie is a slow-burner and throws several hints along the way about the twist. Of course, it is obvious and Evie's character is less endearing and more self-righteous.

Still, it is a decent enough movie that barely satisfies as a romantic drama or horror suspense.

THE INVITATION Plot

The movie opens with a woman called Emmaline running around a castle, and then uses a statue and rope to commit suicide. Before she does, she states that it will end with her.

This is the first scene of the movie so clearly things are not going to end with her.

In present day, we meet Evie who is working as a server at a museum. She is being hit on and is clearly fed up of her life. She lost her parents when she was young and misses having a family. Her friend Grace is there for her but she is a poor substitute for family.

Desperate, Evie tries out one of those ancestry sites and uses a DNA kit.

Soon enough, she finds out that she has matched with someone. The person, Oliver, reaches out to her and wants to meet up with her. Evie immediately agrees immediately to meet up with a total stranger who has claimed online to be a family member.

When she meets him, she is surprised because clearly he is different from her. Oliver is nonplussed and tells her about their ancestor who had an affair with a black footman.

He then tells her about their cousins who are getting married and that she should totally come to London. The trip will be all paid for and Evie barely hesitates before she jumps up and agrees.

Once in London, Evie is mesmerized by the grandeur and castles. She meets a man called Walt and is instantly charmed with him because he is good looking. He profusely apologizes for his stuffy butler who is mean to the new maids but Evie has painted him in the same color. She is still obviously attracted to him.

In fact, Evie is a bit prejudiced herself. The butler had reprimanded the maid for being clumsy but because Evie was a server, she thinks no one should be told off if they make mistakes.

As soon as she reaches her room, Evie wants to gossip with her friend Grace. She also talks about Walt. The she does some walking about and sees the butler giving instructions to the maids.

He instructs one of the maids to clean a room. He tells her to be careful while cleaning it and she takes all precautions, only to be snatched away by something in the room.

What could it be? A monster? A vampire?

The next day, Evie is introduced to the rest of the family. She is welcomed by them all although she is curious about the cousins who are about to be married. She has yet to meet them.

Walt tries to be sweet with her and Evie melts to his charms.

The stuffy butler then sends two other maids to work in thr wine cellar. When asked why two maids need to go down, the butler claims one of them is clumsy.

The maids are idly chatting when they are confronted by an unseen creature.

Walt continues to woo Evie and sends her a dress for the party. Evie hopes to meet the couple that is about to get married but again she doesn't get to meet them and neither do we.

She does get to meet Viktoria who throws in a lot of attitude, and Lucy who is a tad better at not being a snob. Evie avoids the party guests and later when the fireworks go off, Walt comes to her with all his charms and Evie kisses him.

At night, Evie goes jogging when she sees Emmaline outside. She junps in fright. It was only a dream. Evie hasn't been jogging. She has been dreaming about going for jogs.

The next day, Evie is told she must join the other women for manicures. She meets with Viktoria and Lucy again.

Viktoria keeps being her condescending self and when Lucy interjects, she puts her down too. Evie feels bad for Lucy and while she tries a retort, the manicurist slips up and accidentally hurts Evie's finger. Blood pours out and Viktoria jumps up and immediately sucks her blood. Evie is disgusted and pulls away.

She decides to forgo any more interactive sessions with Viktoria and roams about the castle only to end up at an office where she finds a whole file on her, including printouts of her Facebook profile.

Evie confronts Walt who pretty much states that unlike her, he was curious about who the woman who was going to stay with him and his family was.

Just because Evie didn’t care to do research on the strangers she was going to live with, didn't mean no one else was going to.

But Walt is good-looking and charming, and Evie is swayed into being seduced by him. They spend the night together.

Later, Walt says he is so smitten by her he wants to marry her. Evie thinks he is joking and so says yes. She does keep asking if he knows her answer isn't serious. He seems excited that she said yes and doesn't seem to be joking.

THE INVITATION Ending Explained

At dinner, the family gathers once again and Evie keeps asking where the couple who is about to be married is. In all these days, she hadn't even bothered to ask for their names at least.

Walt stands to make an announcement: He and Evie are to be married. Evie is obviously stupefied but before she can react, a maid is brought in and her throat is slit over a glass. Blood fills the glass and everyone takes turns drinking it.

Evie is horrified to discover that her romantic story has suddenly turned into a horror story.

She is told that Emmaline was her ancestor and that they needed to find her to continue the bloodline of vampires. Viktoria and Lucy were Walt's first two wives.

Evie attempts to make a run for it but she is outnumbered and overpowered. She is taken to a cellar to prepare for the wedding. One of the maids decides to help Evie since she hadn't helped Emmaline all those years ago and is guilt-ridden.

Evie escapes the castle and finds a shop open at this late hour. The couple inside promises to help her but instead call Walt and inform him of Evie's whereabouts.

Evie is knocked out and brought back to the castle where she is dressed up as a bride.

She goes up to Walt at the wedding and remembers some positive words from her mother. Evie decides she is not ready to give up just yet. She knows exactly what to do and that is to bite Walt and drink his blood.

Evie gains some of his powers and unleashes them on everyone. She sets the chapel on fire. Walt is weakened so he lies down for a bit while the others try to grab Evie.

Viktoria tries to attack her but Lucy, who is sick of her life, impales herself and Viktoria on a spear. They turn into dust.

Walt finally gets up and doesn’t look handsome anymore. Evie is no longer charmed with someone who looks like that and attacks him before pushing him into the flames.

Evie manages to run away before she burns with the vampiric family. Evie has also lost her temporary vampiric abilities.

Some time later, Evie is sitting with her friend Grace in a car. They are keeping watch on Oliver who has entered a pub. Evie, now super confident, decides to do away with Oliver because he had tricked her.

Evie has turned into a vampire hunter or something.

The movie ends.

The Invitation had an enticing story and a compelling lead. The problem lies in the fact that Evie's character is shown to be a little too defensive over everything.

It is one of those movies made nowadays that rely on diminishing male characters just to show strong female leads.

The climax especially was disappointing. Walt, the vampire who has been around for ages, who was supposed to possess super strength, was easily beaten by Evie who is bad at pottery and doing research on people she is going to live with.

It is nice to see strong female leads in movies but discouraging to see that it must come at the cost of weakened male characters.

SCARE SCALE: 2/5

Check out this movie on Amazon Prime Video