Who Invited Them

source: Who Invited Them

Who Invited Them (2022) follows a couple as they host a housewarming party which is attended by a mysterious man and woman that they've never met. The concept for this film was fairly simple and I feel it has been done before but I actually enjoyed it a lot! It wasn't perfect and had some issues but it was gripping and had some great twists and turns. The cinematography for this movie was actually surprisingly impressive! It wasn't too over-the-too but was super effective. There were a lot of strong colour palettes making every shot pleasing to the eye. The score wasn't really anything special and wasn't used often. I wish it was a bit more unique to further add to the atmosphere. The sound mixing itself was pretty good though and the sound design was effective! At first I found the two leads quite annoying, but as the film went on I grew to really like them! The characters of Tom and Sasha specifically were very interesting and the actors played them in a charismatic yet eerie style; I loved seeing the the cracks that showed through in their characters! Some of my favourite parts in this film were when the characters were sat just talking. However, some of the dialogue was way too cringeworthy and it occasionally let the film down. The film builds up the story well and is consistently engaging. It was mainly a slow-burn but I feel it was done right and not only kept my attention but made sure I was fully immersed all throughout. It was a little predictable but this wasn't a huge issue. The climax felt a bit rushed but I enjoyed it regardless and loved the somewhat ambiguous ending.

"Can we hit the reset button?" Uh no. Just get out of my residence and never come back again. Wait, why aren't you leaving? And what's with the smirk? Anyway, a couple introduce their new home by having a party with some of their friends. Another couple crashes said party uninvited and unknown in their identity. Vexing. That's the rub of 2022's sometimes tantalizing but overly taunting, Who Invited Them. "Them" is a psychological tease of a film that occasionally revels in the conch of snobbery. It could be classified as horror but it's too new-fashioned for that. For 85 percent of the movie's 81-minute running time you're involved because rookie director Duncan Birmingham turns those screws. The way his camera moves and the way he sets up scenes in smoke-screen fashion, Duncan is an enlivened expert in the Hitchcockian. You kind of know where Who Invited Them is headed but at the same time, you kind of don't. That's the fun part. "Them" stars Ryan Hansen, Melissa Tang, Timothy Granaderos, and Perry Mattfeld. They credibly play the two couples (or maybe couples) who through drink and drug, have a psychosomatic tug of war with each other. Through all the various subterfuges and gruesome flashbacks, Who Invited Them maintains its status as a talky flick that throws shades of creeping you out. Its setting of the Hollywood Hills shows us that these hills are "Hollyweird". What keeps Who Invited Them from greatness however, is how things wrap up. It eventually becomes part routine, home invasion slasher and part confusing ending (talk about a cinematic oxymoron). You'd think that after Birmingham's effectively off-kilter direction he'd settle in and deliver a more tighter final act. "Them" leaves you on the edge of interpretation and not in a good way. As a viewer I wouldn't have "invited" that.

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.