The Invitation: Neon NZ Movie Review

Cast: Nathalie Emmanuel, Thomas Doherty, Hugh Skinner. Sean Pertwee

Director: Jessica M Thompson

Re-skinning the idea of Dracula but with nothing more than anaemia, The Invitation fails to really deliver any bite outside of a solidly impressive Nathalie Emmanuel from Game of Thrones.

Emmanuel is orphan Evelyn, a down on her luck New York struggling artist who on a whim does a DNA ancestry test only to discover she has a wealthy set of relatives in the UK. Meeting with Skinner's Oliver, Evie is convinced to go and attend a wedding in the UK - despite Evie's best friend warning against it.

However, Evie's charmed by the Lord of the Manor, Walt (Doherty, channeling early Julian McMahon) and soon finds herself caught up in a curse thousands of years old.

The Invitation is a darkly frustrating affair, that feels like Twilight took on Dracula, and nobody won.

Mixing young adult dialogue with utterly insane character choices that ramp up levels of camp and stupidity with equal aplomb, the film swiftly settles for seeing what goes on in the shadows and casting aside its much better African-American enters white household social satire cum horror.

Things aren't much improved by Thompson's somewhat limp direction with darkness being the choice for suspense and horror scenes and with every twist coming as expected.

With a slow pace, this is less a Gothic marvel and more a Renaissance bore - Emmanuel makes Evie watchable enough, even if the script plays up her sympathies and seems to offer parallels with a young Meghan Markle entering the royal household.

The final 10 minutes offer some kind of hope for the story, but by then, all the life and blood from the film have drained beyond recognition and The Invitation limps toward well and truly outstaying its welcome.