Shudder Saturday: Who Invited Them (2022)

We've all been in that situation. Having a bit of a get together and you're stuck with people who just don't realise that they should have left. Or maybe people have had a bit of a get together and you are the one who has outstayed your welcome. Either way, Who Invited Them is about guests who stick around long enough to have some fun, but fun that isn't the kind intended by the party hosts.

Ryan Hansen and Melissa Tang play Adam and Margo, the couple throwing a housewarming party that they also hope will allow them to make a good impression with the boss. Well, to be precise, Adam hopes to also make a good impression with his boss. Margo doesn't really care. The party winds to a natural conclusion, and then Adam and Margo encounter Tom (Timothy Granaderos) and Sasha (Perry Mattfeld), a couple who may not have actually been invited to the party. It turns out that Tom and Sasha are neighbours, but it also starts to become apparent that they're more interested in playing games than being your typical houseguests.

The feature debut from writer-director Duncan Birmingham, this is a film that allows him to show just how much he is capable of without trying to overdo things. It's visually simple, but stylish, and most of the main scenes just involve four people in one location. Thankfully, Birmingham lays a very strong foundation, with his writing and cast, and the script and performances work to distract viewers from any potential limitations.

Hansen and Tang are both fun, reacting in a way that allows for them to be believable while also being blinkered enough to keep the plot moving along, and Granaderos and Mattfeld are, well, they're also both fun. There are a few other actors appearing now and again, but it's generally a fun quartet, with two people being a bit more innocent and oblivious to the change in tone while the others smile politely as they twist the knife and try to cause more friction.

Maybe not as thrilling as some might hope for, Who Invited Them is a genuinely great dark comedy that doesn't forget how to add some tension to the proceedings. The 81-minute runtime fairly flies by, nothing feels as if it is being twisted to cheat the audience, and the ending is unexpectedly brilliant, especially as it comes along after a number of moments that most viewers will have predicted from near the very beginning. 

Who invited them? It doesn't really matter when they end up being the highlight of your evening.

8/10

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Fantasy Island (2020)

Do you think it would be fun if someone decided to make a movie version of The Love Boat, but then decided to take the basic premise and twist it into a slasher movie? I am guessing probably not, at least not if you are familiar with the show, and have a fondness for it. The same goes for Hotel, although that was much more of a soap opera. But the same might go for Fantasy Island, a film based on a brand name that will satisfy neither fans of the TV show nor younger viewers who won't know what they're letting themselves in for.

The plot starts off simply enough, after a prologue scene showing someone being terrorised. A bunch of people arrive at Fantasy Island, where they hope that their fantasies will come true. There's Gwen (Maggie Q), a woman who thinks that her fantasy will allow her to make up for a past mistake, Melanie (Lucy Hale), a woman who wants revenge on a school bully (Sloane, played by Porita Doubleday), Patrick (Austin Stowell), who wants to play soldier, and brothers Brax (Jimmy O. Yang) and J. D. (Ryan Hansen), who just want to party hard. Michael Peña is Mr. Roarke, the head of the island, and the one ensuring that people stay the course as their fantasies play out, even if they turn into something unexpected.

Re-uniting some of the people who gave us the much more enjoyable Truth Or Dare (director Jeff Wadlow, who also helped to write the screenplay with Jillian Jacobs and Christopher Roach again, and Hale in a central role), Fantasy Island is just about the most ridiculous and pointless mainstream thriller/horror I can think of in recent years. I guess there's a vein of black comedy running through it, which may help viewers who respond to it more, but it certainly wasn't enough to help me find everything more bearable.

The cast are an admirably diverse selection, I guess, but the one thing they have in common is a level of blandness that doesn't help lift the weak material. Maggie Q ends up becoming the foremost character, working things out ahead of others and trying to change the situation for the better, but that doesn't make her any more interesting. Hale is good though, and she's someone I tend to enjoy in the main roles I have seen her in, and Yang and Hansen work well together, bringing more of the fun moments in the first half of the film. Stowell is saddled with an annoying strand that shows him desperate to have a moment of heroism, and Peña speaks in platitudes while smiling enigmatically. Thankfully, Doubleday is another person I just tend to automatically enjoy onscreen, and there are supporting roles for the always-welcome Michael Rooker and Kim Coates.

It just goes to show you that you can pretty much do anything you like with a well-known brand name and nobody will question you if they think enough teens will go to see it. This makes all the wrong choices, from the lack of characters you want to root for to the downright stupid final act, but thinks all will be forgiven when it moves along slickly enough while occasionally winking at those who remember the TV show. All is not forgiven. And my fantasy has now changed from me being locked in a room with Scarlett Johansson and twelve jars of strawberry jam to simply never having to endure a sequel to this.

3/10

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