Review by Adam Stephen Kelly
Stars Bryant Chang, Vivi Ho, Kristian Brodie, Jerry Huang, Joseph Ma | Written by Sung In & Carolyn Lin
UK Certification 18 | UK RRP £15.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 96 minutes | Directed by Kevin Ko
Billed as Taiwan's first slasher film, Invitation Only really isn't much of one, perse. It's also not very enjoyable. I hate using the term, but in the interest of summing the film up, you could class it as “torture porn”. It closely follows the style, stories and aesthetic of the Saw and Hostel movies. Too closely in fact. Combine the two and you get this Taiwanese horror. Except if the original Hostel and Saw flicks had a baby, it certainly wouldn't be such a painful experience as this.
In Invitation Only, a young, penniless chauffeur is invited to an exclusive VIP party by the president of a construction company who he has been driving around. The president cannot make the event and gives the driver his invitation under false pretenses as his cousin. Once at the party, held at an old rust bucket of a warehouse, it soon becomes clear that the event is a masquerade for an evening of torture, bloodshed and death.
Everything up until the revelation that the party is not what it seems is good, but when the actual 'horror' of the film begins, it goes downhill, and pretty fast. Not much character development is needed to show someone as a bit of a buffoon, so our first meeting with the protagonist goes well. It's fun learning about him until a little after he arrives at the party, where he joins the company of the filthy rich. But it it those with the cash who turn out to be the bad guys, luring the poor to the event as a means of entertaining the real guests, and killing and torturing them as part of a rather gory showcase. The reason for the bloodshed is really quite silly, with the rich just wanting to get rid of the poor because they grovel for a slice of their wealthy counterparts' lives.
Like I said, Hostel and Saw were the primary influences: you've got the wealthy murderers factor from the Eli Roth films, and the anatomically-correct torture and gore from both series. Are both elements done nearly as well? No. Those movies may have this one, but Invitation Only is not going to inspire even the dullest soul. It's a bloody, brutal affair with similarly choppy editing, and lacks any sense of substance for it to be an enjoyable horror in this day and age.
EXTRAS ★ The trailer.