[Film Review] Invitation Only (2009)

Invitation Only is a testament to the fact that you can really grow in your career and how trends in Horror can influence someone’s style. Kevin Ko, known for the chilling Taiwanese Found-Footage horror Incantation (2022, who’s Netflix release sparked a viral craze), started of in a different corner of the genre with Invitation Only, a Taiwanese late-2000s torture porn flick reminiscent of Hostel meet Taiwanese soft-core.

Invitation Only is a 2009 Taiwanese horror film that centers around a group of wealthy people who are invited to a mysterious party where they soon find themselves being hunted down and killed one by one. Seeing that it came out on the tail-end of the torture porn trend of the 2000s that gave us Hostel (2005) and Saw (2004), you can see the direction and ambition it had. Which makes it extra sad that it is such a miss, especially if you’ve seen Incantation and therefore Kevin Ko’s potential.

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Unfortunately, the film  relies on tired horror movie tropes and  characters are one-dimensional and unconvincing. The plot is predictable and would benefit from more  tension or suspense,in order for viewers  to become invested in the story. There is quite a mix of Asian backgrounds, but it would have been nice to see that choice flushed out a little more. Even Hostel, the gratuitous gore-fest that it is, gives the characters a little more to work with. (Don’t judge me, I was really into the torture-porn trend when it first came out) All of this paired with an overbearing male gaze just did not work for me. Women in this movie are heavily sexualized and only serve to be exploited and then slaughtered.

The pacing is also an issue, with long stretches of dialogue and exposition that do little to move the story forward-at times,  it almost feels like the movie is mansplaining classism to you.. The special effects are subpar, and the gore feels gratuitous rather than impactful. Which is not something that always matters, but considering  the overall quality of the film, it really stands out.

Overall, Invitation Only is a forgettable horror movie that sadly fails to deliver on its premise. While it may have a few scares here and there, it ultimately falls flat due to its lack of originality, weak characters, and predictable plot. It is not even a movie you can do a drinking game/bingo to, because it’s missing the basic “fun” factor of bad movies. If you're looking for a truly horrific Asian torture-porn movie, you're better off looking elsewhere such as the Japanese Grotesque (2009) from the same year or for a good found footage scare check Kevin Ko’s more recent work Incantation (2022).

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