 WHO INVITED THEM will fill a Friday evening after a few too many Old Fashioneds but will likely be forgotten in the Saturday morning hangover fog. Who Invited Them? (2022) Adam and Margo's housewarming party is a success. One couple linger after the other guests, revealing themselves to be wealthy neighbours. As one night cap leads to another, Adam and Margo suspect their new friends are duplicitous strangers Written and directed by Duncan Birmingham A Horror Movie Review by: Mark Walker Some minor spoilers ahead The premise of WHO INVITED THEM is simple. Having bought a swanky new house in the hills, Adam (Ryan Hansen) and Margo (Melissa Tang) throw a party to show off their new status symbol. However, it turns out that Adam is a bit of a dick and people leave early, unimpressed by his posturing and need to be centre of attention. Or do they…? Tidying up after the party, they find Tom (Timothy Granaderos) and Sasha (Perry Mattfeld) still hanging around in their new home. At first, Adam and Margo are shocked and angry and try to get the strangers to leave. However, they calm down when they discover Tom and Sasha are their new neighbours. Adam’s insecurities and need to impress lead to him invite Tom and Sasha to stay and drink more of his ‘famous’ Old-Fashioned cocktails. Thus begins an evening of reflection for Adam and Margo as the cracks in their marriage are pushed wide open by their guests who manipulate them in a way that eventually leads to violence and terror. ‘Eventually’ is the key word here. For a film that runs to just 80 minutes, it takes a long time for anything to really happen. Influenced by similar home invasion movies like Ils, Cherry Tree Lane, The Strangers, Knock Knock, and Funny Games, WHO INVITED THEM tries to build tension as the interaction between Adam and Margo, and Tom and Sasha develops over one night. However, it isn’t until about 15 minutes before the end that any real reveals occur, by which time it is too late to fully capitalise on the terror that Adam and Margo face. This is frustrating for the audience as we know exactly who Tom and Sasha are very early on, but we have to wait far too long see their true colours. Tom and Sasha are clearly psychos, so let’s see them in action, don’t draw things out. In Funny Games, the boys get stuck into terrorising the family almost immediately and are completely unpredictable. The horror arises from the fear of what is going to happen next and putting yourself in that situation. In WHO INVITED THEM, although we know Tom and Sasha are wrong ‘uns, they just come across as a bit annoying; there isn’t anything to fear in what they do. Yes, they force Adam and Margo to face up to the failings in their relationship, but not in any way that didn’t seem to be almost immediately forgotten by the couple. Take away the last 15 minutes of the film and this is just extreme marriage counselling. Considering who Tom and Sasha are revealed to be, this was a missed opportunity. Instead of getting Tom and Sasha front and centre doing their thing, the film chucks in a side plot about Adam and Margo’s son, Duncan, who is at a sleep over. When Duncan realises he has forgotten his favourite toy, the mother, Teeny (Tipper Newton) sets out in the middle of the night to drive back to Adam and Margo’s on a mission to retrieve the stuffed toy. This really is just padding to add tension – would Teeny get to the house and save Adam and Margo or would she get caught in the funny games? I didn’t really care. Once Teeny, using her cell phone while driving her shiny new electric car gets lost and doesn’t think to use sat nav, I couldn’t care less. This subplot simply serves as a catalyst for something that happens towards the end of the movie that really had no bearing on the story at all. We could have gotten to the same place without it. Hell, Adam and Margo didn’t even need to have a kid, he had no impact on the story and was never in any jeopardy. It just felt like padding and a distraction from Tom and Sasha. The film is well directed and looks good. Granaderos and Mattfeld do a fantastic job of being annoying and threatening and are definitely the more interesting of the couples. They really should have been allowed to do more and cut loose earlier in the film. When the film finally hits its stride 15 minutes before the end, they get to show who they really are, and we get to see the psychos at play. We see a glimmer of the way their minds work and the terror they are capable of wreaking. But it is too late by then. Unleashing their inner psychos and upping the unpredictability would have added so much more terror to this film. The acting is good, and the four main characters work well together. It starts a bit shaky and some of the dialogue is a bit clunky to begin with, but it does settle down and was fine for the rest of the film. Now, all this makes it sound like I hated WHO INVITED THEM. I didn’t. I had fun watching it, I just felt it didn’t quite capitalise on the premise and took too long to get to the juicy bits. The film is also listed on IMDB as COMEDY HORROR and the comedy didn’t really land for me, I was hoping for something darker, along the lines of FUNNY GAMES, but that is a personal preference, and it may just be that I didn’t click with the vision of the team behind the movie. If you like the sound of the logline and enjoy the trailer, then give WHO INVITED THEM a go, just don’t expect full on home invasion terror. WHO INVITED THEM is a solid but predictable thriller that wastes a bit too much time getting to the juicy stuff. While mind-games are a big part of the film, we never really get beyond the mildly irritating for the most part. When you have psychotic loons insinuating themselves with strangers for nefarious purposes, you want to see them at their worst but in WHO INVITED THEM we really just get to see how crappy Adam and Margo’s relationship is – which may well be the point, but Tom and Sasha are easily the more interesting couple and feel like a missed opportunity. It really just feels like Tom and Sasha were killing time with Adam and Margo and, but for a conveniently forgotten earring, everything would have probably been fine. WHO INVITED THEM will fill a Friday evening after a few too many Old Fashioneds but will likely be forgotten in the Saturday morning hangover fog. CHECK OUT TODAY'S OTHER ARTICLES BELOW
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