Sometimes, a movie exists in this world that feels like the creation of all our fanfiction dreams rolled into one. And when it hits theaters, you’re shocked more people aren’t talking about it. That film, in 2022, was The Invitiation, marketed as a horror movie when the reality is that it was a gothic romance.
It’s one of those movies where you’re watching it and are shocked there’s not a sea of fan art or theories or even people sharing how they’d like to have the same sort of invitation that Evie (Nathalie Emmanuel) gets in the film. Point is: No one really knew what this movie was going to be, and then when word started getting out, all the fanfic teams showed up to see it.
I truly and honestly had no idea what this movie was and didn’t have an interest in it. Then someone said that the movie was a gothic romance, and I got a ticket very quickly. So, the marketing really did make it so people didn’t see it as we would have otherwise. But now we can all watch it together and talk about how Evie really had the dream situation.
Who would say no to this situation?
The thing about The Invitation is that I am the kind of person who would have said, “Yeah, I’m down” instantly. To be clear, the idea of the movie is that Evie realizes she has family she didn’t know about, and when she goes to visit, they’re basically offering her up to be their vampire overlord’s new wife.
And for the most part, she does seem to love being around Walter De Ville (Thomas Doherty). That changes when she realizes that she’s been lied to and that everyone around her is just a pawn in the vampire’s game, but think about it: How many fanfictions have you read that are all about some mythical being falling in love with a human?
It is sort of the same thing, but just that Evie wasn’t aware of what is going on until it was too late for her to admit her love for Walter. Or that she’d want to because it’s all about family and their willingness to give each other up to the vampire’s whimsy. The gothic romance aspect of The Invitation is great. Evie is in a creepy house, her own cousin gives her up, and she’s left alone in a foreign country. But then she sort of refuses this offer, and that’s where the fanfiction aspect of it would for sure vary because …. we’d all have accepted the ask to be a vampire wife, right?
The point of all this is that this movie was made for the fanfiction lovers, and if the marketing had been better, everyone would have been out in droves to see it. Because it really does have all the moving parts to make it a “Tumblr hit” of a movie. Now though, we can all watch it on Netflix and self-insert into Evie’s position.
(featured image: Sony Pictures Releasing)
