"The Invitation" - Review

Evie (Nathalie Emmanuel) is a struggling artist in New York city. Her mother passed away recently, and she is feeling listless. So as she works at a party for a DNA testing firm, she takes a chance and takes one: discovering that she is related to a rather wealthy English family. On a limb, she joins awkward cousin Oliver (Hugh Skinner) at a family wedding in England. She meets a variety of relatives and strangers, including dapper Lord of the Manor Walter De Ville (Thomas Doherty), but there may be sinister intentions behind her invitation...

It took a lot of effort to not put the synopsis of Karyn Kusuma's "The Invitation" there (please watch that film, it's excruciating in the best way), this film is an odd duck.
It has moments where its direction is pretty good (highlights involve a feast and the sloppy, messy soundsof eating and the close-ups of the food in a stark, disgusting detail; and a manicure sequence) but it never really rises above "fine". Largely it's a tonal problem, a common problem for films and particularly horror movies. Writer Blair Butler (whom I know as the model on the front cover of "Booster Gold" Issue 23) is going for a "Dracula" transplant (particularly Brides of Dracula, with the characters of bitchy Viktoria, Stephanie Corneliussen having fun, and adorable blonde Lucy, played by Alana Boden) and for a while that seems what they are going for: Baroque Goth drama and a fish out of water story with a likeable Nathalie Emmanuel.

Unfortunately it never reaches the tension it craves, and it also never hits the biting (hah) satire of something like "Ready or Not". When the climax happens it is fine. The catharsis isn't as earned as it could be. I don't think it helps that the chemistry between Emmanuel and Doherty doesn't spark and fizzle.
There's a few good jokes, and Sean Pertwee is fun as the dickish butler, but I'd best describe the movie as "inessential".