Invitation Only (2009) Review

“Invitation Only” Blu-ray Cover

Director: Kevin Ko
Cast: Bryant Chang, Jerry Huang, Julianne Chu, Kristian Brodie, Maria Ozawa, Kao Ying-Hsuan, Lene Lai, Vivi Ho, Liz Ran Yang, Joseph Ma
Running Time: 95 min. 

By Paul Bramhall

Like every genre, horror is one that goes through phases. While in recent times we increasingly see horror being used as a theme to explore trauma, back in the 2000’s the genre was in a much more visceral place, the result of which saw the emergence of movies which came to be referred to as ‘torture porn’. At the forefront were titles like Eli Roth’s Hostel (and its sequel) and James Wan’s Saw (which would spawn a total of 5 sequels in the 2000’s alone), defined by how much gratuitous bodily harm could be inflicted on screen, and the assumed pleasure that viewers took from watching it. Of course the Hollywood movies in question were far from the pioneers of the genre, with arguably Japan being the originator of this specific niche, particularly movies like 1998’s Tumbling Doll of Flesh, which made their western counterparts seem like PG rated material in comparison.

What can’t be denied though is that in the 2000’s it was movies like Hostel and Saw which pushed this type of genre offering to the fore, and in Asia 2009 proved to be a fruitful year for those who liked their horror to be caked in blood and guts. Japan got in on the action with Koji Shirashi’s Grotesque (which remains banned in the UK to this day), in Indonesia the Mo Brothers made their feature length debut with Macabre, and another first-time director in the form of Kevin Ko unleashed “Taiwan’s first slasher film” with Invitation Only.

The narrative focuses on a low paid driver played by Bryant Chang (Eternal Summer), who works as a chauffeur for a corporate CEO, played by Jerry Huang (49 Days).  When Chang accidentally stumbles across Huang having a dalliance in the back seat with a famous model, Huang buys his silence by offering an invitation card to an exclusive private function, one which allows its attendees to live out their wildest fantasies. While initially reluctant, Huang insists Chang can pass himself off as his cousin, convincing him to attend.

Once there Chang finds himself in the company of high-class socialites and businessmen, but soon makes himself comfortable when he’s given not only the opportunity to have sex with the same model as his boss, but is also gifted the Ferrari of his dreams for good measure. As expected though, things are too good to be true, and along with 4 other members of the party who’ve been invited under false pretences, soon the 5 find themselves isolated from the other guests and hunted down by a masked knife wielding maniac. Once caught, they’re bound and wheeled out in front of an appreciative crowd to be tortured and mutilated in a variety of cruel and wince inducing ways, with the chances of escape becoming increasingly narrow as time passes.

If any this sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve seen it plenty of times before, with the previously mentioned Hostel being an obvious influence. However Invitation Only makes no pretences of what it’s there to do – an original story is clearly not the priority here, so much as it is filling the screen with a variety of increasingly gory and uncomfortable scenes of torture and death. While Ko’s debut will certainly never be accused of being a high budget affair, he’s obviously put all his resources to where they count the most, and to that end the result is a brisk 90 minutes which wastes no time in getting down to the nastiness that most will be checking in for.

As an extra incentive to draw audiences in, Ko also resorts to what’s popularly known as stunt casting by giving (now former) half Japanese half Canadian porn actress Maria Ozawa (Tokyo Species) what’s essentially an extended cameo. Ozawa was at the peak of her popularity in the late 2000’s, and Invitation Only would be the first time for her to crossover into a mainstream production. She’d notably go onto feature in a couple more mainstream productions in subsequent years, including the Indonesian comedy Menculik Miyabi (where she basically plays a version of herself) in 2010, and the Filipino horror Nilalang in in 2015. In Invitation Only she’s hardly asked to do anything out of her ballpark (perhaps the wrong expression to use), however her performance (in which she speaks in English) as a seductive model is a convincing one, making her a welcome addition to the punchy runtime. 

On the negative side her role also reveals some of the plot holes in the narrative, especially since once it’s revealed why the others are being hunted, the reason’s (or lack of) behind her own demise don’t necessarily make sense. Other minor details include a control room complete with surveillance monitors of the entire complex being apparently unmanned, as well as the whole point of wearing a mask when the hunted are going to be killed anyway kind of feeling like a pointless endeavour. However these are ultimately small gripes that can be overlooked mainly because Ko executes the gory set pieces with aplomb, even if they don’t necessarily come with much of a dramatic punch.

With the target audience being the same demographic that lapped up similar genre offerings, Ko deluges the screen with all kinds of bodily harm involving fingernails, eyeballs, genitalia, blunt force trauma to the face, and bodily dismemberment. It’s all executed using practical effects, and delivers the intended wince inducing reaction as the cast members become increasingly bathed in the red stuff through a variety of cruel and unusual ways. Ironically one of the most barf inducing scenes is also one that likely cost the least to make, as Chang explores a high ledge with his hand which, unbeknownst to him, is swarming with cockroaches. As a result he inadvertently crushes one under his finger, which is filmed as a gratuitous close up in all its gooey and entrail spewing glory. Fans of the likes of Centipede Horror may well rejoice, but the scene made me lose my appetite for a few hours.

As the lead Chang is serviceable if slightly bland, with co-star Julianne Chu (The Ghost Tales) offering up a far more spirited performance as a fellow hunted guest. While her role is that of a classic scream queen (even though it involves minimum screaming), Chu’s character spends most of her time running away from certain death, hiding from certain death, and trying to disguise herself as a legitimate guest to escape certain death. The various perilous situations the script puts her in do an admirable job of ramping up the tension and injecting a sense of danger into proceedings, preventing Invitation Only from simply being a shock reel of gory effects, and giving the audience someone to get behind who you want to see make it to the end.

The host of the party is actually played by a foreigner, Kristian Brodie, his only credit as an actor and apparently only time he dabbled in the film industry. Watching Invitation Only in 2023 (when it received a Blu-ray release in the U.S. courtesy of Unearthed Films) it’s easy to draw comparisons between his masked character and Lee Byun-hun’s role in the popular Squid Game series (which also uses the trope of using an invitation card). Despite the track record of gweilo performances in Asian cinema hardly being stellar (remember we’re in the same decade that Paul Rudd starred in Gen-Y Cops), Brodie clocks in an effective if slightly stilted performance as the antagonist of the piece, with his eventual comeuppance being a highlight.

While Invitation Only doesn’t offer up anything new or original (and I doubt many would argue that it needed to attempt a car chase), what it does offer is 90 minutes of gore and brutality, and I’d daresay it’d make a welcome double bill with The Sadness, a more recent Taiwanese splatter fest that hit similar notes. If you like your horror served straight and with liberal helpings of gore, then as “Taiwan’s first slasher film”, Invitation Only makes for an inviting proposition.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6.5/10