a review of 致命邀请

HOOPTOBER, NIGHT TWENTY-SEVEN: The thing I really liked about this one is how it keeps the strangeness of the party in this state of quantum superposition for the first 70 minutes before finally showing (some, but not all of) its cards. Maybe something happened to Choi, or maybe he's just running late. Maybe the hosts are in a weird cult, or maybe they made a legitimate personal spiritual breakthrough. Maybe John Carroll Lynch's character is a legitimate psychopath who killed the friend who tries to step out early, or maybe he's a guy who took a wrong turn and is trying to make things better. Maybe the wine is poisoned, and maybe it's not. Karyn Kusama's direction manages to keep us engaged instead of frustrated, doling out just enough information at the right time to keep things moving along until the end. It's a great movie, even for folks who might be ambivalent about horror and suspense.