Invitation to Hell (1982)

Directed by Michael J. Murphy [Other horror films: The Last Night (1983), The Hereafter (1983), Bloodstream (1985), Death Run (1987), Moonchild (1989), The Rite of Spring (1995), Skare (2007), Zk3 (2013), Nekros (2015)]

Not to be confused with the Wes Craven film of the same name, Invitation to Hell is a short film coming to us from the United Kingdom, and a low-budget short film at that.

In fact, this is perhaps one of the roughest movies I’ve seen since Blood Cult, and if you’ve seen Blood Cult, then you know the comparison is a damning one. Now, to be sure, given this is a short film (about 41 minutes), it’s not quite as much suffering, but from the questionable audio quality to the blurry and difficult-to-decipher scenes, Invitation to Hell has it’s own issues.

There’s actually a short sequence in which a woman is being chased by someone at night. My television screen, when the screen gets too dark, sort of turns off – not completely, but if it registers what it perceives as darkness on screen, it goes black. This scene had such bad lighting that my TV screen was constantly flashing between ‘active’ and ‘black’. It only happened that once, and I found it more amusing than anything, but it’s a good testament to the type of quality that I’m talking about.

Plot-wise, well, there were some problems. The basic idea is that Jacky (Becky Simpson) is invited to the country home of a school friend, Laura (Catherine Rolands); the problem is, Jacky is a virgin. Now, I don’t know how Laura and company knew, but they do, and so they want to give Jacky to the Devil for a bride. Well, ‘want’ is a strong word, but they opened the wrong book, and the Devil has power to sort of possess those on the lands, so they don’t see as they have a choice.

It’s not really that shabby an idea. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it’s good, if for no other reason I have zero theological beliefs, and stories about how scary the Devil is never did much for me. The problem is that the execution is rather shabby, the performances ultimately feckless, and overall, there’s not a ton going on to save this.

If I can give Invitation to Hell some credit, it did have a pretty solid kill toward the ending, in which a character got stabbed through the neck and both hands, effectively being crucified. It wasn’t overly gory or anything, but it did look pretty decent, and I dug it. There was also an earlier scene in which someone was stabbed through the neck. Of course, that woman being chased that I referenced earlier was killed too, but I couldn’t see how – she was either strangled or hit over the head, but it was too dark to tell.

Ah, well, you can’t win them all.

Of all the performances, I think the best comes from Colin Efford (who was also in another short horror film by the same director of this one, titled The Last Night). Efford played a mute farmhand who was often possessed by the Devil in order to do his dirty deeds. He was far from exceptional, but I thought his stoic and, more importantly, dialogue-free, performance suited him. I mean, compared to the others, even the lead Becky Simpson, he was a superstar. Most performances were just so dull and flat, making what should be dramatic moments somewhat laughable.

I don’t hold that against any of the actors or actresses, though – this was clearly a low budget film, and I highly doubt anyone involved were what we’d traditionally call professionals. I certainly don’t fault them for their performances, and the bigger problem is the somewhat awful presentation, or perhaps more importantly, the quality of the existing print.

Oh, and that ending, while not surprising in any way, was sort of awful. It doesn’t ruin the experience, as the experience was already shaky, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Invitation to Hell isn’t without some charm to the right groups of horror fans. I can say for a certainty that it’s better than plenty of other films, be it Death by Invitation or Fist of the Vampire. The fact it’s only 41 minutes does help, and there’s also a sprinkle of potential throughout the film. It’s still far from good, though, and only if you’re a die-hard fan of horror would I truly recommend you take the time to watch this one.

4/10