Invited (Canada, 2024)
Director Navin Ramaswaran heaps on the harrowing in his screenlife/cult horror feature Invited. Recovering alcoholic Linda (Martina Schabron) has strained relations with her extended family members after causing an accident that injured her young son Logan (Alex Di Brita) to the point of him needing a wheelchair. She’s anxious today because it his her daughter Jessica’s (Beáta Imre) wedding day in Russia to Adrik (Michael Lake), a man none of the family knows personally. Jessica met him on a European trip with her best friend Maddy (Mandy Magnan), who, like the family members, are preparing to watch the wedding on Zoom. Linda’s ex-husband James (Sean Irvine) is watching with Logan, and Linda’s parents Susan (Kris Langille) and William (Andrew Bee) are viewing from their home. All of the invitees received a “do not open until the ceremony” package that they find contains a small knife and a vial of liquid. Astute readers, as seasoned fear-fare fanatics, you can see some red flags and would be right in assuming that this will not be a joyous wedding for Jessica’s family and friend, although the cult members who have indoctrinated Jessica have a quite different viewpoint. The performances are pretty solid throughout. Ramaswaran, working from a screenplay by Monica La Vella, does a masterful job of juggling the screenlife aspects, which include the main Zoom call and private video calls and chats between attendees. He also builds the suspense nicely and doesn’t hold back on showing some grueling, gruesome acts of violence.
Pins and Needles (Canada, 2024)
Chelsea Clark follows up her fun performance in this year’s creature feature comedy Scared Shitless with a more serious role in writer/director James Villeneuve’s horror thriller Pins and Needles. Clark plays diabetic biology grad student Max, who rides back to town from a class project with fellow student Harold (Daniel Gravelle). She’s none too happy when, previously unannounced to her, he stops to pick up his friend Keith (Damian Romeo), who appears to be carrying illegal drugs. After being pulled over by a helpful officer of the law, Harold takes a detour. The vehicle suffers two blown tires in a remote area, and as horror movie luck would have it, there’s a mysterious residence within walking distance. Max investigates the place as the residents of the abode, Emily (Kate Corbett) and Frank (Ryan McDonald) return home. Their arrival turns out to be bad luck for the trio, to put it mildly. Although Pins and Needles has a fair share of suspense as Max tries to stay alive after making a gruesome discovery inside the house — she has both the homeowners and her diabetes to worry about — the tension seems to be rather reserved at times, where it feels like it should be providing more nailbiter moments. Clark does a great job here, continuing to deliver in her genre film roles — she also toplined in 2022’s The Protector — and Corbett and McDonald are obviously having a blast in their villainous roles, in which they send up the ultra-wealthy while portraying batty, bickering psychos.
Invited and Pins and Needles screened as part of the Blood in the Snow Film Festival, which runs November 18–23, 2024 in Toronto, Canada.
