The Ceremony – Deadly Invitation, the review of the Netflix horror film

New York City. Evelyn “Evie” Jackson is a struggling artist who earns a living by freelancing for a catering company with her best friend Grace. Evie takes a DNA test following the disappearance of her mother and discovers that she has a distant English cousin named Oliver Alexander, and decides to meet him. He informs her of the scandal caused by her grandmother Emmaline, who had had an illegitimate child with a black slave and of the fact that she descends from noble origins.

As we tell you in review Of The Ceremony – Deadly Invitation, the protagonist decides to accept the invitation from her newly discovered distant relative, who asks her to accompany him to England for an upcoming family wedding. Upon her arrival, Evelyn gets to know her the mysterious and charming landlord, Walter De Ville, owner of that immense manor immersed in the countryside, and she feels inevitably attracted to him. But during his stay within those ancient walls, he will discover how the suggestive manor hides a secret very dangerous…

Who’s back

We would like to inform you right away that if you want to continue reading this article part of the surprise will be lost, as to thoroughly analyze what is told in the film one cannot ignore the work from which it was even remotely inspired. Having set the record straight, let’s just as immediately cut the corner by telling you how The Ceremony – Deadly Invitation is nothing more than a modern reinterpretation of Dracula, updated to modern times and with a more feminist perspective than usual, as further underlined by the epilogue which is partially out of tune with the previous atmospheres. Atmospheres that go together – and it couldn’t be otherwise – ad a gothic setting which partially recalls some of Guillermo del Toro’s works, first of all Crimson Peak (2015), with plays of shadows and an often oppressive darkness that characterize the most restless soul of the story.

Blood calls blood

A story which, as mentioned in the final part, veers towards a blatantly gendered vervewith the action taking over as soon as the actual revelation about the real identity of the characters is triggered, ready to a showdown with no holds barred and literally to the death. The screenplay is not always convincing in this uneven mix of tones and the background of the various protagonists is not explored properly, leaving some pending things and others at the mercy of nothingness. Taking on the role of the first tossed and then combative Evie is excellent Nathalie Emmanuelwho after her role as Missandei in game of Thrones which launched his career is carving out a fair amount of space for himself on the big screen too. The the rest of the cast is somewhat anonymousstarting with the villain and his henchmen, who also seem to be slaves to stereotyped characterizations.

Eros and Thanatos

The romantic side, fundamental given the (in)turn taken by the plot, is not convincing enough to be credible, with a rapid infatuation and an equally instantaneous seduction acting as a prelude to the aforementioned supernatural twist. Some references to Bram Stoker’s classic are also gratuitous and unsuspecting, complete with an elderly holidaymaker whose name, curiously enough, is… Mina Harker. Here, paradoxically, The Ceremony – Mortal Invitation is most convincing in its playful soul, where it offers a quarter of an hour of enjoyable themed entertainment. A little short for a film that relied on very different premises, but which despite everything managed to win box office favors at least at home: with a budget of ten million dollars, it grossed almost four times as much, with all due respect to purists and critics.