REVIEW: ‘Who Invited Them?’ is Invasion Horror with a Twist

Home invasion horror has a special place in my heart, primarily because of how easy it is to see the events happening on screen happen in real life. While the time-test formula for break-ins is a good one, it’s what happens when you invite in the threat, that really gets the narrative blood flowing. Who Invited Them? is a Shudder Original home-invite horror film (see what I did there) that slowly moves the dial on uncomfortable up until a rousing climax. Written and directed by Duncan Birmingham, Who Invited Them stars Perry Mattfeld, Ryan Hansen, Melissa Tang, and Timothy Granaderos.

Who Invited Them starts with married couple Adam and Margo preparing for their housewarming party in a new home. They’re normal for sure, taking care of their son’s nightmares, playing workplace politics when the party starts, and the housewarming party goes well enough. As they send everyone home and get ready to turn down for the night they realize that a mysterious couple, Tom (Perry Mattfeld) and Sasha (Timothy Granaderos), have stayed instead of following the other guests home. While Adam and Margo are thrown off at first, the charismatic duo reveals that they’re just wealthy and successful neighbors, but as one nightcap leads to another, Adam and Margo start to suspect their new friends are duplicitous strangers with a dark secret.

Centralized in one location, there isn’t a lot for the cast or the camera to hide behind. With a tight script, each word spoken by our ominous house guests baits the couple further and further towards anger and fighting as their marriage is slowly unraveled from its seams. This type of verbal play is where Who Invited Them gets its strength. There is some looming specter of gratuitous violence hanging over the party’s head, just really nosey neighbors pushing our lead couple into increasingly uncomfortable situations.

With his finger on the audience’s pulse the entire time, Birmingham has taken intrusive questions to a new level. It’s interesting to see how simple questions can devolve rapidly, especially when the people asking them know exactly how to push and play people. For much of the film, Tom and Sasha seem to be playing their own game independently of each other. They drop hints, read the room, and continuously and uncomfortably nudge the married couple off a ledge that they seem to be the only ones aware of.

For their part, Tang and Hansen as Margo and Adam are easy to root for because they’re just a couple that needs to talk more. They have their secrets but ultimately they’re not bad people. But even good people in a relationship that hasn’t been put at the forefront of their life fall apart.

Uncomfortable and strange, Who Invited Them is simplicity done right with a killer twist that works perfectly – or more precisely an ending that I didn’t expect. At a great runtime, and only slightly messy in landing its twisty moment, this is one you have to watch. Yet again, Shudder shows why it’s the premier spot for horror.

Who Invited Them is streaming exclusively on Shudder September 1, 2022.