Karyn Kusama is admittedly not a name that carries a lot of positive weight to it. After her amazing directorial debut with 2000’s GIRLFIGHT, Kusama went down an interesting rabbit hole with 2005’s AEON FLUX and 2009’s JENNIFER’S BODY. Both films were poorly received by critics, and neither did incredibly well at the box office either. That being said, it was clear from GIRLFIGHT that Kusama was a talent, and in the trailer for her latest film, THE INVITATION, that talent is very clearly on display.

Check out the trailer below!

The synopsis for the film is as follows:

“In this taut psychological thriller by Karyn Kusama (GIRLFIGHT, JENNIFER’S BODY), the tension is palpable when Will (Logan Marshall-Green, PROMETHEUS) shows up to a dinner party hosted by his ex-wife Eden (Tammy Blanchard, INTO THE WOODS) and new husband, David (Michiel Huisman, GAME OF THRONES).

The estranged divorcees’ tragic past haunts an equally spooky eerie present; amid Eden’s
suspicious behavior and her mysterious house guests, Will becomes convinced that his
invitation was extended with a hidden agenda. Unfolding over one dark evening in the
Hollywood Hills, THE INVITATION blurs layers of mounting paranoia, mystery, and horror until
both Will—and the audience—are unsure what threats are real or imagined.”

Kusama had the following to say about THE INVITATION:

“The Invitation is a suspense-drama about people whose lives are in crisis. Working from a
tradition of grown-up genre films like ROSEMARY’S BABY and LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, the film takes stylistic cues from paranoid thrillers like KLUTE and from the contained staging of actors in HIGH AND LOW. From the first frame to the last, the film builds on an increasing sense of dread and anxiety, in which the growing fears and emotional doubt of our main character, Will, act as a tightening of the screws for the audience. Do we believe in his fears, or dismiss them as even some of his oldest friends do? Does Will’s grief separate him from the reality in front of him, or is it bringing his reality into sharper relief? In seeing the world largely from Will’s unstable point of view, the audience is asking, who is truly to be feared in this group? Who—or what—is genuinely dangerous?”

What are your thoughts on this trailer? Let us know down below!

THE INVITATION hits theaters and VOD on April 6, 2016.

SOURCE: Drafthouse Films