Invitation Only 絕命派對

Yet, it is still unclear why everybody was so excited as the film followed the fairly standard plotline set by numerous sequels over the last 30 years, including Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980), My Bloody Valentine (1981), Scream (1996) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), among others.

For his debut behind the camera, the young Ko depicted the story of a group of pretty conceited things, who are invited to an exclusive party, fully unaware that the special night is just a cover for an evening of torture and murder.

Though the filming was done with a huge amount of style and knowledge of what makes slashers go and simply transplanting that approach into an Asian culture where this sort of thing is still totally foreign, “Invitation Only” regretfully becomes a "horror fans only" experience as it is literally drenched in blood from the opening moments to the finale.

Indeed, the movie is loaded with gruesome special-effects violence – torture, decapitations, hearts ripped from chests, decapitations and more . . . decapitations, which eventually turn “Invitation Only” into a great example of how gore, carnage, and graphic effects are no substitute for an actual story, as the dark and thick blood soaking the storyline can't camouflage an ending anyone can see coming a mile away.

Talented character actors such as Bryan Chang (張睿家), Jerry Huang (黃志瑋), Chu Lei-an (朱蕾安) and Japanese porno star Maria Ozawa (小澤瑪莉亞), are either cardboard cut-outs or sacrificial lambs all along the story.

Even though Ko and his production team did a fine job of capturing the wonder and terror of Taipei City at night, those moments are drowned out by the never-ending series of gruesome murders and dismemberments that “Invitation Only” has in the place of a plot.

Aficionados of the grown-up horror films may find something to admire and enjoy in the movie's extreme visual violence, but any merit or message in “Invitation Only” is washed away in the crimson tide of bloodletting that it unleashes in the name of extreme "thrills."

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