Ancestry and 23andMe are just two of the many companies that have capitalized on the growing interest in DNA testing in the last decade by offering at-home DNA test kits to clients curious about their ancestry or eager to make new connections with distant relatives. There are as many tales of a family secret being unearthed or a half-sibling being found through genetic genealogy as there are of a cold case murder being solved or an adoptee being reunited with their biological family.
With so much interest in the field, it was only a matter of time until a film used it as a setting. The horror genre is well suited to exploring the fascinating and horrifying possibilities of tracing your family tree. The Invitation depicts the terrifying experience of finding out about long-lost relatives.
The Invitation 2022, starring Nathalie Emmanuel of “Game of Thrones” and “Fast and Furious,” is about an adult orphan named Evie who takes a consumer DNA test and learns she has extended family in Britain. The trailer for the film is available exclusively online and can be viewed in the player above or via the embed below. The terrible, deadly background of Evie’s newly discovered, extravagantly affluent ancestors and the family’s dark intentions for her are revealed to Evie shortly after she meets her new cousins.
“(Evie) doesn’t really feel like she has anyone. And so when this kind of random, long-lost cousin happens upon her life after taking a DNA test for fun, just to be silly or just for the fun of it, it really kind of draws her in because she’s someone who is really craving family and a support network again,” . “She gets kind of pulled into this family with really high expectations, in a way. And yeah, like you say, be careful what you wish for because they aren’t exactly what she thought they were and they would be.”
Emmanuel observed that Evie, in the end, must “fight for her life” and “find the darkest parts of herself to survive.” Emmanuel added that she could relate to her character and the symbolism in the Invitation 2022, such as “being in a space where you are the minority, all of these people are very wealthy, white aristocracy. And Evie is someone who struggles financially, she’s not from a super-wealthy family, she’s a woman of color, she’s coming from such a different space. And so she’s already kind of on alert, on high alert, because she’s already at a kind of disadvantage in every possible way. But what they probably didn’t count on was how smart and savvy and the strength within her.”
The Invitation is directed by Jessica M. Thompson and features many women in key roles behind the camera, including screenwriter Blair Butler. For Emmanuel, having a woman at the helm of The Invitation was a source of pride given how few female feature directors there are, let alone in the horror genre. The actor hailed Thompson as a “really, really smart, confident, knows-what-she-wants, brilliant director.” Emmanuel also praised Thompson for helping to craft the relationship between Evie and Thomas Doherty’s antagonist, Walter, whose seduction of Evie masks his nefarious true intentions: “Jess did a lot of work with us to help build that ease, that chemistry that they immediately have, and which ultimately lures her into a false sense of security.”
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The Invitation 2022 First Look!
What “The Invitation 2022” Trailer Revealed?
It is revealed in the preview that Evie has been initiated into a coven of vampires. Both actual and conceptual blood relations are bound up in the concept of kinship
– is “what the film is all about and what all the characters are motivated by,” director Thompson wrote. “Evie’s decision to take an innocuous DNA test is what propels her into this nightmare situation. All of us crave to know where we come from, our heritage, our family origins… But sometimes it is better to leave that history buried. Another central idea in the film is how ‘chosen family’ can often be more true and more valuable than blood, and I think that’s an idea everyone can relate to.”
“The way into our story is unassuming and relatable. Evie is a New York City artist looking for belonging, so she takes a DNA test and finds some long-lost relatives. It’s a modern, relatable situation — one that many people find themselves in these days, including myself,” Thompson said, acknowledging her own use of DNA testing. “Thankfully, my newfound relatives were decent humans and not part of a sinister cult.”
Since Thompson wanted to make a vampire movie out of The Invitation, he looked into the roots of the subgenre and the legends that inspired it. For generations, zombies have captivated the imaginations of mankind. The filmmaker elaborated, “I did a thorough dive into vampire origin tales while preparing for the film, and it was surprising just how much we have gone from history and modified the lore through novels and movies over the previous 30 years.
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