From director Jessica M. Thompson and writer Blair Butler, The Invitation follows the story of a struggling artist named Evie (Nathalie Emmanuel) who finds herself looking for family and connection after the recent death of her mother. After taking a mail-in DNA test, she's surprised by some unexpected results - and when her long-lost cousin Oliver (Hugh Skinner) invites her overseas to attend a wedding in an effort to introduce her to more extended family, Evie reluctantly agrees, finding herself at a lavish manor in the English countryside owned by a very handsome and mysterious host in Walter (Thomas Doherty). As the wedding draws nearer, strange things begin to happen around the mansion - and Evie is torn between a potential new romance with Walter and hidden horrors that may be lurking in not only the house's depths but her family's ancient history. The movie also stars Stephanie Corneliussen as Viktoria, Alana Boden as Lucy, Courtney Taylor as Grace, and Sean Pertwee as Mr. Fields.
Ahead of the film's theatrical release this week, Collider had the opportunity to speak with Thompson about making this modern-day Gothic horror film. Over the course of the interview, which you can either watch above or read below, the director spoke about the importance of working with a female-led creative team, how filming on-location in a Hungarian castle helped set the mood, and which scene was the hardest to film. She also discussed working with Emmanuel and Doherty, how the production design weaves beauty and horror together, and more.
Collider: First of all, I have to tell you, I was watching this movie over the weekend, and it started thunder storming outside, which I feel just lent the perfect ambiance to the whole experience.
JESSICA M. THOMPSON: Oh, that's perfect. I mean, that's the best way to watch a horror film on a rainy night.
It really kind of enhanced the experience, because this movie feels like something I can only describe as a modern Gothic. It definitely has that sensibility, but I would love to know what drew you to this project initially. Was it reading the script? Did you realize you wanted to be involved at some other point?
THOMPSON: I've been wanting to make a horror film since the day I decided to become a filmmaker, which was when I was 12 years old. I grew up watching Jaws, and Alien, and The Omen, and Psycho and The Birds. I've always been drawn to this genre, so this was just a dream come true to be able to tell a horror story. When I read Blair Butler's script and saw that it was a modern origin story of one of the brides of Dracula, I was just like, "Oh, sold." I hadn't seen that before. It felt fresh. Like you said, it's contemporary, but it's also Gothic. It's got throwbacks to the old world, but also some things that are really modern. Also, to be honest, it was Evie's character. She's this 26-year-old artist living in New York, struggling to get by. I moved to New York when I was 24, and didn't know a soul in the world, to become a filmmaker. I thought that was a character that was really identifiable. Sometimes you can feel lonely in a big city, and she's really craving human connection, and that's kind of where the story goes awry.
RELATED: 'The Invitation': Nathalie Emmanuel and Thomas Doherty on Evie and Walter's Relationship and Filming the Dinner Scene
One of the things I wanted to ask you about was hiring a female-led creative team. Why was that important to you, and what were the ways in which having that perspective on this project really made an impact?
THOMPSON: It's wildly important to me. I hired my first cinematographer, Autumn Eakin, who worked on my first feature with me. All of our creative HODs, heads of department, on set, were women. To me, it's just a difference of perspective. When you get something told time and time again, it's not actually just a man versus woman thing. It's, "Why do I want to watch the same film made by the same kind of people?" As soon as you add diversity to the mix, whether that's race, religion, background, sexuality, gender, whatever it is, you're going to get a more interesting film just because it hasn't been done before. So simply, I wanted to keep it fresh if you want to do that, and also, we need more women in the business. So of course I'm going to hire women.
I have to ask you about where this was filmed, because the setting is gorgeous, but really lends a sense of place to the story. What were you most excited about in getting to film on location, and where did you film specifically? Just for people that might not know?
THOMPSON: We filmed in Hungary for six months, and we were obviously having Hungary stand in the place of New York and of countryside England, so finding the right style and the right architectural style was really important. We got this backstage tour of all these beautiful castles throughout Hungary, which was just - for someone who's a history buff, it was just a delight. But when I walked up to this castle in Nadasdladany, the one that we used in the film, and it was in the Tudor English style, and it was so Gothic I just thought, "Oh, this is it." But then when I found out that the person who built the castle was the great-great-grandson of Madam Báthory - who, if you don't know, was called Countess Dracula and The Blood Countess, because she used to bathe in the blood of virgins. I was like, "Oh, we have to film in this castle. There's no other choice." It was really great to be in Eastern Europe where Vlad the Impaler, for those who don't know, is arguably the inspiration for Dracula. I got to visit the prison where he was held prisoner for 13 years, the real Vlad the Impaler. So just being surrounded by all that history was just wonderful.
One of the ways that this movie really succeeds is how it weaves beauty and horror together. There are a lot of ways in which it does it [that] people might not be aware of - but the production design, especially, I think you get a really good sense of how that's subtly woven together. How did you try to hide those visuals in plain sight where people might not be expecting them?
THOMPSON: Thank you for noticing. It was definitely at the forefront of my mind. To me, when you look at that beautiful banquet scene, when you look at that rehearsal dinner scene, you see all this decadent food, and it's all beautiful, and colorful, and kind of ornate. But when you get closer you realize it's all rotting underneath. It's all dead, it's all falling apart, there are even flies and maggots growing in it. It was about creating that contrast, like you said, that beauty and that horror, that romance and that horror, that really goes together. Between the upstairs and the downstairs world, that's a clear distinction. The surface life of these people is all beautiful, and decadent, and sumptuous. When you go downstairs it's kind of rotting in the underbelly. So we tried to create that distinction with light, with production design, with color, and that was really fun to play with. I think, like you said, it's subtle. It's something that I don't necessarily want the audience to know immediately, but I'm glad that you noticed.
I'm glad that you brought up the dinner scene, because I feel like there are genuinely scary moments in this movie, but the dinner scene is unsettling in ways that you can't really... I don't want to spoil until people have seen it, but it's a lot. How tough was that to pull off, and how much advanced prep did you have to take in terms of making that scene happen?
THOMPSON: Yeah, that was probably the hardest scene to film. Other than the wedding scene, which maybe I shouldn't mention either, but both took three days to film. I remember Peter Jackson saying that one of the hardest scenes to film for the Lord of the Rings was the dinner scene, and I was like, "That makes no sense," and I realized, "Oh, it's because there's so many angles, and so many looks, and so many people to capture when you're sitting around at a dining table."
So there's that, first of all, the physical challenge of it, but it's also obviously what happens during that scene and making sure that everyone is present, everyone is ready to deliver that. There's prosthetics involved. There are cranes involved. There's a lot of different things going on in that scene, as you pointed out, and getting that to all come together is so difficult, but also so joyous, because when you see your crew, and your cast, and everyone coming together to work seamlessly and perfectly to pull off this impossible shot, or this impossible scene, and when you see that it works, and you feel that it works, as a filmmaker, that's just the pinnacle.
I feel like I have to ask you about working with Nathalie and Thomas as your leads. The movie hinges on their chemistry, how they work together. I would just love to know what it was like to work with them, to direct them, how collaborative they were, because it really does feel like it's their movie. It's Evie's movie, but it's also Walter's movie, and their stories that merge for the first time.
THOMPSON: Absolutely. Nathalie and Thomas are a delight to work with. I could not have asked for a more supportive, talented, friendly, wonderful number one and number two. I'm someone who really is a character and actor-focused director. Whatever I am told I am given in rehearsal time, I always double it. Rehearsal time, to me, isn't about going over the scripts and things like that. They can know their lines, they can learn that, that's their jobs. But it's really about diving into the backstory of the characters, getting to know each other, getting to trust each other.
Quite often, I do these exercises where I ask 30 questions while they're in character, and we all listen, and we all kind of discover the character while we're in this room, and that builds trust. They build their trust in me, their trust in each other, and their respect for each other, and that's really wildly important. Nathalie and Thomas just had each other's back. I could tell that they were such good friends and still are. They made my job easy. And it also helps that they're both wildly attractive and easy on the eye. That makes chemistry much easier.
The Invitation heads to theaters worldwide on August 26.