10 Great Films That Already Flew Under The Radar In 2016

Luke Wilson, Zachary Quinto and Topher Grace were all originally slated to appear in Karyn Kusama's creepy thriller The Invitation, the Japanese-American director's follow-up to her disappointing 2009 supernatural black comedy Jennifer's Body. In the end, Logan Marshall-Green (Prometheus) and Tammy Blanchard (Into The Woods) were cast as an ex-husband and wife coming together for a dinner party after two years of separation.

When Will (Marshall-Green) arrives at his former spouse's home with his new partner to find the place littered with strange guests and his ex Eden (Blanchard) acting peculiarly, he begins to think that his invitation was extended with a hidden agenda. The entire film plays out over one increasingly tense evening in the Hollywood Hills, with Will's suspicions slowly developing into full-blown paranoia.

Marshall-Green is intriguing as the vulnerable and somewhat unreliable narrator (he is a recovering addict who can barely trust himself never mind those around him) though the reason The Invitation succeeds as a thriller-come-horror is Kusama's near-perfect pacing. The director plots a seamless route from the initial awkwardness of insincere social niceties to a surreal ending that would seem to come out of nowhere if not for her careful craftsmanship.

This slow burner could be one of the films of the year when all is said and done, yet it only had a limited release this April and was sent to the VOD tipping ground soon after.