Invitation Only

"Wade Chen" (Ray Chang) is a nice guy who gets stuck having to chauffeur a rich corporate CEO by the name of "President Yang" (Jerry Chih-wei Huang) around town even though he had other plans. While in the process of doing this he angers Yang when he accidently catches him having sex with a beautiful model by the name of "Dana" (Maria Ozawa). Not long afterward, however, he is surprised to be offered an invitation by Yang to attend an exclusive party with the understanding that he tells everyone that he is Yang's cousin. This discovery immediately makes him a center of attention by many of the people there including an attractive woman by the name of "Hitomi" (Julianne Chu) who also happens to be one of those being honored at the party as well. But what neither Wade nor Hitomi realize is that they were invited to this particular party for ulterior reasons and soon what they thought was supposed to be a festive occasion turns into a nightmare beyond anything they could ever imagine. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that viewers who enjoy action-packed slasher films will probably want to check this one out as it definitely fits that category. Personally, while I didn't mind the gory scenes, the overall plot lacked realism and I thought that the ending could have used some improvement as well. That being said, I was a bit disappointed overall and for that reason I have rated this film accordingly. Slightly below average.

Heralded as Taiwan's first slasher movie, you wonder what took it so long (really?). Director Kevin Ko knows the ingredients to make it work though, with copious amounts of thick, crimson blood and the numerous shots of hot female bods in slinky dresses grooving to the beat right from the start for that cursory first kill as an appetizer before the main course. Heck, I think the casting of Japanese AV star Maria Ozawa was a shrewd move as well, for what it's worth, at least to get her fan boys into the theatre for this.

The filmed worked like clockwork though, introducing us to a loser/slacker Wade (Bryant Chang), a chauffeur who one day unwittingly chances upon his company CEO Yang (Jerry Huang) in a compromising position with Ozawa's fashion model in the backseat of the S500 Benz (which I tell you has plenty of room for that kind of shenanigan). In order to shut him up, Yang offers Wade the chance to live the high life through an all-sponsored invite to a high society event, which promises the fulfillment of one's fantasy, and the networking opportunities abound when rubbing shoulders with society's elite.

But of course there's no such thing as a free lunch, and soon Wade got more than he bargained for, after getting his wishes satisfied of course, with unbelievable winnings at the gambling table, a gift of a Ferrari, and the highlight? Bonking the much coveted fashion model which made Ozawa look real comfortable aside from her very contrived acting with clothes on.

Things of course are more than meets the eye, especially when this underground event gets situated in the same warehouse in the opening scene, and soon enough the newcomers to the party, Wade included, are unmasked for being the fakes they are, and the body count begins. It's a little peculiar as well that the story chose to show all quite early in the film, and settled instead for plenty of bloody gore with scenes crafted that will make you shrink in your seats, so much so that even an R21 rating here didn't get passed clean, with a jarring edit made to a facial treatment.

If there's anything close to this offered by the West, then Hostel would come close. But I have to admit that the story did offer something that's refreshingly bizarre with its preaching (or beliefs) of the characters on the the rich-poor divide, where torture becomes a gladiatorial sport to satisfy what's being perceived as injustice being done. It's hunter versus prey for the masses, until the prey begin to fight back when forced to a corner.

As with any slasher flick there are a number of plot loopholes that will make you chuckle, such as the extremely poor logistics the villains have set up, as well as very silly goons being employed. The execution of the premise and the performance of a number of not-so- beautiful cameos (read: high society aunties) were really bad, and I cannot help but to laugh out loud at the implausible, obligatory car-chase scene involving a Ferrari and a pick up, which did highlight the modest budget here because creative camera techniques were employed to simulate a minor wreck. Of the Ferrari that is.

Still, this film drew in the crowds and I was quite surprised that it was quite the date movie as well. To the jaded torture porn viewer, the film is like a walk in the park which delivers exactly what you'd come to expect, plus some unintentional comedy when things get played straight.

Attending a lavish party, a group of strangers intending to use the celebration as a means of networking with an elite society instead find the whole affair is a cover for the hosts to spend the evening torturing and murdering them for past indiscretions and must find a way to stop it from continuing.

Overall, this one is solid enough despite some issues. One of the better features here is a fine and workable premise that sets everything in motion. Operating under the guise of a networking party for the super-elite but featuring a much darker underbelly that provides the impetus for the action to follow, everything comes together quite nicely. With the original party plans serving to get the group to the particular event unaware of the true intent behind the festivities, the darkness of the eventual reveal as a setup intending to torture and kill them in brutally horrific means is rather shocking. When added alongside the secondary storyline about each of the guests being sent there purposefully by an associate of the club to punish them for indiscretions that were committed against them so that everyone is lying to a degree, the main setup of the film comes off well enough. That serves the film perfectly to launch into its main impetus with the stand-out practical gore effects. As befits a film in this particular style, the work here is brutal and graphic with impactful outcomes designed to spill as much carnage as possible which causes plenty of extreme discomfort in the variety of kills featured here. Containing slit throats, snapped limbs, close-quarter gunshot wounds, and mutilations with hand-tools is just a taste of the stuff on display throughout here as the party takes a dark turn and the true purpose of their presence is discovered. This provides a great base for the encounters throughout where the brutality inflicted by the Elite society trying to kill them and the counterpoints by the victims trying to fight back leave this with some highly effective moments to give this a lot to like. This one does have some pretty big issues with it. The biggest factor is something outside of the film's control but the overall concept which makes it feel like any other film in its particular genre. Featuring so many of the same elements commonly associated with the style including the usual favoring of brutal violence at the expense of character-building, a pessimistic tone without any kind of comedic levity to break the tone, and much more, this one loses a lot of its identity by being another entry in this style without much else to really differentiate it from many other films. That also brings about some pacing issues when he confronts the leader of the torturers explaining everything which just reinforces these aspects so it's quite dull at points. This is especially true for those who aren't bothered by the gore and want more substance in their films which this lack, as both of which end up bringing this one down.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, and a sex scene.

Two males and three girls receive, each of them, an invitation to a party destined only for rich and successful business people. Once there, they are locked inside the building and someone start to hunt them. One die, two others, badly wounded, are captured and dragged on a stage. There, in front of other guests from the high-society, their stalkers torture them in some gruesome ways. The two (remaining) main characters try to escape this nightmarish location while the bad guys are on their steps.

If you have seen "Hostel" and liked it, you will probably enjoy this one too, at least three scenes have the exact same feeling. There's a lot of blood flowing from the both sides, the baddies and the victims. The movie start slowly and constantly accelerate until the climactic ending. I found some plot holes, the first being right at the beginning. It helps you to get in the mood, but the location has no connection with the rest of the story, at least in my opinion. Visually, I have some mixed impressions. Most of the footage seem to be caught on film, while other sequences looked more like a digital camera recording. There's a certain amount of shaky camera movement during the run/caught/fighting moments, but the rest is OK. The editing is good, allowing the viewer to see what's going on. Some moments are well defined visually, emphasizing the atmosphere (the axe in the final battle), other less (a car chase between a Ferrari 360 Modena and a pick-up truck), some have an unnatural feeling(completely deserted roads at night, a police check in a road tunnel with zero traffic).

So...Not a masterpiece, because it's nearly impossible to make a masterpiece today from this genre. But not a bad or boring movie. More, it has more twists and turns than your average slasher/horror movie, good makeup and some cool death/torture scenes. Bonus, nice Taiwanese girls and a female lead not only beautiful, but also smart. This helped me to care for her, after so many years of horror films where the young victim girls were so stupid.

Wade (Bryant Chang), a junior at a large corporation, is given an invitation to go to a swanky party for the elite by company president Mr. Yang (Jerry Huang), who is unable to attend himself; the only proviso is that Wade must masquerade as Yang's cousin. To help him blend in at the posh event, Mr. Yang provides Wade with designer clothes and plenty of cash, none of which stops Wade from bonking his boss's extremely hot model girlfriend (Maria Ozawa) at the bash after cleaning up at the roulette table (talk about a winning streak!). On top of all that, Wade is also presented with the one thing he has always dreamed of: a silver Ferrari Modena 360 (I would have gone for a classic red one myself).

Just as the evening looks like it couldn't get any better for Wade, it doesn't: it turns out that, along with four other guests who also aren't who they claim to be, he is to become an unwilling participant in the evening's entertainment, a gruesome torture show laid on for the benefit of the city's sadistic socialites.

The plot for Invitation Only, Taiwan's contribution to the sub-genre frequently termed as 'torture-porn', doesn't stray all that far from the film that it was clearly inspired by, Eli Roth's Hostel: a group of gullible people are duped into becoming victims for rich sickos. But despite being very derivative stuff, I still give Invitation Only the edge over Hostel: first off, the violence is nastier (including a particularly eye-watering jump-leads-to-the-genitals scene!!!); secondly, the women are hotter (not that Hostel's Barbara Nedeljakova is a munter, it's just that given the choice I prefer my ladies of the Asian persuasion); and last but not least, the film isn't by Roth, whose over-inflated ego really gets my back up.

6.5 out 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.