Invitation opens up with a group of kids getting ready to play some baseball, in the background you see a chubby kid named Samuel Patrick, he’s being picked on by just about everyone, and of course gets picked last to play baseball with the other kids. While playing outfield, someone hits a homer over the fence and out into the road, the other kids yell at Sam to get his fat ass over the fence and get the ball. No sooner does Sam make it to the baseball before he gets splattered by a truck (off-screen).

Now in the present day, one by one, the “old gang” that is, the kids at the beginning (all grown up) minus Sam are receiving invitations in strange ways. The invitations are from Lee for the gang to get together up at an old lodge, and catch up on old times. Everyone but Lee meets up at the lodge and are greeted by Henry the caretaker, a somewhat cliché and creepy old man, followed by a strange old woman (the token doomsayer) telling the gang that they should leave, because at this lodge, people check in, but they don’t check out.

Later on when everyone is back together and whooping it up, Dan suggests a toast to Samuel Patrick, the kid that was killed playing ball. Dan is ridiculed and with the exception of his girlfriend Lex (who's wickedly cute), everyone seems to think it’s a goofy idea, and none of them could really give a shit about the poor kid. They even make jokes to this day about him and his “enormous grave”

Basically when all of the pleasantries of reuniting are taken care of, the group goes back to just reminiscing about all the weird and fat kids that they made fun of. Most of them even say it’s not even a big deal “because everybody made fun of them” Yeah great reason, just makes me care that much less about your character and makes me hope to see your slow painful death (but I really do think that’s the whole point of this dialog being written this way)

Everyone in the group turns in for the night and that’s when everything takes a drastic turn for the worse… Filled full of freaky little ghost kids, and a clever spin on how the ghosts are able to get close to their victims without causing them to shriek uncontrollably and alarm everyone else around.

Also an interesting twist to the ending, not what I was expecting and I love when that happens, there’s much more to the movie than just a standard ghost revenge story, and it really is creative.

On the gore side, we get a killer tiller over the head, extra chunky please, some gnarly unbeknownst necrophilia, a nice face mangling via a car accident. A bloody gurgling smack to the head with a rock, followed by the poor disoriented bastard falling into a pit and receiving multiple impalings with punji sticks. Must be a pissed off VC out there too! A very painful looking fire poker impaling and a somewhat lame beheading.

Altogether some good acting, there were very few moments where the acting was a bit annoying and that was only because the character Tom was like the class clown, and got a bit too campy at times, the dialog that was written specifically for his character was usually pretty witty though. Lines like this for example: When Tom is asked why he didn’t get married in Vegas, he replies “It’s a long story, but it involved a lesbian lover, a pound of Turkish hash, and a weed whacker.” That’s great stuff.

A few instances of a couple of the girls showing their breastesses, and a very nice shot of Lexy in some killer lingerie at the beginning.

The gore left a little to be desired, but there was still plenty of it to satisfy, most of it is in the form of quick flashes, but there were some really decent EFX that I enjoyed.

Not the most exciting story ever, but it is a very GOOD story and I liked it nonetheless, I never found myself wanting to fast forward, and I never once checked the running time hoping it was almost over, that my friends is a good sign. Recommended.

6 out of 10 bloody baseballs rolling across the floor

Ok if I had to look up one more unattractive persons nose during this movie I was going to pull out the DVD, break it, and gouge my own eyeballs out. Yeah I get it, it’s independent. Does that mean the guy with the camera can’t move back a few feet?

The story was decent but the acting horrible except for the girl playing Lexy. I found myself wanting to hit fast forward about a million times. There were too many times the characters did things that didn’t make a bit of sense. They should have been way more scared than they were. In one unbelievable scene a girl actually sits down on a rest area toilet. Trust me that’s never going to happen. You think we exercise our legs so they look good? Nope we do it so we have the strength to hover over public toilets. I think the ending was pretty good but I can’t be sure since I was having an epileptic seizure from the strobe light effects. The death scenes were lame lame lame.

Ok maybe I’m being a little harsh. I guess I just expected more. There was no point during this movie when I was scared but it was a somewhat original idea.

I give it 3 out of 10 journals that no one paid any attention to until much later when someone says out of the blue, “Remember that journal we saw? Maybe we should go read it.”