The new Sony horror film The Invitation isn't the first -- or last -- adaption of Dracula to come to the silver screen. The vampire has become one of pop culture's most iconic horror figures, recontextulaized into all sorts of forms over the years. The latest film isn't as focused on the vampire as much as it is on the people who find themselves in his orbit, such as Nathalie Emmanuel's Evie, a modern woman who finds herself invited into a world of apparent pomp and circumstance that has a far grimmer (and bloodier) edge than what can be seen on the surface.
Ahead of The Invitation's theatrical debut on Aug. 26, CBR sat down to speak with Director/Writer Jessica M. Thompson about the film's tonal balancing act, what it was like approaching the classical vampire mythology from a modern feminist sensibility, and the kind of horror films that inspired her to take on the traditional vampire tropes.
CBR: The Invitation is juggling a lot of elements. There's Gothic romance, creeping horror, and some pretty big action beats. How did you approach balancing all of those aspects of the film?
Jessica M. Thompson: That is one of the things I wanted to do... I wanted to combine all the films I love, you know? To me, these are the kind of horror films that I'm really drawn to, those that have that mixture of romance and horror. I think what modern horror films are doing so well is that they have a lot to say, whether it's social commentary or whether it's exploring grief or motherhood or the horrors of marriage. To me, it's like, why does it have to be one thing?
If you don't care about [the characters], you won't be scared for them. That's been one of my sayings from the start, so I really wanted people to fall in love with Evie and Walter. I wanted [the audience] to want them to be together so much so that when it's turned on its head, it's shocking and strange. Personally, I'm a big fan of From Dusk Till Dawn and how the film just suddenly turned on [its] head. So yeah, I wanted to give my shot at that... I love that it's an empowering story. To me, it's about a woman taking down the patriarchy. I love that, when we did some test audiences of the film, hearing the audience cheer was like the biggest joy of my life.
Dracula, the Brides, [and] this world of characters has proven to be such a treasure trove for creatives over the last century. What was it like getting to play with that toy box?
Oh, yeah, absolutely. To me, the sandbox was giant, and I wanted to make sure I honored the original text while also putting a really modern spin on it. I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to, you know, piss off the Dracula fans, but also that this is a contemporary version, a contemporary story... It was great. How do we keep these old world orders? How do we keep these powerful people powerful? They've always got a big support team underneath them, and that's really what I wanted to show with the [world around them] being a part of the story.
As the director and a writer of The Invitation, what are you hoping audiences take away from the film?
I hope they have fun. I find it wildly entertaining. I hope that they also find it refreshing and that it makes them think a little bit. I hope that they feel empowered by it. I hope that they feel like it's a great origin story and that they want to keep coming back to the cinema to see films like this.
The Invitation debuts in theaters on Aug. 26.