2015

Don’t you hate it when you are invited to someone’s house for a nice dinner party, and then in the middle of dessert, you are blindsided with a sales pitch for a pyramid scheme or Pampered Chef? Okay, now this movie is like that, except instead of trying to sell you a cheese server, they want you to join their cult? It’s super awkward and then turns into super disturbing.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a comedy set in the Hollywood Hills. It’s always a super intense movie or TV show. Maybe it’s because at any minute, people know their house will either be on fire or taken over by wild dogs. This movie follows that cliche of dark scenes and even darker dialogue.

A couple (Will and Kira), are going to Will’s ex-wife’s house for a dinner party they got an invitation to out of the blue. All of their friends have barely heard from the ex-wife (Eden) since the divorce and her subsequent one way ticket to Crazy Town with a side trip through Enlightenment. You can see where this is going.

We come to find out that the reason for the divorce was the death of Will and Eden’s 5-year old son. This provides some intense flashback scenes when Will is on his 8th or 9th tour of his old house. It’s a little tedious. Maybe he’s just trying to get his steps in before he realizes what Eden’s end-game is.

Besides their old friends, new cult friends also show up. And everyone watches a nice little promotional video about vacationing in Mexico, which slowly turns into a snuff film. And they haven’t even had apps yet. It’s going to be a long night.

The suspicions and the suspense continues to build until the host announces “Let’s play a game we learned at cult camp!” It’s a game about being honest to oneself. Because those are always tons of fun. I would be begging for Monopoly right now if I was at this party. And Monopoly makes feel violent tendencies and ill-will towards loved ones.

This is a fairly recent movie, so I don’t want to spoil the ending. However, it almost ends how you think it will. Or how Will thinks it will, but then there is a twist. A unnerving, stomach churning twist. Mostly because you could see it actually happening in real life.

Zombies are bad, but manageable. Demons can be clever but usually dealt with in equally clever ways. Ghosts don’t even have feet sometimes. Sharks and orcas can be avoided. Vampires are just ridiculous. However, damaged rich white people who just returned from 2 years in a Mexican orgy-resort should be feared. Always. In fact, if there is a way to put them on an endangered species list, it would be best for all of humanity.