Susan Lucci walks into traffic and gets ran over by a distracted limo driver. Before he even realizes what he’s done, she pops up like Nosferatu, zaps him with electricity out of her finger, and fries him to a crisp. That’s just the start of this absolutely nutty Made for TV horror flick directed by the legendary Wes Craven (the same year as A Nightmare on Elm Street).
Robert Urich (the same year as The Ice Pirates) stars as a computer tech whose new job finally allows him to move his family to the good part of town. Lucci is the head of the local country club where people are just DYING to be a member. Urich and his wife (Joanna Cassidy) eventually learn that joining a country club can be HELL.
Invitation to Hell is a very ‘80s meditation on the evils of upward mobility, keeping up with the joneses, and the permeating snobby country club mentality. There’s also a little bit of the old Invaders from Mars influence in there too as once people go to the country club, they don’t come back quite the same. The ending is fucking nuts too. You won’t believe it. It’s sort of similar in a way to the finale of Elm Street except with… hell, I won’t spoil it. (The scenes of Urich working in his science lab are kind of reminiscent of the mad science-y stuff in Craven’s Deadly Friend too.)
While this won’t rank up there with Craven’s best, for a TV movie, it’s pretty badass. It’s fast moving, and there’s never a wasted scene. The silly premise could’ve been severely bungled in lesser hands, but Craven leans into the film’s weirder moments and indulges them, resulting in something much more memorable than your typical TV Movie of the Week.
Much of the credit goes to the cast, who play all of this very seriously. Urich is fantastic. I may be biased as I am a huge Ice Pirates fan, but he should’ve won an Emmy for keeping a straight face during the last ten minutes. No matter how great he is, check out this supporting cast: We have Soleil Moon Frye (the same year as Punky Brewster) and Barret Oliver (the same year as The Neverending Story) as his kids, Kevin McCarthy as his boss, Joe Regalbuto as his best friend, and bits by Craven regulars Michael Berryman and Nicholas Worth. Add some top-notch cinematography by Dean (Halloween) Cundey and you have yourself one hell (no pun intended) of an entertaining flick.
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