IMDb RATING
5.1/10
2.1K
YOUR RATING
A family moves to a suburban town only to be coerced into joining a suspicious club.A family moves to a suburban town only to be coerced into joining a suspicious club.A family moves to a suburban town only to be coerced into joining a suspicious club.
- Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy
- 1 nomination total
Patty McCormack
- Mary Peterson
- (as Patricia McCormack)
Anne Marie McEvoy
- Janie
- (as Annemarie McEvoy)
Gino De Mauro
- Jimmy
- (as Gino DeMauro)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMichael Berryman and Nicholas Worth, both employees of the movie's villainous location Steaming Springs, worked with director Wes Craven before. Berryman became iconic in Craven's The Hills Have Eyes (and later the sequel) and Worth played a henchman transformed into a monster in Swamp Thing.
- GoofsA pull wire is visible when Matt Winslow shoots Tom Peterson with a laser beam, throwing him back.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Bad Movie Night Podcast: Invitation to Hell (1984) (2020)
Featured review
Bland, Boring and Rather Predictable
Invitation to Hell (1984)
* 1/2 (out of 4)
A scientist (Robert Urich) moves his wife (Joanna Cassidy) and their two children to a new town where he's going to create a new high-tech spacesuit. Right from the start he realizes that the entire town is expected to be like one another and this includes joining a health club ran by Jessica Jones (Susan Lucci). Soon the scientist begins to realize that something is off and it might all lead back to the club.
INVITATION FROM HELL is a pretty boring, bland and predictable made-for-TV movie that even director Wes Craven seems bored by. I say this because there's very little energy or style in his director and it really does seem as if he's stuck in the TV limitations and can never overcome them. It certainly doesn't help that the screenplay is basically a predictable re-working of THE STEPFORD WIVES and in the end there's really very little entertainment to be found.
One of the biggest problems is that it's very easy to figure out what's going on yet the lead character just keeps walking around like an idiot and never being able to figure it out. While the viewer waits for him to figure things out, you grow more and more tired with everything you're watching. There are a few twists thrown in but they're all rather predictable. Another thing that doesn't help is the fact that the lead character is just a bore as are the supporting ones. If you don't care for a family then you're really not going to care if they live or die. There's no one to really root for or against in the picture.
Urich is a fine actor but he's just too bland here to draw any attention to the character. Cassidy is good in her supporting part and I also thought Lucci was good in her role. Kevin McCarthy also shows up in a brief bit and it was nice seeing him. INVITATION TO HELL really has very little going for it. Craven certainly doesn't bring any energy to the material and seems to have been a project done more money more than love.
* 1/2 (out of 4)
A scientist (Robert Urich) moves his wife (Joanna Cassidy) and their two children to a new town where he's going to create a new high-tech spacesuit. Right from the start he realizes that the entire town is expected to be like one another and this includes joining a health club ran by Jessica Jones (Susan Lucci). Soon the scientist begins to realize that something is off and it might all lead back to the club.
INVITATION FROM HELL is a pretty boring, bland and predictable made-for-TV movie that even director Wes Craven seems bored by. I say this because there's very little energy or style in his director and it really does seem as if he's stuck in the TV limitations and can never overcome them. It certainly doesn't help that the screenplay is basically a predictable re-working of THE STEPFORD WIVES and in the end there's really very little entertainment to be found.
One of the biggest problems is that it's very easy to figure out what's going on yet the lead character just keeps walking around like an idiot and never being able to figure it out. While the viewer waits for him to figure things out, you grow more and more tired with everything you're watching. There are a few twists thrown in but they're all rather predictable. Another thing that doesn't help is the fact that the lead character is just a bore as are the supporting ones. If you don't care for a family then you're really not going to care if they live or die. There's no one to really root for or against in the picture.
Urich is a fine actor but he's just too bland here to draw any attention to the character. Cassidy is good in her supporting part and I also thought Lucci was good in her role. Kevin McCarthy also shows up in a brief bit and it was nice seeing him. INVITATION TO HELL really has very little going for it. Craven certainly doesn't bring any energy to the material and seems to have been a project done more money more than love.
helpful•811
- Michael_Elliott
- Sep 4, 2015
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Wes Craven's Invitation to Hell
- Filming locations
- 5612 Maricopa Drive, Simi Valley, California, USA(Winslow Home)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
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