Invitation to Hell
1984
Wes Craven
All I can say is wow. I had vague memories of catching this movie as a
kid and not understanding it very well. It turns out that was completely
justified because this made for TV movie is entirely bananas. Robert Ulrich
stars as a man who has moved his family to a new city after landing a job with a large tech firm. Everyone important in his neighborhood belongs to a health
club called, ‘Steaming Springs’ (it’s ok to giggle, I sure did.) Invitation to
Hell lets you know something is up within seconds as the owner of Steaming
Springs (Susan Lucci just destroying everything with overacting) flash fries a chauffeur
with her mind just before the opening credits.
What appears to be a typical 'Satan corrupts a family story' goes wild in the third act. There are people casually dressed as Nazis at a
costume party. Robert Ulrich dons a weaponized spacesuit in order to dive into
hell to rescue his family. There are explosion, fire, and plenty of TV-quality
special effects. What starts as a slightly ho-hum TV movie
transforms into a wild ride that would probably be heralded as a bigger cult
classic had it ever found its way into a movie theater.
This was a delight that a) solved a childhood mystery of
what weird-ass show I saw and b) reintroduced me to such a strange little
gem.
Watch Invitation to Hell, it is worth your time.
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