By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Director Jessica M. Thompson’s vampire thriller THE INVITATION topped the box office this past weekend, with the PG-13-rated movie playing largely to a younger audience. But fans of all ages who want to see a harder-core version will have their chance, the filmmaker tells us.
“There are two versions of the film, and the R version will be coming out on streaming,” says Thompson, who previously discussed THE INVITATION with us here. She notes that there was talk of releasing the R version theatrically, “but to be honest, 13-to-18-year-olds, in all of our test screenings, were absolutely loving the film, and were really drawn to the character of Evie, and we didn’t want to deny them the experience of seeing it in cinemas. And that’s a great thing; you want as many people to enjoy your movie as possible.
“I definitely think that [shooting for a PG-13] can be limiting in some ways,” Thompson continues, “though there are some incredible PG-13 horror films, like A QUIET PLACE and INSIDIOUS. Mostly, it just challenges you as a filmmaker to build tension and tell a story without relying on easy gore or things like that. But you’ll see in the R version that we push the boundaries a bit more. We did a little bit of everything. To my knowledge, it will just be R when it goes to streaming.”
