Invitation to Hell

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USA • 1984 • 96m •

• Directed by: Wes Craven. • Starring: Robert Urich, Joanna Cassidy, Susan Lucci, Joe Regalbuto, Kevin McCarthy, Patty McCormack, Bill Erwin, Soleil Moon Frye, Barret Oliver, Nicholas Worth, Virginia Vincent, Greg Monaghan, Lois Hamilton. • Music by: Sylvester Levay.

When a family moves to a suburban California neighborhood, everything is going great. The neighbors are nice, the neighborhood is clean, and there is a local health spa close to their house that everyone in the town belongs to. At first they consider joining it until their neighbors and co-workers hassle them constantly for not doing it right away. They start to get a little suspicious towards why they are so interested in them joining, but not the point where they think something is wrong. The wife and kids are up for it, but the dad is skeptical and fears a bit of evil in the spa. Is the dad just a little superstitious or is the spa really a Invitation to Hell?

Review:

When the scientist and family man Matt Winslow (Robert Urich) finally accepts the invitation to work the Micro-Digitech Corporation in a space suit project, he moves with his beloved wife Patricia (Joanna Cassidy) and their son Robbie (Barret Oliver) and daughter Chrissy (Soleil Moon Frye) to a huge modern house in the corporation compound. They meet their friend Tom Peterson (Joe Regalbuto) and his family completely adapted to the new lifestyle, and Tom invites the Winslow family to join the Steaming Springs Country Club. Tom tries to seduce Matt telling him that every member of the club has a meteoric professional ascension in Micro-Digitech, but Matt is not tempted with the offer. Later he is introduced to the director of the club, Jessica Jones (Susan Lucci) that befriends Patricia and convinces her to join the club with her children. Matt feels the changing in the behavior of his family and decides to investigate the club, finding an evil secret about Jessica and the members.

In the 80's, when I saw "Invitation to Hell", I liked this movie that partially recalls "The Stepford Wives", with people changing the behavior in a suburban compound. I have just seen it today, and I found a great metaphoric message against the big corporations, when people literally sell their souls to the devil to climb positions and earn higher salaries. I am not sure whether the author intended to give this interpretation to the story, but I believe it fits perfectly. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Convite Para o Inferno" ("Invitation to Hell").

Review by Claudio Carvalho from the Internet Movie Database.

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