A good third of this no so good movie is talk talk talk around a dinner table. Not a good way to movie a story along.

Of course, the story is thin.

And in the first minute of the film, you know which way it's gonna go.

It's a really slow film that brings down the energy.

This is an excellent horror film in almost every respect: acting, direction, cinematography, editing, etc.. There's probably the usual proportion of fake reviews giving it high ratings, but there is also a significant proportion giving it low ratings from people who like their horror films formulaic with lots of gore and monsters. The Dinner Party is not short on gore, but happily avoids the cliche of making Lucifer appear at the end with a leathery face and goat horns.

Sure, it has some predictability and weaknesses in the story and a few other glitches, but it stands out from other movies in this genre by using effective slow pacing in the first half, followed by a sudden explosion of action in the latter part. It also gives the main characters sufficient backstory to make them real, and their performances are of very high quality. As an obsessive watcher of horror movies, I am pretty good at predicting the ending by half way through (such as one of the key characters turning the tables on the bad guys),but The Dinner Party also finishes off with a surprising and satisfying twist. My only criticism here is that they should have extended this final scene between two of the key characters - for instance, by including a flashback to the origin story of the 'magical woman' (I'm trying to tone down any spoilers).

I get the feeling that the intellectual themes that run through the script and dialogue (such as the discussions of opera and magical ideas) may have been unattractive to many horror fans who prefer scares and special effects to psychological tension and cultural depth. But this movie was right up my street, and I rarely rate horror films as highly as this (8). Highly recommended.

Such a good horror film! Highly entertaining and plenty of plot twists. Started of slow but it toke a turn really quick and things started heating up. We need more films like this. Well done Miles Doleac.