Dinner parties are supposed to be fun. You're supposed to drink a bunch of wine, eat until you're stuffed, and have a jolly good time. But sometimes—sometimes—a motherfucker will stab you at the dinner table. If you've ever been to a family reunion, or any Thanksgiving get-together, you know tensions can run high. You definitely know the feeling of wanting to stab someone's eyes out with a fork when they ask, "So... what are you actually doing with your life?" Or, you know, if someone takes the last BBQ rib.
Many films over the years have taken cues from the awkward silences or boiling tensions of the dinner table (see: Wedding Crashers, American Beauty, etc.) and some films have gone batshit crazy with the dinner idea (see: this list). The latest dinner-party-gone-wrong film comes from Jennifer's Body director Karyn Kusama. Called The Invitation, the film follows a man named Will (Logan Marshall-Green) who gets invited to his ex-wife's and her new husband's place for a dinner party after years of not speaking to each other. What seems like a cordial reunion with friends takes a sinister turn as the hosts' intentions are revealed and the guests frantically try to leave.
Kusama masterfully builds suspense, turning a home into a death maze, and making you think twice before accepting an invitation to a dinner party. Especially if it's at the home of a former lover. Ahead of the film's April 8 release, we put together the most fucked up dinner party scenes in films. Bon appetit!