Invitation to Hell

The same year he forever changed the face of horror with A Nightmare on Elm Street, Wes Craven directed this silly, derivative, repetitive, but never dull sci-fi horror TV movie with a first-rate cast, Dean Cundey cinematography, and Emmy-winning art direction (it was those grey walls!). A pre-Spenser for Hire Robert Urich and a post-Blade Runner Joanna Cassidy play a young couple who, along with their two kids, The Neverending Story's Barret Oliver and Punky Brewster Soleil Moon Frye, move to California and settle in an affluent community. The dad has joined a big high-tech corporation working on a top-secret thermally-reinforced state-of-the-art space suit. Before they've even unpacked, the family gets invited to join a private country club that everyone whose anyone seems to want them to join. Like, they really want them to join. No scene goes by without someone bringing up the club. All this makes the dad very suspicious, especially when Cassidy starts playing the piano dramatically, and little Soleil starts chopping up her dolls and talking like a Pazuzu. The special club for high-achieving, backstabbing, soulless yuppies drones is an obvious metaphor for Regan-era consumerism and 1980s monoculture. But it ultimately plays off more like something you'd find in a children's book than a horror movie. It is run by a mysteriously sexy woman who often dresses like a superhero named Jessica Jones. She's played by daytime TV queen Susan Lucci, who gives a wonderfully campy turn that alone makes this worth watching. But the rest of the stacked cast is pretty amazing too: Murphy Brown's Joe Regalbuto, The Hills Have Eyes's Michael Berryman, veteran character actor Bill Erwin, The Bad Seed herself, Patty McCormack, and the great Kevin McCarthy of the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers.