Invitation to Hell (1984 TV Movie) User Reviews

Bizarre Film Filled With Plot Holes and Obvious Twists

[gavin6942 · 5/10 · 28 September 2010]

A man (Robert Urich) get a promotion and moves his family to an isolated community. Here there are a different way of doing things, and a local country club dominates the lives of the citizens... with more going on than meets the eye.

Although this film is entertaining to a point, its made-for-TV origins limit the fun Craven could have had with sex and blood... this film is quite tame, and completely bizarre. Don't ask too many questions about how the plot works, or you'll go crazy.

Mike Mayo nails it on the head when he says, "A capable cast can't compete with goofy plot revelations", and laments that the film "lacks the subversive excesses of his early films". It's true. Maybe this is a swipe at exclusive clubs or yuppies, but it's just toothless. And the biggest plot revelation is revealed in the first minute of the film...

Michael Berryman has a small cameo, and Soleil Moon Frye (Punky Brewster) has some memorable lines and moments, including one with a bunny. If you're waiting for a creepy scene, the closest you come is during a sleepover. And Susan Lucci? The DVD box calls her a "sexy director"... I guess "sexy" meant something else in 1984.

This film could be ranked as Wes Craven's oddest film, and makes a good drinking picture for you and some friends. I suspect most people have never heard of it, and I doubt that Craven really tries to get people to notice.

Invitation to Hell

[Scarecrow-88 · 6/10 · 7 March 2010]

During the time around 1984, Craven was on his way to becoming a director with name recognition after admittedly struggling in show business until Nightmare on Elm Street changed his life forever. Television movies like "Chiller" and this movie, "Invitation to Hell" were more or less gigs to pay the bills. An interesting recurring theme in Craven's horror universe whether on the small or big screen was the notion of terror in suburbia. "Invitation to Hell" features some fine talent with Robert Urich, Joanna Cassidy, Soleil Moon Frye(Punky Brewster), and Barret Oliver as a family commuting to a nice suburban neighborhood after pops accepts a lucrative position working at an aerospace facility, redesigning a space suit for the 21st century. What Urich soon discovers is that a lavish club, where most of the neighbors and his fellow employees, along with their families, and most of the major figureheads in and around his new home belong to, is headed possibly by Satan herself in the form of Susan Lucci! The problem Urich faces is that his wife so badly wants "a piece of the pie" that she willingly leads herself and the kids into possibly hell in order to do so! Will Urich save them? While I did find the linking of yuppie-ism with selling your soul rather amusing, you know the concept of getting everything your heart desires, with a price, and not knowing that you must give up far more than you bargained for in the process. Of course, the end, as Urich must descend into a type of hell itself in order to rescue his family, is more than a bit corny(..it becomes a special effects showcase that pales in comparison to Nightmare), but, again, Craven was working in a medium too tame to really explore darker territories, as he most certainly would in something like "A Nightmare on Elm Street", "The People Under the Stairs", and "Deadly Blessing"..Craven, to me, seems less comfortable for "family friendly" horror, but I didn't consider "Invitation to Hell" too bad. I liked the cast, particularly Urich in the lead..plus, I think Lucci devours the scenery in a juicy part always trying to seduce Urich into joining "the club". Echoes of the "body snatcher" plot(..which I think has become a whole sub-genre in itself)can be found here in the inspired casting of Kevin McCarthy as Urich's boss, always needling him to join the club and become a "true member of the community"..I think it's safe to say that Urich actually inhibits McCarthy's role from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" as the hero who is ominously alone in his crusade to stop Lucci and recover his family from the very depths of hell. The ending is pat and predictable, as is expected for a television film, most end on a positive note. Nicholas Worth has an effective heavy role as Lucci's muscle who has an eventual altercation with Urich when he finds him snooping around where he's not supposed to be.

And Susan Lucci, as the devil.

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 4 October 2018]

If seeing the names Robert Urich, Joanna Cassidy, Susan Lucci and Wes Craven all together on one movie doesn't get you interested, I have no idea why you're reading this site. This movie is everything ridiculous and awesome and wonderful about why I watch these kinds of movies. To wit, Robert Urich donning a spacesuit so that he can see who is a demon and who isn't as he descends to hell through the country club joined behind his back.

Originally airing May 24, 1984 on ABC, this is the kind of movie that starts with Susan Lucci's character Jessica Jones getting run over by a limo driver distracted by bikini girls, rising to her feet and roasting the man alive. It gets better from there.

Just watching the credits is enough to make one get excited. Kevin McCarthy from Invasion of the Body Snatchers! Joe Regalbuto from Murphy Brown! Michael Berryman from, well, every 80's direct to video movie and The Hills Have Eyes! The Bad Seed herself, Patty McCormack! And look - Punky Brewster herself, Soleil Moon Frye!

We're not done yet! Here comes the hero of The Never Ending Story Barret Oliver! Sid Fields, who Jerry adopted on Seinfeld, also known as character actor Bill Erwin.

If this looks better than a run of the mill TV movie, that's because it has Wes Craven in the director's chair, during the same year he made A Nightmare on Elm Street and Teh Hill have Eyes Part II. It was written by Richard Rothstein, who also brought us Universal Soldier and Human Experiments. Dean Cundy was the cinematographer, so again, this makes the movie look way better than you'd think.

How did this all come about? Well, when Lucci renewed her contract with ABC in 1983, she was guaranteed a movie of the week in the hopes that after years of her gimmick of being always nominated for the lead actress daytime Emmy and not winning, she'd get to win a real Emmy. This film was specifically written just for her.

Whoever saw this movie was award fodder had to have been doing the best drugs that 1984 could produce. Aerospace engineer Matthew Winslow (Urich), wife Patricia (Cassidy) and their two young kids (Oliver and Moon Frye) are reaping the benefits of his big promotion for inventing a fireproof spacesuit that will take man to Venus.

So of course his family wants that good life, which includes the Steaming Springs Country Club that keeps you young forever, possesses young children to destroy their toy bunnies and turns wives into sex-crazed maniacs.

Lucci is Lucci in this, out of control and dressed like a character out of V, as Urich dons that suit - it's actually a G.I. Joe figure for most of the effects - and battles her. That suit comes from the MGM Studio collection, the only one of its like that had official NASA suits at the time. The suit they got was missing a backpack, which had to be designed and made so that Urich didn't overheat. For this and more insane behind the scenes stuff, this movie's IMDB trivia page shames nearly every other IMDb trivia page.

Why would the Devil be Susan Lucci? Why would they put the gateway to Hell in a health club? Why wouldn't Urich just leave his wife when she callously kills the family dog? Why is everyone close to him getting replaced and he's just fine with it? Why doesn't anyone realize that the grown up and more dangerous than Satan Rhoda Penmark is in their midst? Aren't 80's computer graphics the best?

"Everyone Who's Anyone Will Be There!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 19 January 2020]

Wes Craven's INVITATION TO HELL opens with a bang, when Jessica Jones (Susan Lucci!) seems to defy death, only to send a careless chauffeur to his early reward!

Enter Matt and Pat Winslow (Robert Urich and Joanna Cassidy), who, along with their two kids, move into their new home. The Winslows soon learn of an exclusive club called Steaming Springs, a spa that everyone seems to want to join.

Oh no!

This club is run by the aforementioned Ms. Jones! We learn almost immediately that something bizarre and unsavory is going on there. What have the Winslows gotten themselves into?

ITH is a made-for-TV horror movie concerning satanic shenanigans in suburbia. Urich and Cassidy are really good at being bewildered and overwrought, but this movie belongs to Ms. Lucci! Drawing from her years of soap opera experience, she plays her role like an even-more devilish Erica Kane! Of course, once Ms. Cassidy's character is "transformed", she certainly gives Lucci a run for her money! Made entirely of cheeeze, this film proves that Craven's SUMMER OF FEAR was no fluke! Is it scary? No, but it is extremely entertaining!

EXTRA POINTS FOR: #1- Matt under attack by his demonized family! #2- The way Matt's experimental space suit just happens to come in so handy! #3- The infernal-yet-sappy, freak out finale!

P.S.- Watch for Michael Berryman (THE HILLS HAVE EYES) in a tiny -microscopic- cameo role!...

The best part of the movie is the title; it's all downhill from there.

[squirrel_burst · 2/10 · 12 January 2015]

As far as horror films go, "Invitation to Hell" is pretty laughable. It seems like the Wes Craven was trying to create something in the likeness of an episode of the "Twilight Zone" but the story is very poorly told to the point of hilarity. The plot is difficult to explain, but it concerns a family that moves to a new town and are enamored with their new neighbors, until it turns out that there's something demonic going on at the local spa. Many plot elements have no payoff or are introduced very badly, leaving the audience scratching their heads. Early in the film we learn that our protagonist is working on a space-suit that can withstand extreme temperature and is meant for space travel. It also has the ability to recognize life-forms and inform the person wearing the suit if it human or not human (using SCIENCE!). When it becomes apparent that something is wrong with the people around him, I figured that this suit must have been created with some nefarious purpose in mind, because why else would it have such specific abilities? Did they anticipate to meet humans on Venus, where the suit is meant to travel to? I would imagine that if they saw ANYTHING moving on that planet, it would be easy to identify it as not being human because you know... humans are from Earth? Logically, the suit must have been made to allow humans to travel to hell! Actually no, it's just a coincidence that we have a suit that can detect non-humans and is able to travel to extreme temperatures. When we have a need to figure out who is a real person and who is an impostor and have to travel to the bowels of hell, just go ahead and borrow that convenient device, it's easy! The poorly written story goes further, with the head villain being given vaguely established powers that are used only when it's most dramatically convenient. The special effects are good for what they are (it's a made for TV movie from 1984) and if you are looking for something to make fun of, you'll have a good time. Otherwise, stay away! (On VHS, April 20, 2012)

don't join Steaming Springs, the spa with the gate to Hell!

[FieCrier · 5/10 · 10 September 2008]

In the opening scene, a chauffeur is distracted by two women in bikinis and runs over Susan Lucci's character Jessica. She pops back up and fries him.

A family with a young boy and girl move to a new neighborhood. The father has developed a sensor of some kind which his new employer wants for a Venusian spacesuit. The suit can already withstand blasts of flame, as well as shoot lasers and flames. His old fraternity buddy recommended him for the job.

The fraternity buddy gets initiated with his family into a local "club," called Steaming Springs, run by Jessica. They, and practically all the other characters want the new family to join too, but the father is very resistant. He grows more resistant the more insistent and strange the others become. People who belong exhibit sometimes strange behavior, like a boy at a sleepover who is found watching violent stuff on TV late at night, and who becomes hostile when it is shut off.

Not surprisingly, the spa contains a gate to hell, the door code of which starts off with 666.

It's a somewhat entertaining movie with lots of familiar character actors in it. Despite being directed by Wes Craven, there wasn't anything about it that really bore his hand, to my eye.

Made-for-TV trash from Wes Craven.

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 16 March 2019]

Wes Craven's career sure blew hot and cold in the mid '80s: 1984 saw him bring us iconic box-office hit A Nightmare On Elm Street, but the same year he also gave us the lamentable sequel to The Hills Have Eyes, and this tepid made-for-TV chiller, which delivers cliché after cliché, borrowing heavily from films such as Invaders From Mars, Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (the star of which, Kevin McCarthy, appears as Urich's boss) and The Stepford Wives (albeit with a Satanic twist).

Robert Urich stars as scientist Matt Winslow, who has moved with his family into a new home close to his new place of work, Micro-Digitech, where he is developing a spacesuit capable of withstanding great heat (no prizes for guessing that said suit will come into play in the finalé). Matt's close friend Tom Peterson (Joe Regalbuto) works for the same company and tells Matt that to get ahead in business, he and his family should become members of Steaming Springs Country Club, run by mysterious beauty Jessica Jones (Susan Lucci). Matt isn't convinced, but his wife Patricia (Joanna Cassidy) and kids Robbie (Barret Oliver) and Chrissie (Soleil Moon Frye) go ahead and join anyway, after which they seem to change personality. Fearing that something terrible has happened to them, Matt breaks into the club and, wearing his high-tech space clobber, enters a hellish world to try and rescue his loved ones from the grip of evil.

Incredibly dumb (the spacesuit comes equipped with a heads-up display that can identify non-humans and is armed with a handy laser/flamethrower), with uninspired direction from Craven, who seems to be going through the motions, Invitation To Hell is a far cry from Wes's best work. Actually, it's a far cry from his more mediocre work as well. The cheesy ending sees Matt's love for his family defeating evil, which I guess is no more corny than the 'If I don't fear you, you have no strength' plot device of the Elm Street series.

Decent Made For TV Horror

[secragt · 7/10 · 5 July 2003]

Better than the typical made-for-TV movie, INVITATION TO HELL is blessed with excellent casting (Urich, Lucci, Cassidy, McCarthy, pre-Murphy Brown Joe Regalbuto, Soleil Moon-Frye) and a high concept update to the familiar Faustian plot. Urich is likable as always and Lucci is particularly fetching and devilishly over the top in the mother of all femme fatale roles. Definitely a product of the 80s from Lucci's occasionally too big hair to the synth-heavy soundtrack to the pre-internet boxy computers. Kind of a hybrid version of STEPFORD WIVES and THEY LIVE, the movie commits early to its apocalyptic Miltonesque vision and horror fans will likely not have many complaints until the soppy, maudlin denouement. 7/10

Beware of what's behind the steam.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 2 May 2023]

This is Susan Lucci at her most evil, playing a demonic character whose beauty fools the people she encounters. Not to mention her superficial charm, passive aggressive and completely manipulative. Strip away that earthly facade, and it's obvious that she's a monster. Her first TV movie while working on "All My Children" simultaneously, she's mesmerizing but vapid, speaking her lines and wearing clothes as if she was an Alexis ripoff from "Dynasty". Newcomers to this Stepford like community, Robert Urich and Joanna Cassidy, as well as their two children, get caught up in the intrigue, although Urich and Cassidy have different opinions about the club Lucci wants them to join.

Ridiculous and campy, melodramatically acted and often cringe worthy, this doesn't show Lucci at her best. Obviously she's still acting in the daytime style of grab em' by the throat rather than subtlety, and Cassidy also falls into that trap when her loving wife and mother all of a sudden turns into a soul sucking vamp. The film suffers from some slow moving, dour sequences where there's little dialog, just sinister music and macabre facial expressions. Unlike the supernatural TV movies of the 70's, this seems a bit overlong and takes forever for anything good to really happen. It's only the twists during the final quarter that liven it up, indicating that real hell is suffering through a boring movie.

A Good Story That Can Be Understood In Different Levels

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 22 June 2008]

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")

I'm Unimpressed

[Rainey-Dawn · 3/10 · 30 July 2023]

I was completely unimpressed with this film. It's hard to believe this was from Wes Craven - he's got some good films out there but this isn't one of them.

I found the film rather boring, lot of repeating of "join the club' to Matt (Robert Urich) over and over - it became monotonous. Not a lot happens until the end of the movie - that was rather an eye roller.

I generally like Wes Craven, horror films and TV movies of the 70s and 80s but not this one. It barely held my interest.

This is a film that some people enjoy quite a bit so if you think you might like it then all means watch it! (It's on YouTube).

3/10.

Modern Orpheus tale with a twist.

[Macholic · 8/10 · 31 May 2002]

Everything is idyllic in Suburbia when the little family moves in, as the father have got a new job in a computer company there. But no paradise would be complete without its snake. Strange things happens as the family joins the local country club without the husband, as it certainly holds secrets. The father is not a joiner, but pressure is on him to join, as everyone who is anything in the neighborhood and at work are members. Robert Urich's good guy part is a bit tepid, but Joanna Cassidy as good natured housewife turning nasty sizzles. Suspenseful and well-made chiller with a bitchy Susan Lucci as club chairperson. Look out for cult favorite Michael Berryman in a bit part as a valet. The movie captures the sense of paranoia and the special effects final is worth waiting for. I have seen this movie quite a few times.

A good made for TV movie!

[mm-39 · 7/10 · 1 January 2003]

Robert Urich was a fine actor, and he makes this TV movie believable. I remember watching this film when I was 15, and when seeing it a second time my opinion stays the same. People lose who they were when enter this exclusive club, in a computer rich Californian town. Urich try's to figure out what is wrong with his family, and I love the Halloween space suit idea, brilliant. This film is about the battle of one's sprit. TV quality, that exceeds, the big budget, Gangs of New York. I wonder if Robert Urich was the compassionate man he portrayed in many of his movie? I hope so! 6 or 7 out of 10.

Wes Craven before he got famous

[JoeB131 · 3/10 · 6 May 2020]

Before he made his mark inflicting Freddy Kruger on the world, Wes Craven still needed to eat. So he directed this Made for TV schlock which involves a computer specialist who works for a company where everyone works for the Diabolic Health Club.

Susan Lucci, showing the skills that got her passed up for the Daytime Emmys for 20 years, plays a demoness, Robert Urich plays a computer programmer.

So a question- if everyone came here of their own free will, why take over the kids? The kids can't really make that kind of informed decision... (and the little girl clearly didn't want to go). What is the devil getting out of this, anyway? See how none of this makes sense.

Craven's directing does a good job of building tension, but the story is weak sauce.

When everyone is strongarming you to have fun...

[dee4j · 1 October 2001]

Ignore negative comments on this film: from the very start when an unsuspecting motorist runs over Lucci and she nukes him, you know who the bad guys are! An interesting investigation of the evil that lurks amid materialist splendor: don't you WANT the biggest, best, most expensive of everything??? You can HAVE it...for a price!! (Note:SCI-FI special-effects highlight the ending...)

Invitation to Waste Your Time

[lavendertraveler · 1/10 · 9 July 2023]

I can see faint traces of Poltergeist and Stepford Wives in Invitation to Hell. However the title bares no resemblance to the actual telemovie.

I would think this picture was slapped together to capitalize on the daytime soap opera popularity of Susan Lucci. However rather than launch Lucci into prime time, this dud aborted her career. Lucci's acting could only be described as a lame attempt at camp that failed miserably. Even she cannot keep a straight face while delivering her lines in this lame script.

A five year old could have created better visual effects.

The costumes were straight out of a Halloween bargain sale.

Invitation to Waste your Time would have been a more honest title.

Garbage.

[valstone52 · 2/10 · 15 February 2021]

I already knew Susan was Lucci couldn't act, this just proves it. Moronic plot horrible acting, 🌿 outfits look like something out of the series V.

Wes Craven's television vacation

[TheFearmakers · 7/10 · 25 January 2019]

The setup makes zero sense. A guy with a really important job that would make him rich in the first place is being coerced into becoming rich by the same billion dollar business for which he has one of the most important jobs, and that's making a space suit that can detect who's human and who's not, and in that role is Robert Urich, acting like he doesn't want a nice car or to where nice clothes when, again, with his job, he wouldn't have a choice. Meanwhile, the low budget shows. His best friend gets a huge, beautiful office while the head of the entire corporation's office looks right out of a closet.

Basically a remake of The Stepford Wives only entire families are turned into those "robots" which aren't robots but soulless rich people all belonging to a health club. Susan Lucci is 80's beautiful and as the siren of hell, she's a formidable presence while Urich makes for a good hero as wife Joanna Cassidy gets the wishbone treatment throughout. Wes Craven directed this before getting big with Nightmare on Elm Street, and it's very entertaining.

Invitation To Mediocrity

[natashabowiepinky · 5/10 · 7 October 2013]

It may be directed by Wes Craven of Nightmare On Elm Street fame, but this is a more interesting movie that a frightening one. Shades of Stepford Wives abound, only this time, instead of becoming perfect people, the new members of this exclusive club turn into nasty little hellions. You know something is wrong when your daughters cuts up her cuddly bunny with a kitchen knife, and your beloved wife tries to decapitate you with a golf club. The only way to return them to their former lovable selves is to put on the space suit you invented, and delve deep into the depths of hell itself. But don't be tempted by the charms of the sexy she-devil who's pursuing you!!

Yep, it is as weird as it sounds. But the mystery behind what's going on will keep you viewing... to a point. Then, when the not-so-surprising rationale for everyone acting cuckoo shows itself, it all fizzles out in a damp squid of a finale as all the dad has to do is LOVE HIS FAMILY to set it all right. Yup, not even a chainsaw or shotgun in sight. YAWN. Still, the journey getting there ain't so bad, and I was slightly beguiled by the 80's apparel on display... from the dodgy fashion, starchy hairstyles and primitive computers. In GREEN font. Compared to them, my ZX Spectrum looks like HAL-9000... 5/10

Typical Made For TV Horror

[ladymidath · 7/10 · 24 March 2022]

But that doesn't means it's bad. There are some pretty good moments in it, plus Robert Urich is always good in these kinds of roles. He plays Matt Winslow, an engineer who is working on a space suit. Joanna Cassidy as Patricia Winslow, his wife is okay but tends to chew the scenery from time to time. They literally bump into club director Jessica Jones played by Susan Lucci who does a decent job as the evil creature who is actually initiating people into Hell.

This is your average made for movie horror from the eighties but the story is interesting enough and it does keep you watching. It's probably pretty tame by todays standards, but it's a fun watch.

The Stepford Wives 2

[saint_brett · 3/10 · 19 January 2024]

I was undecided whether to watch 'House That Vanished,' 'Don't Go to Sleep' or 91s 'Captive' tonight, as they all failed to hook me within the first 10 seconds, so I've opted for this invitation movie even though I don't feel like watching anything.

I believe I've seen this before. It's similar to 'The Stepford Wives' or 'The Stepford Children.' I always got Jeannie and Samantha mixed up as actors as they were so identical, but it was groovy seeing Jeannie shed her nice lady image and bury a corpse in 'The Stepford Children.'

After a couple of hot bikini babes walk past Colonel Cochran's limo, either the red Power Ranger or Japan's Ultraman becomes a victim of a hit-and-run but defies the odds, raises from hell, and uses the force to fry the driver. There are no tickets around here, just death sentences.

It's a bit early in the movie for this sort of behavior, isn't it?

An all-American family moves to a new state for a fresh start in a town called Paradise as the epoch of the 80s is spawned, bringing with it the guarantee that computer technology is the way of the future. (We're talking Digital Derby Auto Racing here, people.)

Married to his job, Dan Tanna spends his first day refining a space monkey used as a Guinea pig that can defy gravity, fire, and insults.

It only establishes this scene, as it's required at the end of the movie to infiltrate hell and repel its unbearable heatwave of suffering.

An underlying tone to the movie lets you know that something's astray with the locals, like they're subservient robots to Colonel Cochran or Scientology.

The murderous red Power Ranger Ultraman lady, or PRU as an acronym, proves this by accepting brainwashed Mormons into her freezer club. They have to strip naked, inject Tranq, sign a 1,000-year contract, then step forth into temperatures below zero, even though it's the gateway to hell. Hell's entrance must require some coolant, apparently.

Everyone in this seems to have a few loose screws in their heads.

The movie harbors a dark secret about an exclusive Encino Oaks freezer club where normal people turn into Scientology members overnight if they cross the boundary of hell. Funny at the end, how hell's basement is just a carbon copy of suburban LA? (Are actors in LA today anything different to these controlled zombies in this movie? What's the difference?)

Against Dan Tanna's wishes, his wife and two children are influenced to join the freezer club without his approval, and they become pod people overnight and display traits not of this earth.

All these people in secular sects think they're superior to us everyday people, and I find that highly offensive. What do I need saving from, them or myself?

Speaking from life experience I was duped out of 40 bucks eons ago by Scientology, and I'll never forget being surrounded by dozens of Mormons in the library once, and they just circled me with motion in a ring and were watching everything I was doing like it was an experiment to garner an electric force field into joining their cause. It was creepy. You could feel the energy they were letting off, and they looked down their noses at me and saw me as subhuman to them.

'Invitation to Hell' is not doing anything for me. It's like the town of the crazies from that 'Gymkata' movie.

Surely I could have picked something better than this tonight?

Breaking into the Encino Oaks Scientology Club, Dan Tanna is busted by security, but he murders him, and that would be count one hanging over his head. With a taste of blood, he goes home and bashes up his children and locks them in a closet, then turns on his wife and knocks her out cold. Add count two to his murder rap, as he just had a good old-fashioned showdown with a co-worker and blasted him away with a laser proton zapper doohickey.

Uninvited to a Halloween party, he attends anyway, dressed as a spaceman, and enters the gates of hell in an alternate world, only to be pursued by - what's her name? PRU. Yeah, Pru, the Red Ultraman thingy. All she does is bark lifeless windbag orders at him and forgets that she has Emperor-like powers at her disposal.

The power of love proves PRU's undoing as Dan Tanna defies hell's order and PRU spins around in a tizz like a 'Mortal Kombat 2' combatant and explodes for no reason.

What a total waste of everybody's time.

I don't know about you, but I find Robert Urich to be a terrible actor.

This movie was not required.

And watching it in 2024 or beyond should be outlawed.

Like Marty McFly, it's outer time.

Devil's advocate was a ripoff. Of this.

[gntsfn26 · 8/10 · 13 February 2020]

Good tv movie for sure. Great acting all around with Punky Brewster mixed in an early role. Worth a watch for sure. An 80s gem!

Turned Out Better Than I Expected

[Uriah43 · 6/10 · 17 October 2018]

This film begins with a brilliant scientist named "Matt Winslow" (Robert Urich) and his family moving to a new town where he can develop a project he's been working on for a major corporation. At first everything seems normally but then everybody in the company begin to pressure him and his wife, "Patricia Winslow" (Joanna Cassidy) to join a large health club nearby. At first everybody tolerates their initial hesitation but as time goes by the pressure becomes even more intense as the owner of the health spa "Jessica Jones" (Susan Lucci) becomes personally involved. And it's then that Matt notices that those who join the club aren't quite the same afterward. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this made-for-television movie turned out to be much better than I expected with both Susan Lucci and Joanna Cassidy performing quite well. Admittedly, it suffers somewhat due to the limitations incurred by television guidelines but I enjoyed it all the same and have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

Bland, Boring and Rather Predictable

[Michael_Elliott · 4 September 2015]

Invitation to Hell (1984)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

A scientist (Robert Urich) moves his wife (Joanna Cassidy) and their two children to a new town where he's going to create a new high-tech spacesuit. Right from the start he realizes that the entire town is expected to be like one another and this includes joining a health club ran by Jessica Jones (Susan Lucci). Soon the scientist begins to realize that something is off and it might all lead back to the club.

INVITATION FROM HELL is a pretty boring, bland and predictable made-for-TV movie that even director Wes Craven seems bored by. I say this because there's very little energy or style in his director and it really does seem as if he's stuck in the TV limitations and can never overcome them. It certainly doesn't help that the screenplay is basically a predictable re-working of THE STEPFORD WIVES and in the end there's really very little entertainment to be found.

One of the biggest problems is that it's very easy to figure out what's going on yet the lead character just keeps walking around like an idiot and never being able to figure it out. While the viewer waits for him to figure things out, you grow more and more tired with everything you're watching. There are a few twists thrown in but they're all rather predictable. Another thing that doesn't help is the fact that the lead character is just a bore as are the supporting ones. If you don't care for a family then you're really not going to care if they live or die. There's no one to really root for or against in the picture.

Urich is a fine actor but he's just too bland here to draw any attention to the character. Cassidy is good in her supporting part and I also thought Lucci was good in her role. Kevin McCarthy also shows up in a brief bit and it was nice seeing him. INVITATION TO HELL really has very little going for it. Craven certainly doesn't bring any energy to the material and seems to have been a project done more money more than love.