While many thrillers may take your breath away, some may even bore you to death. Duncan Birmingham’s “Who Invited Them” hangs somewhere in the middle of these parameters. It is neither a lousy thriller nor an outstanding one. But the writing is very subtle. We will try to look into what happens in the film and explain the hidden message at the end.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In The ‘Who Invited Them’ Film?
The film began with Dylan (Margo and Adam’s kid) opening a door and walking toward his parents’ room with a soft toy in his hand. When he came near the door, he saw blood coming out from the bottom of the door. Soon, we find out that Dylan was having a terrifying nightmare. Adam and Margo had recently moved into this new house on the hills. Margo and Dylan were still trying hard to adapt to the changed environment. Later, Adam hosted a party, inviting all his friends and co-workers to brag about his new house, which he had bought in a very alluring deal. However, all of Adam’s friends only pretended to be pleased, as, in reality, they were irritated by his constant show-off. Here, at the party, we are introduced to Teeny and Frank. They preferred the plains to the hills and lived mainly in the downhills. As soon as everyone left the house, Teeny and Frank took a leave too. On the way to their home, Frank ran over a stray dog. He quickly came to a halt and looked for it, but couldn’t find anything, so he assumed it was a branch.
Adam and Margo were going through a challenging phase in their marriage. Margo did not like the change much. When everyone left, they thought of hitting the bed. Dylan was having a sleepover at Frank and Teeny’s. Soon, Adam and Margo found out that a couple at the party had not been invited by any of them. They saw them coming out of the bathroom when Adam and Margo were talking about the weird-looking couple. They introduced themselves as Tom and Sasha. They said that they were Adam and Margo’s new neighbors. They also explained that they came to their house to ask to remove one of the cars blocking the doorway to their home. But, as soon as they entered the house, they were amazed by its interior and decided to have a couple of drinks. They later offered Adam and Margo a nightcap at their house, but Adam declined and asked them to stay and have a nightcap at his house instead.
Later, we saw Dylan again having nightmares and asking for his teddy bear because he could not sleep without it. Teeny decided to go to Adam’s house and get the teddy bear for Dylan so that they all could rest. On the other hand, we saw Adam and Margo getting very comfortable with Tom and Sasha. Soon, we got the vibe that they were trying to find out about Adam and Margo’s internal affairs. As time progressed, Tom learned about Adam’s liking for Sasha. Tom offered him to get intimate with Sasha and Margo and he would only sit and watch. Later, Tom raised the topic in front of Margo, which triggered the couple’s fight. However, they managed to sort everything out and asked Tom and Sasha to leave. They were not ready to go, and Adam found out that they had lied about being the neighbors from next door. Adam angrily smashed a beer bottle on Tom’s head. Sasha clarified that they lived across the street in the house. Tom apologized for his behavior, and they left with happy faces.
While returning to Adam’s house to grab the teddy for Dylan, Teeny found the stray dog beside the high road, in the middle of the bushes. She tried to shoot it dead but later decided not to shoot the dog. Margo found an earring from Sasha and Adam and went to the house across the street to return it. Soon, Adam found out that it was not their house, and they murdered the house’s owners in front of his eyes. Adam was tied up, and Margo came looking for him. Although she had forgotten the direction, Teeny had now encountered Tom and Sasha right in the middle of the road. Tom stabbed her with a knife. Teeny brought out her gun to shoot Tom but accidentally shot Adam, who was running away from the house where the old couple was murdered. In the end, we see Adam with a stitch on his face to cover the gun wound and is living happily with Margo. Adam had found a new place for them, but Margo said she did not want to move. The film ends with Adam understanding that they are being followed by Tom and Sasha. He even saw proof of their coming into the house without his knowledge.
‘Who Invited Them’ Ending: Who Were Tom and Sasha? Why Did They Spare The Lives Of Adam And Margo?
When Adam was showing around the house to Tom, he told him that long ago, in this house, there had been a case of double homicide. He said the husband and wife killed themselves while the twins watched TV the whole time. Later, Margo found a drawing of a height measuring scale on which the names of Tom and Sasha were written. Soon, Margo realized Tom and Sasha were the twins Adam was talking about. On the other hand, when Adam went to return Sasha’s earring, Tom held him hostage. They tied him up and told him the real story behind the double homicide. Tom and Sasha have been victims of abuse since their childhood. Their parents, if they had a bad day or a problem among themselves, would unleash their anger by punishing and torturing them badly. So, Tom and Sasha planned something vicious, if not deadly. They used to put lipstick marks on their father’s items and cigarette ashes on their mother’s items. So, by doing this, the twins could quickly cause a fight among their parents. Now, why would they do that? According to Tom, they did this so that their parents could be involved with themselves, leaving them alone. Once their parents were busy quarreling among themselves, the twins could easily avoid facing any trouble from their end. But one day, the twins complicated things between their parents on a different level; hence, the parents kill each other. They even toiled with their dead bodies. They sort of enjoyed doing it. Since then, Tom and Sasha have followed that tradition. They visit the neighborhood and kill the couple who had never helped them when they were abused. The neighbors did not even come to a stop their parents from fighting.
Now, whatever Tom and Sasha tried from the beginning was to instigate a quarrel between Adam and Margo. They wanted to know whether they were suitable to be a couple or not. They knew that if they fought with each other today, tomorrow they would just reflect their anger on their kids. They tried to prevent that with their own methods. They do this survey on couples, and Tom asks for the survey results from his sister Sasha. If Sasha says, “Cantaloupe,” that means, according to the survey, the couple has failed to impress them, and hence they will kill them. But, if she says, “Routabaga,” that means they are impressed with the couple and will continue their survey. Tom and Sasha tried everything to make Adam and Margo fight with each other, but after all that, they seemed to have the understanding to remain intact no matter what. They apologized for their mistakes and compromised for the sake of their relationship. This impressed Sasha, and so she told Tom, “Routabaga.” So, Tom and Sasha, having every opportunity to kill Adam and Margo, left them without causing any harm. Tom only slammed the door on Adam’s hand once, but that was just a minor injury. Tom advised him to always bring flowers to his wife and to never vent their frustrations on their child. Later, we find that Adam is getting flowers for Margo. So, this suggests that Adam is taking the statement very seriously. Also, we see a record playing. It was the same record that Tom was playing the night they met for the first time. The record is used to skip a particular portion. But, at the movie’s end, Adam was stunned to see the record not skipping this time. Tom promised Adam that night that he would bring him a new record. Adam even heard the sound of ice cubes in a glass. We know this from earlier when Tom played with the ice cubes while drinking the whiskey, making the exact same sound. So, there is an obvious suggestion that Tom and Sasha are still following them. If they ever torture Dylan or fight with each other, they might invite themselves into the house again.
Final Words: What Happened To Adam?
The climax of “Who Invited Them” is neat and thrilling. We see Adam getting all worked up, thinking about being followed by Tom and Sasha. But Margo seemed pretty relaxed. It is only humane to be tense about a night filled with such horror, including a murder. There can be two reasons that suggest Margo’s casual behavior. The second one is pretty obnoxious, so let’s start with the first one. There is a difference between witnessing a murder and seeing dead bodies. Adam witnessed the murder, whereas Margo saw the dead bodies. Adam is haunted by his experience, so it is only natural to hallucinate at present. Maybe the record was skipping like before. Perhaps the whiskey glass never had any hamsters in it (that night, Tom put Dylan’s pet hamster in the whiskey glass, and at the end of the movie, Adam found the same hamster in a whiskey glass), and also, maybe there wasn’t any sound of ice cubes in a whiskey glass. It was just a trauma Adam was carrying with him from that night.
The second possible theory is that maybe Adam had told Margo about Tom and Sasha’s real reasons behind all the killings. Margo somehow recognized that this could save her family from falling apart. Imagine this… if Adam had had the feeling that he was being followed, he would never have caused any harm to his family. He would never betray Margo; they would not have to fight with each other, and the family would remain intact. But this theory has many loopholes, so I would definitely go with the first one. Adam is either hallucinating the twins’ presence, or they are being followed. Take your pick.
