The Uninvited

After being cleared for release from a mental hospital, Anna (Emily Browning) returns home to her writer father Steven (David Strathairn) and sister Alex (Arielle Kebbel). In her absence, Emily's father has grown closer to her late mother's former caretaker Rachel (Elizabeth Banks). Anna is continually hallucinating and seeing her dead mother, insisting that her death was not an accident and that Rachel had something to do with it. With this in mind, she sets out with Alex to prove Rachel is not everything she seems.

I did not expect much from The Uninvited, but surprisingly, I received a lot more than I expected.

Despite being an American remake of the Korean film A Tale of Two Sisters, The Uninvited does enough to make it stand out on its own. I never saw the original film, but I imagine it looked different than this film does. It is dark and atmospheric from the very beginning, and continues on the same wavelength to the very end of the film. It frequently blends horror with psychological terror, developing a movie that could have easily been a throwaway scare-flick for pre-teens to scream through, but ends up being a fairly accomplished film. This is not a film anywhere near the quality of the greatness found in the likes of The Silence of the Lambs, but it is a film that was not just scraped out for a profit.

The story itself, as twisty and loopy as it gets, is fairly well done. Although I was not too interested at the beginning, the film draws you in rather tightly, revealing itself quite nicely over its short 87-minute running time. Yes, there are plenty of predictable moments laced throughout the film, but there are a few moments of genuine surprise as well. The film never makes the claim that it is trying to be original, but it does a unique enough job that you can only see shades of what has come before (as opposed to a standard American horror film basically spelling out exactly what it is ripping off, or homaging sort to speak). Even with the cheap scares around every corner, it still managed to make me jump back more than once.

What does not make sense however, is how some things are explicitly stated while others are briefly alluded to. A lot of what happens is fairly obvious for even the least astute of audiences, yet the film dumbs itself down more than once to fit the conventions of 2000-era PG-13 horror. When something ambiguous comes up, it is either explained in-depth, or done away with entirely. A rather crucial character element of Anna's is revealed very close to the beginning of the film, but is never explored in any capacity. We understand her motivations and what drives her quest for the truth, but there are a few background details that even after the film concludes, still left me a bit baffled. Why explain some things that are obvious, but not bother touching on ones that are not?

Despite not having starred in a lot of things, Browning is quite good in her role as Anna. Struggling throughout the film with mental anguish and hallucinations, Browning makes this young teenage character convincing in a way only someone so young could do. She is not perfect in the role, but you can see the desperation and heartbreak in her face and her actions. This is an actress who becomes her role, and never falters out of it. She carries the film from beginning to end, and never looks the worst for it. She is a young actress I hope to continue to see more of, especially in higher fare.

Kebbel, while not as powerful as Browning, commands when she is on-screen. She works beautifully off of Browning, and makes their relationship clear and pure from their first moment together. Their chemistry makes the film as surprising as it is. It easily could have been something that was clouded over, or underplayed. But the filmmakers use every opportunity to stress the strength of the relationship of the two sisters, and their willingness to go the distance for each other. Some moments are just heartbreaking, seeing the lengths they are willing to go, but Kebbel keeps herself in check at all times, and gives a great performance.

Strathairn, despite the Oscar-nomination for Good Night, and Good Luck., seems to have fallen on being the wise older character in every movie since, and gives the same old performance here. He is good as always, but seems more mellowed down than he should be. Banks on the other hand, is completely out of her comfort zone, and her performance is an obvious reflection. In some scenes, she is downright terrifying as the evil potential stepmother, and in others, she is laughably bad. There is no middle ground, and no one seems to have been able to suggest any consistency tips for her. While she gives a decent performance anyway, it could have been stronger with a more confident actress.

But what the film is guilty of is its lack of reinvention. It is a unique piece of horror for 2009, but the film never strives to be anything bigger or better. It lacks the motivations to really make something of itself, and never even tries to be something better than it could be. The Uninvited really surprised me for how good it actually was, but surprised me more in how easily it could have been even better. A lean running time, a great pair of young actresses, and some decent supporting acting could have made this small picture quite the notorious horror flick. But instead, it seems content just being an above average run-of-the-mill psychological thriller.

7/10.

(Portions of this review originally appeared on http://www.dvdfanatic.com).

I typically find newer horror movies to be cheesy, humorous, boring, and above all: not scary. You know that feeling you get when a movie starts to take its toll on your patients and causes your eyes to wander around the theater? You don't get that at all with this film. This movie grabbed me from the beginning and refused to let go. The film's music score is extremely effective at creating a suspenseful and uneasy viewer sensation, which I think deserves full appreciation for the movie's ghostly flavor. Without any doubt, appropriate music in a movie is like butter on popcorn. Would Jaws scare you without the renowned theme music? The cast was nothing less then superb. Emily Browning was perfect at playing the "sad, quiet girl with horrible visions" role. I'm not going to spoil it for anyone, but the ending of this movie really twists your mind and makes you think. I found it to be an adequate yet abrupt closure for the story despite how it is following a certain trend with recent horror movie endings.

It's not easy to make a horror movie these days. The critics will hate it by definition: their expectations are always high and mostly unsatisfiable. They will call them uninspirational, uninteresting, and not original enough. With time, the horror genre has become an underdog of the movie industry. Prior to watching this movie, I had no knowledge about the plot whatsoever and it turned out to be good for me. I won't beat around the bush: I'm not a horror fanatic, but this one, I enjoyed from the beginning until the very end and I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. The thing I appreciated the most was the great amount of mystery: at some point the movie becomes more a mystery movie than a horror movie. The plot is interesting at the very least: and it does make you think who the main villain might be. I personally had many guesses and I though I got it right, but the ending surprised me. And there's nothing I enjoy more than an ending I did not see coming. The surroundings are beautiful and the movie is very well shot. Visually, the pictures are very satisfying, another thing you would not expect. The acting is also professional, along the score: all these parts, I have no complaints about. The movie was, for some reasons I don't fully understand, certified as not fresh enough. I do agree, some moments are painfully cliché, but in this case, I found it charming. Isn't it a part of the horror movie to expect that a hand will try to reach you under the bed? It will make you jump in your place either way, so what's the deal? As long it's not cheesy, it's good enough for me. I think that if the creators maybe took a risk and avoided those couple of clichés, the movie would have been praised by critics. But who cares about their opinion anyway? The movie is really enjoyable and if that is what matters to you, don't hesitate and watch it. You won't regret it.

While many people are just so put off by this film for many reasons, I was very surprised by how it actually turned out.

Although the original, "A Tale of Two Sisters", was an epic movie that delivered certain moods and feelings that this movie (and most other films to date) couldn't quite capture, this film was still just great.

One thing to understand was that this movie was completely westernized. Remakes such as "The Grudge" take place in Japan, but the main characters are replaced with an American or European cast, and sometimes the story just doesn't quite fit the way it should with that type of a cast. In this film, the "A Tale of Two Sisters" story is completely translated into an American setting, in the north in a small town. The characters are tweaked a little to accommodate the new setting, and so are some of the scenes and plot lines. This is where many fans of the original get upset and get their panties in a bunch.

If this film was truly remade true to the original, it would just be the original film itself being remade 5 years later with the same cast and same script. This film is honestly one of the best Asian-horror remakes that has been made in the past 3 or 4 years if not ever. The cast gives solid performances and there were little or no plot holes. There were actually less plot holes in this film than the original. Of course I liked the original more, but I'm just saying this film executed certain things that the first film didn't, just like the first film executed certain things this film didn't. They are meant to be similar but different, and that is what makes both of them worth seeing.

8.5/10

The picture is a sleek production with acceptable budget and packs genuine chills , suspense , tension , and shocks , it's a terror-thriller very exciting . It deals with a teen named Anna Rydell(Emily Browning) , after spending a stint in a mental institution, return to the home of their father , a famous writer named Steve (David Strathairn) who is now living with her late mother's nurse, Rachel Summer (Elizabeth Banks) and both Anna and her older sister Alex (Arielle Kebel) think Rachel was responsible for her mummy's death in a seaside house blow up the year before . Once there, in addition to dealing with their stepmother's obsessive and cruel ways . Soon after her arrival , Anna also starts to receive warnings from her late ghost mother and three interfering children who affects her recovery . The Alex's sanity is also jeopardized thanks to her unbalanced stepmother , and aloof father . Another night Anna goes to sleep, she hears noises and the door to her bedroom creakily opens and meets the ghost . Terrified, she runs out of her room and tells her sister that someone has come into her room . Alex and Anna set out to look for proofs to demonstrate that Rachel is the killer.

This eerie movie produced by the successful director/producer Ivan Reitman displays terror, shocks, hard-edged drama , plot twists and creepy images . The story come to life in a wonderful fashion, giving it a haunting ominous atmosphere that often seems to mimic the tense relations between the members of the family . While the look is suitable atmospheric and scary , the argument stretches plausibility to the breaking point in a surprising finale . The film is an American remake of successful Korean film titled ¨A tale of two sisters¨ by Ji Woon Kim . It also contains the usual spooky phantoms of pale complexion from Japanese stories directed by Takashi Mike and Hideo Nakata as ¨The Grudge ¨ , ¨ The ring ¨ and ¨ Dark water ¨ . The direction is incredibly good , production design by Andrew Menzies , the cinematography by Daniel Landin , lighting, and especially the soundtrack by expert on terror scores Christopher Young , all are captivating. The motion picture is well directed by the Guard brothers , Charles and Thomas who create a powerful character study that blends chills , thrills , suspense and psychological drama in a cleverly devised plot that certainly offers more than the usual terror film . This is a frightening , psychological thriller, and familiar drama , all at their best that will appeal to horror buffs . Rating : Better than average . Worthwhile watching .