Review: ‘The Uninvited’

Jeremy:

Before even sitting down to watch ‘The Uninvited’, I had a feeling the main credits for the film would be at the end. DreamWorks has been doing everything in their power to keep from the public that this film is a remake of an Asian, horror film. It is. The original was Korean, it is called ‘A Tale of Two Sisters’, and it is exponentially creepier than this remake. Perhaps it would have been better off to exploit the fact that this film is a remake. It would have justified, to an extent, the “been-there-done-that† feel ‘The Uninvited’ gives off.

Even the original, 2003 film didn’t tell a highly original story. There’s an accidental death. There’s a troubled, teenage girl. There’s a ghost who is trying to reach the girl to tell her the accident as no accident at all. There’s a twist ending. All the chilling trappings of an Asian, ghost story are found here infused with the type of Hollywood glossiness that has become a staple on these recent, horror remakes.

The story follows Anna (Emily Browning) who has recently been discharged from a sanitarium. A year earlier, she witnessed her mother dying in an explosive accident, and the girl promptly tried to slit her wrists. The events of the night her mother died are locked away somewhere in Anna’s unconscious mind, and, throughout the course of the film, you know everything will be revealed one piece at a time.

When Anna returns home, she is welcomed by her sister, Alex (Arielle Kebbel); her father (David Strathairn); and his new love interest (Elizabeth Banks), who also served as the deceased mother’s nurse. Alex and Anna cannot stand their father’s new lover. Before too long, though, Anna begins seeing ghosts who lead her to believe the new woman in her father’s life may have more sinister plans for the family.

‘The Uninvited’, directed by The Guard Brothers (Charles and Thomas) and written, doesn’t try anything that could be construed as offensive or daring. It rests comfortably on its laurels of banality, taking the viewer from point A to point B to point C and never deviating from the path of commonality. If you think something is going to jump out from underneath the dark counter, you’re probably right. If you think there’s something lurking behind the opened, closet door, there’s nothing here to prove you false.

The film tries to throw in a twist ending. In the original, the ending just seemed unnecessary. Here, it comes off as completely nonsensical. In the moment, it seems chillingly logical enough, but don’t think about it too hard. Once you try to go back over the film and piece the events that lead up to the ending together, you realize just how absurd the whole thing is.

For all of its unoriginality and cliche-ridden plot points, the execution on the film is better than your typical, Asian, horror remake. The film looks fine. The Guard Brothers don’t instill much ingenuity in their camera work, but given the screenplay they are dealing with, it doesn’t really matter.

The acting is top-notch. Everyone in the film is doing a fine job. Banks plays the love interest/villainess with a great, bitchy, smirky attitude. Kebbel is great as the less-than-innocent, older sister. Browning does a really good job playing the victim role throughout, first of spectral attacks then of human. All three actresses turn in absolutely solid performances giving the film a very feminine sensibility. The way the directors shoot these actresses help this idea along. After seeing ‘The Unborn’ and the way David Goyer shot Odette Yustman, it’s a nice change of pace to see a film that respects its lead actresses.

Strathairn does a fine job, as he always does, as the concerned father who is just trying to move on and be happy. He gets lost in the background more often than not, and he flat-out disappears from the film’s climax. He isn’t given much to do, but the guy is a consummate actor who plays every role, big or small, with the utmost sincerity.

From the predictable opening to the middle-of-the-road middle to the preposterous ending, ‘The Uninvited’ is a horror film without much horror. Not nearly as scary as the original or as most of the recent, Asian horror remakes, it’s a film that is saved from complete awfulness by the acting. It will surely be forgotten ten minutes after viewing. It’s just a shame that so much effort got put into it by the actors and the directors involved.

[Overall: 2.5 stars out of 5]

Melissa:

Another mediocre horror film. It seems that I haven’t really been that impressed by a horror film in some time. At least not the new ones that have been coming out. Jeremy does a pretty good job with explaining the movie so I will just get to my review of it.

Emily Browning, the character of Anna, is a very like-able character. There is something very angelic and beautiful about her. They did a pretty darn good job of casting her. I have nothing bad to say about Elizabeth Banks either. I have liked her in all of her movies, and in the past year she has had five movies come out, yet she still hasn’t quite reached the household name status. She can play just about any role though and I really believe that we will be seeing and hearing a lot more from her. Arielle Kebbel, who plays Alex, Anna’s sister, does a great job as well. There is something very like-able about her on screen. She plays the typical teenager very well.

If it is not the cast, then it must be the storyline that made this movie so middle of the road. The movie itself was not scary. It had a couple little jumps in it but no thriller moments. I think that they could have done a much better job with Anna not remembering what had happened to her mother and the signs that were appearing before her.I don’t want to just give it away, but the majority of the movie either didn’t tie in well together or was just plain predictable. Even the ending. The ending didn’t really make much sense, especially about the pearls. I can make a couple guesses about them, but nothing is ever really said to explain it so it leaves the audience, myself included, slightly confused.

I feel like they went too much off of The Grudge and The Ring with this one. The horror and the design of it, along with the scenery has all been done before. It could have been done in a way that at least made audiences thinking that it was cool instead of instantly saying “What a rip off!”. Quit ripping off Asian horror films and trying to make them cooler! It doesn’t really work!

[Overall: 2.5 stars out of 5]