The Uninvited
(2009)A remake of Korean horror Janghwa, Hongryeon, in which Anna (Emily Browning) returns home from a stint in a mental hospital after her mother's tragic death.... More
Although glad to see her sister, Anna is shocked to find that her father (David Strathairn) is now romantically involved with the mother's former nurse (Elizabeth Banks), who has moved into the family house. Anna is also more than a little surprised when the ghost of her mother appears, and makes suggestions that the nurse's intentions are not very wholesome at all...Hide
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Directed by Charles Guard (feature debut), Thomas Guard
Starring Elizabeth Banks, Arielle Kebbel, Emily Browning, David Strathairn, Maya Massar
Written by Craig Rosenberg, Doug Miro, Carlo Bernard, Ji-woon Kim
On Demand, DVD & Blu-Ray
Available from 3 providers
Flicks Review
BY Andreas Heinemann Flicks Writer
It sure does seem like horror season at the multiplex lately. The Uninvited is the latest mainstream fright fest to be released and by and large it exceeds the modest expectations that its recent predecessors have established. It knows how to work around its limitations.... More
It’s hard to deliver genuine scares when you’re weighed down by a R13 rating. It effectively removes the possibilities for over the top gore. But instead of fighting against this like a lot of previous efforts, the filmmakers have chosen to work around it. Grotesquery is substituted with set pieces that deal in a more hallucinatory tension, a refreshing attempt to breathe new life into a formula fast becoming stale.
Emily Browning and Elizabeth Banks are both well cast in their respective roles, Banks in particular showing a side previously unseen. There is nothing revolutionary about the characters they are playing, but they are convincing portrayals of good and evil.
The more seasoned horror movie viewer might not find The Uninvited all that scary. They should source out the Korean original. The remake will please its target audience of teenage girls.Hide
The Peoples' Reviews
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The Uninvited
This movie to me wasnt scary at,instead very boring,it had a few twists and turns to it but deffinetly a movie i wouldnt see again
I was in awe of seeing this, but then when watching the cliche's throughout are obvious, and the film really is like many recent Asian remakes, BORING!
The Press Reviews
31%
of critics recommend.
Rotten Tomatoes Score. More reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Emily Browning's face helps The Uninvited work so well...She makes you fear for her, and that's half the battle. Yet she's so fresh she's ready for a Jane Austen role. Full Review
The film is still cheesy rather than deliciously scary. It never really generates sustained suspense. Full Review
Without dwelling on the limited abilities of novice British filmmakers Tom and Charles Guard (a.k.a. the Guard Brothers) -- who seem to have divvied up duties here by having one sibling focus exclusively on close-up shots of doorknobs and the other oversee everything else -- the movie's fatal flaw is the undeveloped relationship between the two sisters. Full Review
The main problem with The Uninvited lies in its refusal to decide just what movie it wants to be a commercial for. It certainly doesn’t have much in common with "A Tale of Two Sisters," the creepy Korean horror film of which it is supposedly a remake. Full Review
As far as Asian horror remakes go, this one is right up there with The Ring for quality. It’s not as complex or involving as the original it is adapted from but is still a very enjoyable 3 and a half star watch. Full Review
Weak even by the standard of uninspired recent Asian-horror remakes, The Uninvited is more likely to induce snickers and yawns than shudders and yelps. Full Review
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