The Uninvited

After seeing the film The Uninvited this weekend, a few words are left floating in my mind. There’s unsurprising, uninteresting, unintriguing, and the list could go on an on. Since midwinter has suddenly become the season of thrillers, The Unborn, My Bloody Valentine and Friday the 13th to name a few, let’s just say my tolerance for cheesy movies has gotten even lower. I was hoping The Uninvited would wet my scary movie appetite like The Ring did when it premiered. That was a Asian transplant much like this, and it set the precedence for so many of the techniques overused in horror films today. But the fates were not on my side this weekend, because I had to suffer through the (thankfully only 83 minutes long) dry and predictable Uninvited. (And don’t get me started on titles that have absolutely no bearing on the movie itself.)

Directed by the Guard Brothers (Charles and Thomas Guard), the film focuses on the Rydell family. What looks like nuclear family perfection from the outside, is actually dysfunctional and broken when you get close. Anna (Emily Browning), recently released from a mental institution, returns home to find that the nurse of her late mother is now the new woman of the house. Played by Elizabeth Banks (Role Models) and David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck), Steven and Rachael are the typical over-the-top, evil stepmother and completely oblivious, cardboard-like father. (With the year Banks had, including W. and Zack and Miri Make a Promo, at least we know she can play hot, sweet looking psycho mom too!) The rebellious older sister Alex, played by Arielle Kebbel (The Grudge 2), wanders in and out of the story, making it easy to believe that the relationship between the sisters had to have been more fleshed out in the original A Tale of Two Sisters. I kept thinking, “Is she still there? Oh, wait she’s back. Where’d she go again? Is she in this family?”

Things get creepy when Anna is haunted by dreams of her mother’s death, the “go to” scare tactic of creepy little kids and supernatural, maternal warnings that maybe sexy nurse Rachael may be more than she appears to be. It doesn’t help that Anna can’t remember what really happened at the house the night her mother died. As Anna begins a quest to find out the truth about Rachael, which she hopes will lead her to an understanding of her mother’s death, she doesn’t realize that by the end her whole world will be turned upside down. I won’t spoil it for you here, but there is a big twist which is suppose to put the whole film into perspective.

The problem with this film doesn’t lie in the acting though. To be honest, everyone is pretty much wasted in their roles since they’re not given very much to work with in the first place. The writing lacked any credibility. Written by Craig Rosenberg, Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard, it seemed as if they saw a film they liked, realized that there was an audience ripe to accept it and then, decided how to best get from point A to point B as quickly as possible without injecting any sense of realism or creativity. Though they set us up with the run-of-the-mill jumps, shocks and gasps, there was nothing I walked away thinking, “Wow! They really got me there.” Plus, the dialogue was also tedious and stilted, making the leads seems more like caricatures and less like characters.

The same could be said for The Guard Brothers’ direction, which save a few beautiful panoramics and shocking moments, was boring and uninspiring. It didn’t help that the film never distinguishes itself or where it fits in to the grand scheme movies. Is it a teen “run and scream” horror-fest, a psychological thriller, a ghost story or a familial drama. Throw in a plot twist at the end that didn’t make me feel enlightened but disappointed, and you’ve got one confused movie and one audience member’s time wasted. But The Guard Brothers walked away boggle-free so apparently they know something we don’t. Maybe they’ll clue us in on the DVD extras.

My advice, though, wouldn’t even be to Netflix this when it comes out on DVD but to go rent the original South Korean version. I still haven’t seen it, but when the bad taste of The Uninvited no longer lingers in my mouth, I’m sure it will thoroughly scare me, creep me out, give me nightmares and entertain me even if I know the surprise ending already. Isn’t that all that we’re looking for in a good scary movie anyway?