The Uninvited – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Apr 23, 2009, 13:06 GMT

The film stars Emily Browning (Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events) as Anna, a girl who is driven by her mother’s ghost to investigate her untimely death.  When her father (David Strathairn, The Spiderwick Chronicles) becomes engaged to Rachel(Elizabeth Banks, Role Models), her mother’s former nurse, Anna and her sister (Arielle Kebbel, The Grudge 2) look into Rachel’s past and begin to suspect that she is not what she seems.  ...more

When this film was announced, a gasp went up from classic movie fans that thought the 1944 Ray Milland film was being remade for the teen crowd. It was a gasp of horror, but it turned out to be a redo of a Korean horror film. It’s decent enough but if you’re familiar with another film then you’ll see the surprise ending coming.

Anna Rydell (Emily Browning) has been institutionalized since the death of her mother (Maya Massar). Her psychiatrist (Dean Paul Gibson) feels that it’s time for Anna to go home and resume her life.

Her dad Steven (David Strathairn) is elated to see his daughter come home. However thing have changed in her absence. Dad has started dating Rachel Summers (Elizabeth Banks) who was her mother’s caregiver during her illness.

This doesn’t set well with Anna or her sister Alex (Arielle Kebbel) and they plot to get rid of the other woman. They begin investigating the “wicked” stepmother and discover that years before another caregiver murdered three children and disappeared. They begin to suspect that Rachel is the same person and Anna is seeing visions of the dead children.

It would take me mentioning one film to spoil the final surprise for you. I’ll not do that, or try not to. Maybe we should just end the review right there since I’m sorely tempted to pull that other flick out of the hat. We’ll call it the Hexagon Ability as to protect the innocent.

I was saying earlier that I was afraid that this film was a remake of the 1944 Ray Milland haunted house chiller and was happy to discover that wasn’t the case. Let them muck up another flick for teen consumption says I, but I digress.

The Uninvited is the first film from Thomas and Charles Guard, billed as the Guard Brothers. They obviously hope to join the Pang Brothers and the Wachowski’s. They might be on a decent start since the film is well made and acted, but they need to pick one that might offer a bit more mystery for their next outing.

The Uninvited is really a remake of the 2003 Korean film A Tale of Two Sisters. Perhaps they found that title too telling though. That might’ve given you a clue as to the big plot twist. It was one that I saw coming and the clues were rather obvious (especially if you’ve seen the Hexagon Ability).

Even after the final reveal of who’s making the bodies pile up there’s another coda on the end of the film that made me wonder about the final solution. Was the killer really disturbed or were they using events to cover their sanity and keep themselves out of jail? That got my attention more than the other twist. Hope I didn’t give too much away. I found The Uninvited a medium thriller. It just didn’t live up to my expectations.

The Uninvited is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include the 19 minute “Unlocking the Uninvited” making of, 5 minutes of deleted scenes, and a 52 second alternative ending.

This alternative ending is a little less though provoking than the ending of the film now and I liked the one on the film much better. There are also previews of other Dreamworks DVDs.

The Uninvited is a film that you might not want to invite in if you figure out the mystery too soon and find yourself not caring about the thrills. I found the mystery easily solved and I began to look for the cracks.

I had to watch the Hexagon Ability a second time to pick up on all the clues. I won’t have to watch the Uninvited again. Just stay away from the 1944 film unless you want to keep it more a thinking man’s film.

The Uninvited is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.