The Uninvited – a remake of the South Korean original from 2003, directed by newcomers Charles and Thomas Guard – follows the life of young Anna (played by Australian actress Emily Browning), who has spent the past ten months in a psychiatric ward after the death of her mother and is now ready to return home and “finish what she started.” Since the film begins with a horrible nightmare, and since Anna has been hospitalized and shows signs (scars) of attempted suicide, it’s obvious that something dark and troubling taints her past.
Twisted Plotline Too Twisted
At first the audience thinks that Anna’s nightmare is just a bad dream, but while in therapy she and her doctor discuss her mother’s tragic death in a fire that engulfed Anna’s family’s boathouse – an incident which left Anna with a lot of guilt, because she couldn’t help. Or at least that’s the explanation you’re given for now.
When she returns to her real home, she discovers that her father’s (David Strathairn) girlfriend, Rachael (Elizabeth Banks) – who used to be hired nurse who cared for Anna’s ailing mother – has moved into the house, and has started making changes to it. She’s gotten rid of Anna’s mother’s things, much to the chagrin of both Anna and her older sister, Alex (Arielle Kebbel). The battle begins to somehow beat Rachael, who keeps trying to impose herself on the girls’ lives.
In the meantime, the audience witnesses several more of Anna’s disturbing nightmares, leading to more questions as to just what happened to her mother. Then her mother’s ghost tells her that Rachael is a murderer, and Anna and Alex believe her – why wouldn’t they? Then Rachael starts to seem like more of a threat than before. She pushes Matt – Anna’s boyfriend whom she has not seen since being hospitalized – out of their lives right after he manages to disclose to Anna that he saw everything that happened on the night of the fire. To top everything off, Alex finds a small medical case filled with tranquilizers in Rachael’s bathroom. Nerves are on the rise.
Trick Ending Makes a Red Herring Out of the Entire Film
Ultimately, nothing is as it seemed to be. The Uninvited takes a surprise turn at the ending that just doesn’t work. Instead of being a fun plot twist, the entire film is somewhat discredited, and in a short span of about five minutes, the audience is shown flashbacks of what really happened. Essentially, you have just sat through an hour of incredibly complicated and poorly written film only to be given the real, much briefer story that would have saved you a lot of time and grief.
Typical Tropes Versus Likeable Acting
To put it simply, The Uninvited uses just about every horror movie trope available. Children who have lost a parent struggle to maintain a relationship with their remaining guardian. The family lives in a totally isolated, impossibly large home with numerous twisting hallways and locked doors. An adult figure starts to seem threatening, and of course, the children are left in her care. At the end, one character, who you’ve been rooting on for an hour, is revealed as being a ghost. Oh, and don’t forget the creepy child trope – it’s present on many, many occasions.
One saving grace of The Uninvited is the likeable cast. Emily Browning, whose other well-known role was that of Violet in A Series of Unfortunate Events, does an excellent job in the lead, and Elizabeth Banks is wonderfully creepy as the potentially murderous nurse.
Overall, The Uninvited is worth a trip to Blockbuster, but not to your nearest movie theatre.
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