The Uninvited - Horror Film Review

Directed by Thomas and Charles Guard & Starring Emily Browning

May 7, 2009

The re-make of South-Korean horror hit, A Tale of Two Sisters, that holds no surprises as the bland copy of an original great.

Let’s get one thing straight: films, particularly in the horror genre, have been re-made continually since the beginning of the industry. They’re not likely to go away even though there’s no justifying the vast majority of them, especially nowadays when producers are just scouting out suitable financial candidates, domestic and foreign. So producers Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald (who brought us the Ring re-make) are at it again. For shame.

Their choice was an obvious one with 2003’s A Tale of Two Sisters being one of the most successful Korean horror films ever made. It tells the story of a girl re-united with her father and sibling after a spell in a mental institution, returning to a household where the live-in nurse to their erstwhile mother is accused of a history of cruelty. The premise is the same, of course, excepting that Uninvited has the sisters’ new step-mother also accused of murdering their mother.

A Tale of Three Directors as The Guard Brothers Helm One Poor Script

The line “...lacks the meticulous and rigourous talent of Kim Jee-woon and the two actresses who help make Two Sisters a far superior film...” probably wasn’t far from this reviewer’s thoughts before the Uninvited was even watched and there was a real determination not to resort to it. With that said, The Uninvited lacks the meticulous and rigourous talent of Kim Jee-woon and two actresses who help make Two Sisters a far superior film. Specifically, this lacks the many insidious layers that promise Two Sister’s will actually be more horrific on subsequent viewings.

The little-established Guard brothers either didn’t want to make this project or just weren’t capable of doing it justice (and the influence of the producers is always something of an x-factor). The direction, which could’ve accounted for half of the very droll and obvious dialogue and save on a lot of time, is consequently weak and ephemeral – nothing makes an impact. Not the environment (which was nonetheless a good choice of location), nor any of the characters. The Guard bros feel as proportionately distant from their subject as Jee-woon was intimate with his and any composition that might have one thinking The Uninvited is well-presented has been imported straight from the original – a trait that runs through every aspect of the film.

All this film seems to be is a superficial take, retaining a fraction of each element that was so lovingly composed by Kim Jee-woon and his brilliant crew.

The script, of course, has to be accountable for much of the film’s failings in tandem with the camerawork. Whereas the dialogue was highly minimalist in Two Sisters, it deferred to a deep reserve of hidden information and implication that just isn’t present here. Instead, we’re left watching Sixth Sense meets The Hand that Rocks the Cradle. The result, to put it mildly, is not good.

The Uninvited Cast

As a fan of Asian films it’s sometimes easy to question whether or not the high praise given to some performances are as good as they seem. After all, one eye has to be kept on subtitles, which breaks the scrutiny of an actor and there are obvious cultural differences to consider, with a certain leniancy required in interpreting foreign-language films. But The Uninvited does at least help remind us that the language barrier really is a small obstacle, because there’s no question that Two Sisters is a better brand of film in every conceivable category, performances included.

Emily browning as sister Anna is central to the film and is, at best, okay. The directors probably could’ve helped the young actress to go much further with her performance, which is pretty bland and in no way comparable to the equivalent of Lim Su-jeong as Su-mi. It’s preferable at this point to further highlight just how good Su-jeong was in Two Sisters (as well as her follow-up feature in Park Chan-wook’s I’m a Cyborg, But Thats’s Okay). The potency of Su-jeong elicits genuine sympathy for her devastated state of mind, all of which is glaringly missing from Browning’s performance and written part.

Nor is Arielle Kebbel all that believable as the other sister, roles reversed as they are. Most importantly, both girls taken together feel like they’re almost completely devoid of any familial history, whereas both Korean actresses clearly lived and breathed their roles (with the younger Mun Geun-yeong actually crying while watching one particular scene during their commentary track).

Given the weaknesses of direction and script, the actors here are little more than stand-ins for a project devoid of everything it needed to succeed. So there’s little to be said for the rest of the cast, including David Strathairn as the father (for whom it’s difficult to muster any ‘post-truth’ sympathy unlike his reticent and downbeat equivalent who is to be truly pitied), and Elizabeth Banks, who probably should’ve looked into – gee, let’s think about this – the step-mother’s role in A Tale of Two Sisters as opposed to recreating Rebecca De Mornay!

The Uninvited Summary

It’s proving impossible to find any redeeming features in The Uninvited, which is strange because there’s undoubtedly worse out there. As with a lot of re-hashed horrors the overall result might be better appreciated by someone who isn’t overly familiar with the genre or that this is just a shadow of it’s original inspiration.

It’s an obvious end to a predictable article, but you’re better off giving this a miss and watching A Tale of Two Sisters. At least twice.

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