'The Uninvited' Movie Review

Unlike many horror movie fans, I think there's a place for remakes -- especially when it comes to foreign films. Face it, there's a significant number of Americans who would never watch a subtitled movie, and they may not even take a dubbed foreign film seriously. Given the xenophobia, I welcome a remake like The Uninvited, which retools the 2003 hit A Tale of Two Sisters, one of the more renowned Korean horror movies of all time (meaning it's still relatively unknown in the US).

The Plot

Anna (Emily Browning) is a good teen girl whose terminally ill mother dies in a tragic fire. Traumatized and suicidal, Anna spends the next 10 months in a mental facility, leaving behind her party girl sister, Alex (Arielle Kebbel). When Anna is finally released, she returns home to find that her father (David Strathairn) has wasted little time by having his new girlfriend, Rachel (Elizabeth Banks), move in.

Rachel seems nice enough, but the sisters don't trust her, in part because she was their mother's nurse before she died. Soon enough, Rachel's polite veneer cracks after a few instances of mild disobedience, and the battle lines are drawn. Anna's fears reach a whole new level when she's visited one night by her mother's ghost, claiming that she was murdered. Alex believes Anna's story -- a bit too readily -- and the girls set about researching Rachel's background.

It turns out that their new mom-to-be has an assumed name, and they begin to believe that she's in fact Mildred Kemp, a nanny who several years ago drugged and stabbed the children she was caring for. Their suspicions are bolstered by the fact that Anna is also being visited by the ghosts of those three kids, warning her that she's next. But can they convince their father of Rachel's evil intentions, or will Anna's accusations be seen as the ravings of a crazy woman?

The End Product

There's little particularly wrong with The Uninvited, but there's also little original or inspiring. Of course, originality is tough to come by when you're remaking a film, but it doesn't help to throw in tired horror clichés like a little ghost girl warning of certain doom. (Ironically, Browning played such a part in 2002's Ghost Ship.)

That said, I give The Uninvited credit for shying away from a slavish remake (see The Eye or Shutter) and taking some chances with the script. While not all of the changes work, the new film eliminates some of the nagging vagueness of A Tale of Two Sisters -- although it also eliminates much of the original's rich, dark fairy tale atmosphere.

Having seen the first film, it's hard to judge how impactful the twist ending in the remake is, but it seems fairly predictable, especially in an era in which movies like The Ring, The Sixth Sense, The Others and Shutter have taught us to expect some sort of "gotcha" moment from ghost stories. At the very least, the twist is a lot less shocking than it was in the original.

On the bright side, The Uninvited doesn't feel like a typical teen (or "tween") horror flick. It has more class, purpose and brains than recent PG-13 teen-skewed fare like Prom Night and The Haunting of Molly Hartley -- in part because of the strong source material and an able cast that keeps you involved even if you figure out the twist. (Also, there's a nice additional semi-twist that wraps up some loose plot points.)

The directorial debut of brothers Charles and Thomas Guard shows promise, painting scenic portraits that make use of the natural seaside landscape. However, genuine scares are few and far between, as the ghosts end up adding little impact to the movie (spookier makeup for the ghost girl would've helped). That said, the suspenseful tension and cat-and-mouse jostling between the protagonists maintain the movie's momentum, and in the end, The Uninvited works more as a mystery thriller than as a supernatural horror movie.

The Skinny

• Acting: B (Strong work from Browning and Banks propel the film's tension.)
• Direction: C+ (Pretty cinematography, but scares could be delivered more effectively.)
• Script: B- (A bit predictable, but most of the changes to the original work.)
• Gore/Effects: C+ (Not much gore, and some of the ghost effects could be more intense.)
• Overall: B- (A solid mystery that happens to have ghosts in it.)

The Uninvited is directed by Charles and Thomas Guard and is rated PG-13 for violent and disturbing images, thematic material, sexual content, language and teen drinking. Release date: January 30, 2009.