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An average movie

Posted : 5 years, 5 months ago on 7 October 2018 08:19

To be honest, I wasn't really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as wel check it out. Well, even though I didn't have such huge expectations, the damned thingย  still turned out to be seriously disappointing, First of all, I always hate it when, in a horror movie, even though they are dealing with a mental patient, there is no psychology whatsoever but some boring paranormal nonsense. Fortunately, there was a twist at the end which slightly recovered the damage but it was still really poorly handled. For example, all the scenes involving Elizabeth Banks should have been much more ambiguous. Instead, they gave us the good old trick ย 'it actually never happened like it was displayed in the movie, it happened like that only in her head' which is such a lame and lazy gimmick. Another thing that slightly bothered me was why would they cast Emily Browning and Arielle Kebbel to play some sisters when they didn't look like each other at all. In fact, they could have cast Mandy Moore instead of Browning since she looked somewhat similar to Kebbel. Eventually, what pissed me off the most about this movie was that it pretty much ruined for me 'A Tale of Two Sisters' which sounded like a really solid Asian horror flick. Hopefully, I will forget about this lousy remake before I ever watch the original version. Anyway, to conclude, I think I was actually rather generous with my rating here, I really didn't like the damned thing and I don't think it is worth a look.ย 


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Decent adaptation of the original horror

Posted : 11 years ago on 12 March 2013 03:05

Surprise Surprise! Another remake of an Asian Horror film. Hollywood sure has a lot to thank Asia for since they are grabbing tons of their ideas. Is this is a sign showing who is more original? Surely this remake must just suck because it's a remake right? Well guess what? As much as I'd like to say that, I don't think I can! Wow that is surprising! Because in most cases, in particular when they remake Asian horror films, they always turn out to be crap.

But I was pleasantly surprised in the fact that they did a decent job, though A Tale of Two Sisters still lights the candle for me. But Emily Browning pulls the weight of the film together and captures the innocence and timidness appropriate for the lead character, and does emotionally pull you towards her. I will commend her for that and for the filmmakers.

I didn't like how they made her sister however, a bit too tomboyish because for me it wrecked the relationship that was so special between the two sisters which was captured so well in the original. This was a really important thing and the original had so much emotion in particular with the ending that you were left with a sorrow and melancholy but also made you feel satisfied.

The acting in The Uninvited is decent. However, they didn't really capture Anna's (Emily Browning) illness very well, and was pretty much rushed in the beginning. People don't just snap out of an illness like that quickly.

Since this is made for Americans, I can forgive it for sticking to the formula. But I do wonder if they tried a bit of what the Asian horror films do; perhaps give it a bit of more style, something unique, that it could actually work. I mean the scary scenes are quite predictable, which is where I find myself going 'yeah something is gonna pop up', 'yep that is definitely a dream sequence' - and in most cases I am usually right. The original left you hanging because you weren't exactly sure what was happening.

The Uninvited also goes at a much quicker pace, which is good because you aren't left hanging too long. This is both good and bad depending on quickly you want to solve the mystery, but the Korean one went at a more slower pace, but it kept you guessing more and wondering what the house was about also. What's more, the original didn't reveal it so quickly what the hell was going on in the house in the first place.

OK, there are my comparisons. Remakes should essentially be judged by themselves, but of course it will get comparisons. Let met just say that to western audiences - If you can't read subtitles, then how can I expect you to read road signs when you are driving since you only get a few seconds and have to keep your eyes on the road? If you can do that, then reading subtitles will not kill you!!!! Nevertheless, this is a decent remake and I was satisfied with it, but the original is what you should really check out if you want something that feels more original (even if you see this first), authentic, better cinematography, more depth and overall, a better movie...


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The Uninvited review

Posted : 12 years, 7 months ago on 30 August 2011 10:41

The movie is not a horror movie, is an interesting thriller that hooks you until the end, it won't give you fear, at most a fright, but it's still very good. The crowd likes movies much worse saying that is great. The big problem with this movie was playing guess in the face of the viewer all the time that her stepmother was bad, I can not remember if but... manipulate our thought. That thing to bet the killer, you know? The problem is that the film always pointed in the same direction, so the movie can give you a big surprise ending, which I guessed at parts, the other part that I didn't serve was really shocking... It's a great film, which suffers a lot yes, but worth being seen. I've watched this movie so many times coz I love it so much!


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Just "Ok"

Posted : 13 years, 2 months ago on 28 January 2011 07:03

The Uninvited was a movie I was interested in seeing. I got my first glimpse of Emily Browning and what she can really do. She impressed me in this, since usually there is usually nothing special about acting in horror films, but she really carried the film. There were a few good scares, but nothing you can jump off your couch from. The film also has a nice feel to it, until shit happens. Its a really different horror flick, but now I will tell you why the 4 rating.

I hate the new type of horror films. I hate that they have to remake every horror film from the 40s-80s, and make it so modern, so little teenagers can have a good scare, when half the movies arent scary at all. The only one I liked was The Last House on the left. The Uninvited had the typical horror film things, like I trip and fall, and oh shit the door is locked. There were a few differences between other horror films, like good acting, a twist and a few good scares, but its nothing special, its an OK movie, I would recommend if you want to waste a an hour or too, but hey check it out you might enjoy it, Emily Browning really stole the show.


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The Uninvited review

Posted : 13 years, 6 months ago on 2 October 2010 12:02

The Uninvited is yet another American re-make of a very good Asian horror film, in this case the moody, beautiful Korean film "A Tale of Two Sisters". Most of these fail miserably (if not at the box-office, then often with critics) for an array of reasons, but the Uninvited manages to side-step the most offensive ones. For one thing, the film-makers here can't be accused of laziness. They seem to have actually taken some care and consideration in adapting this story. Vision is another problem that seems to plague other re-makes, whereas the Uninvited has a clear and confident enough vision from the outset so as to aid the film in aesthetic ways (set-design, makeup, visual style etc.) as well as in regard to story-telling. Here we have many classic film motifs and suspense elements at play: the evil step-mother figure, teen-age angst/rebellion vs. suggestions of actual psychosis, distorted vs. reliable memory, to name a few, and the movie handles all of them relatively well, mostly by steering close enough to tried and true methods, but also veering off onto its own way with instances of success. The performances could definately stand improvement, and while the script doesn't always do the actors much in the way of favors, it's not entirely to blame. Luckily some generally good dream/hallucination sequences show up just often enough to divert our attention from the less favorable aspects of the movie and we are treated to a few suprisingly decent creep-out moments and moments of nifty camera work and photography. Not great, probably doesn't even warrant a second viewing, but exceeded my expectations.


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The Uninvited

Posted : 13 years, 6 months ago on 7 September 2010 01:50

As with most "horror" movies of late, particularly those that are remakes of Asian films, The Uninvited is teeming with atmosphere but lacking in scares. In addition, it has a twist ending that some have commended for turning things around in such a surprisingly drastic way, but to be honest, the film doesn't earn its twist ending. Take, for example, The Sixth Sense (and I won't reveal that film's ending either, in case someone reading this hasn't seen it yet), a movie that also has a twist ending that turns everything on its head. What's the difference between the denouements of The Sixth Sense and The Uninvited? It's the fact that, if you watch the former film a second time, everything fits PERFECTLY in accordance with the final surprise (there's not a single hole to be found), whereas The Uninvited thoroughly cheats and tries to explain the cheating it did by using some poorly-edited footage to suggest that certain things we saw during the film didn't actually happen. And no, it's not innovative and it's not cool - it's just cheating.

The quality of the performances is varied. Emily Browning, who plays the main character, does what she can despite being limited by the script, and she shows a decent amount of emotional range. Perhaps a surprise to some, Elizabeth Banks is quite good here at being creepy and mysterious, and one suspects that, in a better movie, she could be an excellent villain. The very talented David Strathairn is totally wasted, and he looks incredibly bored. But the one who comes off worst is Arielle Kebbel as Alex, who is terrible, terrible, terrible, and yes, it deserves to be said three times. I figured it couldn't be possible that she was cast simply because of her looks... but then I remembered that this is a horror movie, or at least it's supposed to be one.

I was interested in watching The Uninvited because one of my favorite critics enjoyed it, largely because he felt that the surprise ending made it superior to all the other recent Asian horror remakes, like Mirrors and One Missed Call. Though I haven't seen any of the other movies in that long list of Asian horror remakes (seeing as they've all been panned heavily by critics), I have no doubt that he's right and that The Uninvited probably is a little bit better than movies like Mirrors and One Missed Call. That's why I'm not saying it's terrible... but it's definitely nothing special. Many will continue complimenting its surprising finale, but in my book, it simply doesn't earn it.


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The Uninvited review

Posted : 13 years, 11 months ago on 25 April 2010 06:02

Can you believe what you see?
:)


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The Uninvited review

Posted : 13 years, 11 months ago on 20 April 2010 06:41

Not at all what I expected. This film is advertised as a horror movie, but at best it is a poorly written murder mystery. I can't understand why they even bothered to include ghosts in this film unless it was to include a few special effects to try to make up for the creation of four or five unneeded characters. I think I've seen this one about six times under a different name. Not impressed at all.


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