The Uninvited

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.

4/10