johnlink ranks THE UNINVITED (2009)
So I followed up a great classic (which was new to me) in BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK with some cheese, in the ghost story/suspense flick THE UNINVITED. This movie certainly had the advantage of very low expectations going in. Light spoilers follow.
I watched THE UNINVITED (2009) on 1.29.11. It was my first viewing of the film. TRAILER HERE
The premise of this teen-geared flick is that a high school girl gets out of a psych ward following a suicide attempt. Her mother had died, and her father has taken up a new girlfriend. The girl and her sister soon suspect the intentions of the stepmom-to-be. Ghosts and dreams further this fear.
Believe it or not, the actors make this better than it should be. The lead is played by Emily Browning (soon to appear in SUCKER PUNCH) and her sister is portrayed by Arielle Kebbel. Hadn’t heard of either of them before, but they do an excellent job (I can’t believe I am writing that sentence for a movie like this) portraying sisters. The father is veteran actor David Strathairn and the new girlfriend is the usually funny Elizabeth Banks. These four are all solid in this, and they improve the quality of the film. This reminds me of when Stellan Skarsgard, Diane Lane, and Leelee Sobieski made GLASS HOUSE better than it had any right to be.
This film has a twist ending which actually, again surprisingly, caught me off guard. It made me want to re-watch certain scenes. The movie makes this easy by showing us a few (a device used by USUAL SUSPECTS, so I can’t knock it) though I trust it didn’t cheat too much. Again, better than expected.
Also, this thing is set in Maine and we are privy to a series of beautifully created long shots, and some wonderful scenery. This isn’t THE SHINING, but it is a nice film to look at. Enough that I just looked up directors The Guard Brothers, saw that their filmography is limited, but made a point to look out for them in the future. There are some really nicely set-up scenes, especially involving the boathouse which is the center of the film’s tragedy.
Look, this isn’t a classic of the genre. It isn’t that good. But it has some scares, it has some nice choices, and it tries to be fresh. I’ll take that from a genre which usually produces the same drivel over and over again.
SCORES
FILM: 5; MOVIE: 8; ACTING: 7; WRITING: 6
5+8+7+6+0=26
FINAL SCORE: 6.5
johnlinkmovies 