The Uninvited will most certainly divide the audience that the film is aimed towards. At once it is a rather clichéd contemporary horror film, until it references its background as a 2003 South Korean horror film A Tale of Two Sisters to create a rather inimitable and fresh horror film, one bound with thematic purpose and stylistic integrity. Directed by the Guard Brothers, the film follows Anna who has been bound to a mental hospital since the death of her mother ten months earlier, who is now ready to return back home. Her psychiatrist tells her to "finish what she started" which ironically forms the enigma which underlines the entire narrative. Anna's father takes her home, where she is reunited with her sister, Alex who also introduces Rachel (Elizabeth Banks), her mother's former nurse who is now dating Anna's father.
The Uninvited is not what it seems at the surface both literally and metaphorically speaking. The film is bound with enigmas which never quite add up even if you put together the fragments of the film that the Guard Brothers represent on screen. The film is shot in a way that allows us to piece the images together and form our own interpretation on a fairly basic and linear plotline. The shots are usually very fast-pace and even the location is never completely static, swapping between reality and dream, house and lake, rural and urban etc. While the film may appear to be a conventional horror film aimed at a mindless teenage audience, the film contains quite a depth beneath the screen that actually takes a lot to piece together to fully understand the sensation the film is trying to convey.
Anna is convinced that Rachel is evil and induces her sister in the process. The two of them together scheme against her to try to prove to their father that she is evil. This is where I will end with the plot synopsis. The film, noticeably, has some interesting characters, even if they are supporting actors driven into the mind-set of the film. Having said that, the film integrates so many different personalities and emotions from each of the characters that it seems as if there really isn’t a lead role, even if we believe that Anna is so. This is where we begin to question who the “uninvited” are? Perhaps some of the characters do have too many lines to speak that they almost become intrusive on the sisters lives? Or is Rachel an “uninvited” guest into the families home?
The Uninvited will most certainly please horror fans, but perhaps not so much those outsiders to the genre. The film uses horror conventions but twists and manipulates them, something that the horror audience will most certainly appreciate. The film has a unique twist on familiar situations and events that they feel they are somehow attuned to. Overall The Uninvited is a well done, stylistically effective horror film that will most certainly satisfy many. You are therefore invited!
The Uninvited is not what it seems at the surface both literally and metaphorically speaking. The film is bound with enigmas which never quite add up even if you put together the fragments of the film that the Guard Brothers represent on screen. The film is shot in a way that allows us to piece the images together and form our own interpretation on a fairly basic and linear plotline. The shots are usually very fast-pace and even the location is never completely static, swapping between reality and dream, house and lake, rural and urban etc. While the film may appear to be a conventional horror film aimed at a mindless teenage audience, the film contains quite a depth beneath the screen that actually takes a lot to piece together to fully understand the sensation the film is trying to convey.
Anna is convinced that Rachel is evil and induces her sister in the process. The two of them together scheme against her to try to prove to their father that she is evil. This is where I will end with the plot synopsis. The film, noticeably, has some interesting characters, even if they are supporting actors driven into the mind-set of the film. Having said that, the film integrates so many different personalities and emotions from each of the characters that it seems as if there really isn’t a lead role, even if we believe that Anna is so. This is where we begin to question who the “uninvited” are? Perhaps some of the characters do have too many lines to speak that they almost become intrusive on the sisters lives? Or is Rachel an “uninvited” guest into the families home?
The Uninvited will most certainly please horror fans, but perhaps not so much those outsiders to the genre. The film uses horror conventions but twists and manipulates them, something that the horror audience will most certainly appreciate. The film has a unique twist on familiar situations and events that they feel they are somehow attuned to. Overall The Uninvited is a well done, stylistically effective horror film that will most certainly satisfy many. You are therefore invited!
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