The Uninvited - Psychological Suspense on DVD April 28 (Movie Review)

The Uninvited, a 2009 horror movie/ psychological suspense thriller and remake of the 2003 South Korean film A Tale of Two Sisters, comes to DVD and Blu-Ray on April 28. Starring Emily Browning, Arielle Kebbel, Elizabeth Banks, and David Strathairn, The Uninvited begins with a young girl, Anna (Emily Browning, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events), describing a recurring nightmare she is experiencing to her psychiatrist about the night her mother died. Anna has been in a mental hospital since her mother was killed in a fire ten months earlier. While Anna cannot remember the traumatic events of that night, she does have dreams and hazy impressions about the tragedy that took her mother's life.

Her psychiatrist is ready to release Anna, but as Anna prepares to leave, an inmate with a threatening demeanor comes in and asks Anna if she really thinks she is cured and then asks her who she will tell her stories to once Anna is gone. Anna hurries out and meets her father (David Strathairn, The Spiderwick Chronicles) who is happy to bring his daughter home.

However, once they arrive at their imposing house on the lake, Anna's joy at being home begins to evaporate. Her older sister Alex (Arielle Kebbel, The Grudge 2) meets her by the lake, happy to have Anna home, but angry at feeling abandoned by Anna's absence and angry that Anna never returned her letters - letters Anna never received. Alex fills Anna in on everything that has happened since the fire, including the fact the their mother's former nurse Rachel (Elizabeth Banks, Role Models) has moved in and is sleeping with their father. That night Anna begins to have new nightmares.

The next day, the girls are again on the dock when Matt (Jesse Moss), Anna's boyfriend shows up to deliver groceries. The viewer has seen Matt before as he plays a small part in Anna's nightmare/memory of the night her mother died, as does Anna's sister Alex. Alex dives off the dock and disappears to give Anna some privacy, and Matt tells Anna he saw what happened the night her mother died and thinks she should know the truth. But just them Rachel comes up, interrupts the conversation, and Matt leaves.

From this point on, things spiral downward quickly for Anna. She and Alex are convinced Rachel murdered their mother, that Rachel has killed before and harbors plans to kill them. However, no one will listen to Anna who is afraid of looking crazy and going back to the mental institution. Everyone ignores Alex, who is always angry, often drinking, and alienated from her father and his girlfriend. The girls are alone. When Anna sets up a rendezvous to meet Matt with Alex, Matt never comes but he turns up dead the next day with a broken back... after Anna has a dream that he comes to her room with a grotesquely twisted back.

Who is doing the killing? Rachel, the obvious suspect who has apparent motive, means (as a nurse she has sedatives and hypodermics), and a shady past, or Alex.. or perhaps a hand from the grave?

There is a bit of "seen it" to The Uninvited. Much like The Haunting of Molly Hartley,The Uninvited deals with a teenage girl recently released from a mental hospital who suffers from some amnesia and who remembers a trauma from her past through flashbacks and visions/dreams. However, The Uninvited is better than the average horror flick as it is also an intelligent psychological thriller. Although it has plenty of ghastly images, The Uninvited is not as gory as typical horror films. The plot twists call for some subtle acting, and the cast delivers. The viewer is kept in suspense throughout The Uninvited, and the movie's ending answers most of the questions.

The Uninvited was released to theaters on January 30, 2009 and will release on DVD on April 28, 2009. This horror flick is rated PG-13, but I wouldn't recommend The Uninvited for children under 16.

Sources

The Haunting of Molly Hartley: A DVD Review