Uninvited (Blu-ray) (2009)

USA Today
"A stylish horror thriller in the vein of THE RING, it's well-acted, frightening and handsomely produced." 01/30/2009

Washington Post
"First-time directors Thomas and Charles Guard give the action a glossy polish and a properly measured pace. They also maintain the right narrative balance." 01/30/2009

ReelViews 8 of 10
The temptation is to think this: Just what we need - another PG-13 remake of an Asian horror film. These come along so frequently that they have become more like punch lines to bad jokes than serious cinematic endeavors. Not so fast, though. The Uninvited may initially seem like a clone, but it's not. It attempts to break the mold and branch out in unexpected directions. Whether or not it succeeds will depend largely on individual preference. The film's resolution is anything but airtight and there are some potholes along the route it travels to get there, but it makes the experience of sitting in a theater more enjoyable than one might suspect given the history of other movies in this inexplicably popular subgenre...The Uninvited gets a lot of mileage out of setting up certain expectations then using them against the audience. It doesn't always play fair but the results show daring and place storytelling above the tired horror practice of wallowing in stock cliches and atrocious dialogue. Unfortunately, the elements that elevate the film over the umpteen other Asian remakes are the aspects most likely to cause a portion of the target audience to decry the movie...The Uninvited is a flawed production, but gratifying in the way it delivers. The interesting and unique elements of the movie effectively compensate for the formulaic way in which the plot develops. The film looks better in hindsight than it does while it's unfolding, although one could argue that there's a whiff of contrivance about its hook. Some people won't buy what The Guard Brothers are selling. Others will feel cheated. Others (like me) will smile in recognition of what they accomplish and the skill with which the deception is delivered. In the subgenre of PG-13 Asian horror remakes, this stands near the pinnacle. - James Berardinelli
 
Salon.com 5 of 10
"The Uninvited," a horror-thriller that's neither horrifying nor thrilling, is the debut feature by the Guard brothers, Charles and Thomas, an English duo whose previous credits include several shorts made with the actress Lena Headey. The picture is ostensibly a remake of South Korean filmmaker Ji-woon Kim's 2003 "A Tale of Two Sisters," an elegant, haunting picture that is, unfortunately, now out of print and a bit difficult to find (although I urge you to seek it out, if only so you can explain to me what the hell the stuff toward the end means -- "Sisters" is a creepy and poetic piece of work, if not a particularly coherent one). "The Uninvited" doesn't, of course, have the same creepy glow as its inspiration: Instead of making allusions, it offers up specifics. Lots of stuff jumps out at us in "The Uninvited." At one point we catch a glimpse of a spooky, unseen something in a dark corner, but in the context of the rest of the movie's obviousness, the eerie indirectness of that moment just seems like a mistake...This is your standard, straight-up mainstream supernatural entertainment, although, to its credit, it's low on gore and sadism. What's more, its plot (the script is by Craig Rosenberg, Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard) pretty much makes sense, in a hallucinatory kind of way...As is generally the case with Hollywood movies that use Asian horror films as their inspiration, the Guard brothers seem to have glanced at the original, borrowed a few images and then made the movie according to some preconceived template of what makes audiences jump -- instead of burrowing into the stuff that haunts our dreams. Banks, whose character is a nurse, gets a speech about having served her time wiping the bums of elderly patients. But that's about as close to scary as "The Uninvited" gets. - Stephanie Zacharek