You Talking to Me
Anna (Emily Browning) has been institutionalized for the last 10 months following her mother's death which left her struggling to cope and with memory loss issues over exactly what happened. But having seem to come to terms with what happened 10 months earlier she returns home to her father Steven (David Strathairn), an author whose latest book is dedicated to both Anna and her sister Alex (Arielle Kebbel) who whilst Anna is looking around the lake house runs into. There is also Rachel (Elizabeth Banks) who had been her mother's carer before the incident and who now has become romantically involved with Steven. But as Anna and her sister Alex discuss their mother's death; Alex is convinced Rachel was behind it, plotting to make a move on their father, while Anna is struggling with some visions of child ghosts which they believe are to do with Rachel as well.
So "The Uninvited" is a Hollywood remake of an Asian horror and as I am not a huge watcher of Asian horror I have not seen the original "A Tale of Two Sisters" on which it is based. That is probably a good thing as it seems that those who have watched the original movie are less than enamoured with the American version. I say it is probably a good thing because this is a movie which toys with you via a movie convention and then in an entertaining twist it evolves into another movie convention.
You are probably wondering what I am on about so "The Uninvited" tries to set thing up in a back to the 90s type of way with Anna and her sister Alex being suspicious of Rachel and think she may have been behind their mother's death. So basically do we have a case of a psycho in the family manipulating others to get her own way? But this is combined with some paranormal ghost stuff which uses modern special effects to create some visual tricks such as a glass of milk dropping only for it to shatter and blood sprays everywhere. Sounds alright doesn't it, this combination which suggests that Rachel may be a manipulative psycho and Anna may be getting warnings from beyond the grave from previous victims of Rachel.
But I mentioned that "The Uninvited" twists into another movie and I am not going to give it away as it is fun a twist. Now some may find that by turning this storyline on its head leaves plenty of issues from plot holes to being contrived but I don't think it does. Yes there are some developments, including one with Anna's friend Mark which seems forced but the main one is well worked and if you don't pay attention to conversations you will find yourself thinking there must have been a mistake somewhere. All of which sounds elusive and so you will have to watch "The Uninvited" to see what I am on about and then watch again to see if I am right.
What this all boils down to is that "The Uninvited" is entertaining and has fun leading you one way and then the next whilst delivering nice moments of atmosphere which also work in such a way to make you think certain things.
