I always worry about a horror movie being PG-13. These movies seem to go for cheap thrills and aren’t willing to show anything. The movie company wants to water down the movie so that more people will go to it and the movie can make more money. Well, The Uninvited is PG-13, but it does not go for cheap thrills and shows more than I thought a PG-13 movie could show. Now, the movie is not scary. It has some creepy moments, but it is really a murder mystery. A pretty good one, I might add.
The story is about a girl who comes back home after spending time in a hospital following her mother’s death. However, the home she comes back to is not the same. Her father is now engaged to her mother’s nurse, Rachel. So, after some visits from her dead mother warning her about Rachel, Anna and her sister do everything they can to make sure Rachel does not marry their father. Or what else she might do. This is a story about the “evil” step-mother, for sure.
The people in this movie give it more credit. David Strathairn plays the father and he is very good. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Good Night, and Good Luck. Elizabeth Banks plays the step-mother and she had quite a year last year after being in W. and Zack and Miri Make a Porno. She really plays up being the “evil” step-mother. Strathairn and Banks play minor roles. The two major players are the sisters, played by Emily Browning and Arielle Kebbel.
These two girls make the story believable. They make you believe in the fear they feel. This movie is not really about ghosts, but about a murder that cannot be figured out. As the movie goes along you can piece a few pieces to the puzzle. And the movie keeps the story suspenseful, and even throws a twist in there that you may never see coming. The only way I can explain it is directing brothers Thomas and Charles Guard have you going down this one path and then they completely turn it upside down. After the movie was over, I was surprised by how good it was and how the director kept it from being cheesy or just plain stupid.
Brandon Vick is a member of The Music City Film Critics’ Association, the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and the star of The Vick’s Flicks Podcast. Follow him on Twitter @SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.
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