???When a movie is great, it usually gets the praise it deserves. Similarly, when a movie is terrible enough, it falls into the so-bad-it's-good category. But then there are movies like The Uninvited, in which mediocrity prevents it from becoming anything worth watching.
???The film stars Emily Browning (Stranded) as a young girl named Anna. Ten months earlier, her mother was killed and Anna was put in a mental institution. The plot begins upon Anna's release.
???She returns home to her sister Alex (Arielle Kebbel, Forever Strong), her father Steven (David Strathairn, The Spiderwick Chronicles) and, much to her discomfort, her father's new girlfriend Rachel (Elizabeth Banks, Role Models). The girls notice something odd about Rachel and begin to wonder if their mother's death was really an accident.
???The problem with horror movies these days is that for the most part, they just are not scary. This film can't seem to recognize the difference between scary and startling. Something can only pop out from the shadows so many times before it loses its effect (i.e. once).
???Of course, a great deal of modern horror movies trade suspense and tension for over-the-top violence and gore. While it can be a cheap copout, it still creates the right atmosphere for the film. But wait, this movie's only rated PG-13, so that's out. Marketing to a wider audience might have its monetary advantages, but the overall quality suffers.
???The dialogue is absolutely laughable as well. Characters actually say things like "finish what you started" and "this ends tonight" with such a comical seriousness that the actor could not have possibly been serious when they said them. It also seems like the girls jump to conclusions way too fast about Rachel's potential involvement in their mother's death.
???Banks, who is surprisingly well cast, works with her character as best she can. Unfortunately, everything Rachel says can be interpreted several different ways, making it unnecessarily confusing as to what's going on. The girls can't understand why Rachel acts so strange. It might have something to do with the fact that she is constantly accused of being a murderer, but that's up for debate.
???And even if Rachel is this monster hiding behind a pretty face, it seems a little too convenient that she was able to slip through the fingers of police while Anna and Alex effortlessly find the information they need on the Internet. Google is such a helpful tool and it wouldn't be surprising if there was a Wikipedia article on Rachel.
???It's too bad, because The Uninvited had the potential to be a decent movie. The problem is that right away the audience learns that Anna is crazy and is therefore given a completely unreliable point of view from which to watch. Nothing she says can be accepted as truth, and even when it can, something always seems a little off about her.
???The other problem is that the movie can't seem to decide on a tone. At some points it tries to go the horror route with the aforementioned pop-out-of-the-darkness moments. At other times, it attempts to build up suspense.
Unfortunately, directors the Guard Brothers have no idea how to do either.
???It's not completely unwatchable, though. The actors are all competent in their roles and the ending has an enjoyable predictability to it. But the movie definitely will not be remembered. It's not that it's bad enough, but rather so unbelievably average. And that's a lot worse.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
