The newly released horror film The Uninvited is based on a Korean horror film and is directed by the Guard Brothers. It tells the story of a teenager named Anna, played by Elisabeth Browning. As the movie opens, Anna is shown packing her things and is about to leave her stay at a mental institution. Immediately, she is shown to be a stable character, considering the place she is leaving. But you sense that she is on edge for her departure back home.
That same day she returns to her family’s lake house in Maine, to the absence of her mother who was on her deathbed when Anna left. There she realizes that the interior of their home has changed drastically. But she is unsure, because her memory is somewhat foggy.
What is clear are the recurring visions of her deceased mother, that are reminiscences as she walks about her home.
While, in her room, the abrupt sight of her sister Alex (played by Arielle Kebbel) eases her fright and brings her back to the now. Their mentally unbalanced future stepmother Rachel Summers, played by Elizabeth Banks, is a complete surprise because she was once the nanny of the household.
Apart, the two girls equally didn’t like her, and together the sisters feel ire because Rachel’s new position in the home is no coincidence.
Throughout the movie, their former nanny proves to be just as sinister as previews portray. Anna goes about the story with frightening images of dead children, a bleeding doorknob and even a transforming corpse that decapitates right before her very eyes.
Anna is constantly stuck between reality and what she sees in her own mind. As a viewer, you are constantly trying to figure out what’s going to happen next. The question persists in your mind: Does Rachel have a sinister agenda or could this all be the vivid imagination of the main character?
I would give this movie a 3 out of 5 stars, for its factual plot of a homicidal stepmother, and disturbing images that will have you cringing in your seats. It’s PG-13 for violent and disturbing images, sexual content, language and teen drinking.