Movie Review: The Uninvited

(No Spoilers)

Netflix has some very solid horror recommendations. The Uninvited was a cinematically beautiful film. The location was incredible with the water and the beautiful boathouse. The main character “Anna” had a great look. Her soft features and overall innocence provided a great vehicle to experience the story with.

The older sister “Alex” pulled off the “bitchy-hot” look flawlessly. The fact that she was in a bathing suit throughout most of the movie was appreciated. The two sisters had a great chemistry. The bond between sisters that are close in age is probably the most consistent relationship that exists. They know each other so well that there is no need to put up any walls, so emotions and insecurities can be shared effortlessly.

The pacing of this film was solid. Although some parts of the story still remain a mystery to me, the movie itself draws you right in and keeps your attention. The Uninvited does a good job of providing a lot of information in a relatively short amount of time. The film starts off in the creepy psychiatric hospital, which lets you know this is going to be a dark tale. From there we go for the comforting ride home to the palace-like house of Anna’s father. On the surface it looks perfect, but the back story makes it pretty obvious a sh*t-storm is coming.

Now to “Rachel”, who was the nurse of the girls’ dying mother (very sad). After the mothers’ untimely death in a tragic home accident, Rachel has made herself right at home with the girls’ father, who is a writer (and must be a good one to afford that house). The older sister Alex’s open animosity towards Rachel was perfectly executed (girls can be so mean). It is obvious from the beginning that Rachel is a little cuckoo. Elizabeth Banks shows good range as an actress. There is just something about crazy stepmothers that guys find sexy. Great performance.

The Uninvited consists of multiple sad and frightening concepts. Although the scare scenes are broken up with beautiful scenery and pretty girls, the overall experience is very dark. I love twists so I will not divulge into the details of the plot, but I will say that although at first I was a bit confused with the ending, this is the sort of film that stays with you after watching.

Overall - worth seeing