The Uninvited (2009) Horror pg-13

The Uninvited (2009) - So this is the second pg-13 horror movie I have seen in a row. The audience was 3/4 to capacity and I would say 70% of them were girls between the ages of 12-16. It was loud with the chatter of girls and the glow of cell phones as the texting was fast and furious. Who knows maybe there was a twitterer or two. This is important to note for the fact that all this activity is quite distracting. It was also good because I think that this was the audience this film was written for. The reaction of the crowd were frequent and honest. Some of these girls were scared many times, mostly through sudden appearance of apparitions or noises. They were also murmuring when the big reveal happened. Unlike me who figured most of the reveal out in the first 35 minutes the kids were surprised and I think most of them went away thinking this was a cool smart movie.

The uninvited appears to be a film about a girl Alex (Emily Browning) returning home after a 10 month stay at a mental institution after a suicide attempt. We learn that her mother was killed in an explosion but was already dying of cancer. The sudden death lead the girl to the suicide attempt. When she returns she has her sister Anna (Arielle Kebbel ) to help fill in the goings on at the house over the last year. The nurse Rachael (Elizabeth Banks ), for their mother is now the girlfriend to Dad (David Strathairn). The sisters don't like her and suspect she has something to do with the Mom's death. Alex starts having visions of her mom. She is trying to warn her about Rachael. More and more we are asked to guess whether Alex is imagining things or if there really is something happening and that Rachael wants the girls out of the way so she can have the Dad for herself. There is a duel revelation at the end that is well put together, we will have to see if audiences are tired of clever twist endings. I for one liked it. I had figured out the sister relationship at the 35 minute mark and guessed about the condition of Alex but still there was some originality in the end. No detail so I don't give it away.

Grip - A general-purpose handyman, the movie set's counterpart of the theater's stagehand. His duties include laying dolly tracks, moving flats, setting up parallels, building platforms, placing reflectors and gobos, doing light carpentry, and generally performing tasks that require brawn.

Key Grip - The head grip on a film set, in charge of a group of men, usually numbering from five to fifteen.

Key Grip: Kim Olsen
Rating (6.8)