The Uninvited
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: January 30, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
43
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
12
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The Uninvited is a flawed production, but gratifying in the way it delivers. The interesting and unique elements of the movie effectively compensate for the formulaic way in which the plot develops. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Emily Browning's face helps The Uninvited work so well...She makes you fear for her, and that's half the battle. Yet she's so fresh she's ready for a Jane Austen role. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Hartlaub
Won't make anyone forget "The Shining," but it's a nice throwback to the days when scary movies featured pretty good actors, a plot that holds together and a couple of creepy-looking ghost kids. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyChuck Wilson
A remake of the 2003 Korean horror film "A Tale of Two Sisters," The Uninvited is a Hand That Rocks the Cradle–type thriller that's been dressed up as a horror movie. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The actors are strong, however, and Banks in particular shows some skill and wiles in keeping her rascally stepmother stereotype lively. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
With visual nods to Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" and a fairly faithful adherence to the tenor and tone of the Korean scare genre, The Uninvited doesn't startle and shock so much as it lulls you into a series of unsettling, hallucinogenic set pieces. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Don't be too quick to turn down The Uninvited. A stylish horror thriller in the vein of "The Ring," it's well-acted, frightening and handsomely produced Read full review
60
Washington PostMike Mayo
Experienced horror fans will probably stay one step ahead of the game, but it's still a nice ride. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterStephen Farber
The film is still cheesy rather than deliciously scary. It never really generates sustained suspense. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
The result is a middling Frankenstein-like hybrid of spectral mayhem and murder mystery, constructed entirely out of borrowed parts. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The first Hollywood horror flick I've seen that seems like it was made specifically for 12-year-olds. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
The main problem with The Uninvited lies in its refusal to decide just what movie it wants to be a commercial for. It certainly doesn’t have much in common with "A Tale of Two Sisters," the creepy Korean horror film of which it is supposedly a remake. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle Smith
The horror flick The Uninvited is not unclever - but it is unoriginal. Read full review
40
VarietyDennis Harvey
Weak even by the standard of uninspired recent Asian-horror remakes, The Uninvited is more likely to induce snickers and yawns than shudders and yelps. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Yeah, this is pretty much your classic been-there, done-that scenario: evil stepmother, clueless father, imperiled teen. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The plot borrows as freely from Hitchcock and Henry James as from the Bard of Avon, and doesn't make scrupulous sense, though I'd have to see the film again, which I won't do, to make sure it doesn't cheat. Read full review
40
SalonStephanie Zacharek
As is generally the case with Hollywood movies that use Asian horror films as their inspiration, the Guard brothers seem to have glanced at the original, borrowed a few images and then made the movie according to some preconceived template of what makes audiences jump -- instead of burrowing into the stuff that haunts our dreams. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
Once spoiled by the gossamer disquietude of Kim Jee-woon's original Tale, it's difficult to view this Americanized version in anything but the blandest light. Read full review
40
EmpireKim Newman
Poor remake of the Korean thriller. Read full review
38
PremiereRichard Chester
The climax is the only thing for which the rest of this flick exists. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesGlenn Whipp
Without dwelling on the limited abilities of novice British filmmakers Tom and Charles Guard (a.k.a. the Guard Brothers) -- who seem to have divvied up duties here by having one sibling focus exclusively on close-up shots of doorknobs and the other oversee everything else -- the movie's fatal flaw is the undeveloped relationship between the two sisters. Read full review
25
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
A brutally inane movie. Read full review
25
TV Guide MagazineJeremy Wheeler
It's best to line The Uninvited right up on the soon-to-be-forgotten shelves next to the now third-generation Asian remakes and wait for the next effective foreign genre fare for Hollywood to butcher and rehash. Read full review
16
Entertainment WeeklyAdam Markovitz
Horror standbys like mangled corpses and stone-faced children pop up regularly, but sibling directors Charles and Thomas Guard haven't quite nailed the genre's rhythms. Read full review
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