The Uninvited
The Uninvited
| 08 August 2003 (USA)
The Uninvited Trailers

An engaged interior designer sees two small girls on the subway train that die there. He sees them again in his apartment. A woman he meets can also see them. He talks to her about his forgotten childhood.

Reviews
Develiker terrible... so disappointed.
Melanie Bouvet The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
javierw I got the DVD for the Uninvited not knowing what to expect, Asian Horror movies are usually very different one from another. There are movies that go heavy on the blood and others than go heavy on the Drama; The Uninvited falls in the latter, just like other movies like Dark Water or Two Sisters. The movie is about a man named Jung-won who is an Interior designer. One day he falls asleep in the subway and he must hurry out before the doors close, but outside he notices that the two kids are still on the train, and he does nothing. The next day he hears on the radio that the 2 children were dead and suddenly he starts seen the kids sitting at his dinner table. He ignores what is happening to him, probably thinking is the shock of watching the children dead in the train until the day he meets a woman named Yun who suffers from narcolepsy, so he takes her to his home when she loses conscious in his car, and just when she is leaving she tell him to put his kids in bed, so now Jung-won is not the only one seeing the dead kids. From there Yun helps Jung-won find the gruesome secrets buried in his past, but he is not the only one with a dark past. The movie has some very shocking scenes that play very well. Both lead actors, Shin-yang Park and Ji-hyun Jun (most known for her part in the romantic comedy (My Sassy Girl") did a fantastic job playing these troubled characters. The cinematography is superb, there were some scenes were I was very impressed. The US DVD from Panik House is great, from the cover to the extras. There are 2 Audio Commentaries, one in English, which is very informative about the Korean culture and Cinema and another one in Spanish. It has a Making Off, Interviews with the lead Actors, a story boards/scenes comparisons, and other need stuff like a condensed version of the movie. The DVD also comes with a sticker of the cover. I really recommend this movie to everyone, is not a simple horror movie but a complex drama with some very shocking moments.
sain11 The recent New Wave of Asian Horror has seen quite a few mediocre films released, however there have also been some true masterpieces amongst them, and The Uninvited is definitely one of the masterpieces.This is a genuinely dark, violent, disturbing, artistic horror film.The key ingredient missing from most horror films these days is an emotionally charged story with characters that you can relate to and care for. In the case of the Univited, the true horror is based in human behaviour and the realities the characters have to deal with. While there is a supernatural element, the real nastiness is based in the humanity and psychology of the characters.The Univited has possibly been mis-represented by it's own marketing, as they have promoted it as a supernatural horror, when in reality the film is more art-house and intellectual than it is horror. This probably accounts for some of the negative reviews, particularly in relation to the films slow pacing.This is not a film that will make you jump in your seat a few times and leave the theatre laughing, but rather one that will chill you to the bone and leave you thinking.I highly recommended The Univited if you have a darkly artistic streak, and are looking for a character driven film that abounds with atmosphere and chills.
thither This is not really a horror film; form-wise it has more in common with a mystery or drama. The intent is not to scare or gross out the viewer, but to examine the central themes and characters.On that level it's fairly successful. There is a lot going on in the movie, and as another reviewer has mentioned, the focus tends to wander, so it's often hard to determine exactly what the movie is trying to say. Sometimes that works to The Uninvited's advantage; I like movies to have a little ambiguity in them where I can apply my own imagination, and there are several deliberately ambiguous moments here.At other times, it's more of a distraction, as we wait in vain for the story to return to and possibly resolve an earlier theme. Instead, the film moves on to examine other ideas, and while they are usually interesting ideas, the inevitable result is that by the film's conclusion it seems like there's a lot left unresolved. I don't mean "loose threads" in the usual sense of plot elements that are unexplained (although there are a few of those), but more like bigger themes that seemed like what the movie was about at the beginning of the film and didn't at the end of the film.The acting is decent, overall, but the two leads both play the sort of shell-shocked, alienated characters that are hard to relate to even if we're sympathetic to begin with, and most of the other characters are not terribly fleshed out. The direction is good although the pace is slow (unnecessarily slow at times).(Parenthetically, one shot used in The Uninvited seems so obviously ripped off from Ringu that I figure it's got to be an homage, but the movie seems like it takes itself too seriously to throw in a Ringu homage.)Overall, a worthy but flawed effort that is much more complex and rewarding than most Asian horror movies of recent years.
Rocco3000 CAUTION: This movie is very very long and very very slow! Although it is a very good movie, and well worth seeing, I would strongly advise that you do not watch this movie just before bed time. Watch it when you are fully rested, or you will fall asleep.Another cautionary note, is that IMDb should remove the categories, Horror and Thriller, because this movie is strictly a Drama, and a very slow moving one at that. It does have some ghosts in it, maybe 2 or 3 scenes in the beginning, but they are really not that scary, nor are they really meant to scare. And they are long forgotten once you have reached the 90mins mark.It is a very sad movie with most of the characters going through some really deep trauma, so if you are looking for something upbeat, look somewhere else.This is a very good movie though. With some terrific performances by the actors and a very good effort by the director. Definitely worth seeing. Just be ready for something sad, slow and long.