.gif)
The Uninvited (2009 film)
Encyclopedia
The Uninvited is a 2009 American remake
of the 2003 South Korean horror film
A Tale of Two Sisters
. It is unrelated to another 2003 Korean horror film
and a 1944 American film
, both of which have the same name.
) has been in a psychiatric institution for ten months, following her suicide attempt after her terminally-ill mother died in a boathouse fire. Now she is being discharged and has no memory of the fire, only dreams about it that involve three strange children. While packing, Anna is startled by a talkative patient. She is finally able to leave with her father, Steven (David Strathairn
).
At home, Anna reunites with her sister Alex (Arielle Kebbel
). The sisters are very close, and they are united against Steven's girlfriend Rachel (Elizabeth Banks
), who was their mother's live-in nurse. Alex criticizes Steven for sleeping with Rachel while the girls' mother was still alive, but he ignores her. Anna describes to Alex how scenes from her dreams have started happening while she is awake. The sisters become convinced that their mother is sending a message: the fire was murder, and Rachel is the killer.
Anna sees her old boyfriend Matt (Jesse Moss
) and kisses him. He tells her that he saw everything at the fire and the two secretly plan to meet, but he doesn't show up. Later, she awakens from another dream to find him climbing into her window. He says she needs to know the truth; he had a warning from her mother. His body warps, his back breaking. Anna runs from the room and suddenly it is morning and Matt's dead body is pulled out of the water, his back broken just the way Anna saw it.
The sisters are unable to find a record of Rachel with the State Nursing Association. Finally they learn she is actually Mildred Kemp, a nanny who killed the three children from Anna's dreams because she was obsessed with their widowed father. They try to warn Steven but he gets upset and leaves for work. The girls try to gather evidence but they are confronted by Rachel who drugs Alex. Anna escapes and goes to the police. Skeptical, they call Rachel to sedate Anna and drive her home.
Rachel carries Anna to bed. Anna sees Alex in the doorway with a knife and passes out. Later, Anna wakes and finds a large blood trail leading to the dumpster and Rachel's body inside. Alex is nearby with the knife. The girls comfort each other, and Steven comes home. Anna explains that Rachel attacked them and Alex saved her. Confused, Steven says that Alex died in the fire. Anna sees she's not holding Alex's hand like she thought, but the bloody knife.
Anna finally remembers the fire. After catching her father and Rachel together, Anna filled a watering can from a large gasoline tank in the boathouse and carried it toward the house, intending to burn it down. She left a trail that ignited when a candle fell over; Alex and her mother were killed in the resulting explosion. She remembers meeting Matt as planned and killing him. Flashbacks reveal that whenever it appeared as if the two sisters were together, Anna had always been alone. Anna realizes that Steven was not ignoring Alex earlier; her sister was never there. She sees that she had the knife used to kill Rachel all along.
Steven tells the police that Rachel changed her name because of an abusive boyfriend as Anna is arrested and taken back to the institution. The police ask why Anna would make up the Mildred story but Steven has no answers. Anna is welcomed back by the patient that scared her earlier; the name plate on the door says "Mildred Kemp".
and Laurie MacDonald
produced the hit horror/thriller, The Ring
, a remake of the Japanese film Ringu. They subsequently produced the film’s successful sequel
The Ring Two
in 2005. Since first starting this new cycle of Asian horror film adaptations, Parkes and MacDonald searched for a project they felt was as ingeniously conceived and executed as The Ring, and finally found it when producer Roy Lee brought the original Korea
n hit movie on which The Uninvited is based to their attention.
As A Tale of Two Sisters
was playing in US theaters, directors Tom and Charlie Guard acquired the English language
remake rights. The Guard Brothers studied at Cambridge
before launching careers as commercial and short film directors for such clients as Nokia
, Euro Disney, PlayStation 2
, and Xbox
. The Korean remake is their first feature film. In June 2006, DreamWorks announced that a deal had been set up for the US version, A Tale of Two Sisters (advance press materials drop the “A” from the English title). The new film is a presentation of DreamWorks and Cold Spring Pictures (Disturbia
), and is produced by Walter F. Parkes
and Laurie MacDonald
(The Ring
, The Ring Two
) and Roy Lee
. The screenplay was written by Craig Rosenberg (After the Sunset
, Lost
), Doug Miro
and Carlo Bernard (The Great Raid
).
In early 2008, the title needed to be changed. The working title was originally A Tale of Two Sisters like its predecessor, but the final title was confirmed to be The Uninvited in an announcement made in March.
The film was released in North American and Canadian theaters on January 30, 2009.
, British Columbia
. Most of the film was shot at one location, a waterfront property on British Columbia
's Bowen Island
, a short ferry ride west from mainland Vancouver."' 'Eighty percent of the story takes place at the house, so we couldn't make the movie without the right one,' said Walter F. Parkes
. It couldn't have been more important.' 'We Scouted Louisiana
, an environment which both beautiful and slightly threatening. We had two houses which were terrible compromises, but both of them fell through. We had a difficult time finding anything that had both the connection to the story and the right logistical possibilities.'"
"'But then we were lucky to find in Canada
a place that seemed as if it had been built for our movie,'" he continues. "'It was perfectly evocative and suggestive of a family that is both welcoming and forbidding. The fact that the house was within 30 miles of Vancouver was a greater plus than the minus of having to get everyone on boats to get them over there; water taxis and ferries are a way of life up there. In fact, I don’t remember ever having a more pleasant time on a location. Getting onto a boat and having a cup of coffee and then going up the little pier and the stairs we built, it focused us. We were isolated with one thing on our minds, which was making this movie. It was great.'" However, the film's location is set in Maine.
It is reported that a two-story boathouse in the film was built on the property overlooking the water just for several scenes. The cold water is rough and unappealing; it is a greenish-gray that crashes constantly and does not invite swimming.
Filming took place on Bowen Island
. The house was for sale and recently sold for $6,950,000.
was hired to portray the lead Anna Ivers. She had originally auditioned for the role of Alex. The film is rated PG-13, and is less visually gory and bloody than the original film. Elizabeth Banks
plays a new character, Rachel. Banks based her character Rachel on Rebecca De Mornay
in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.
"It was very important to me that every line reading I gave could be interpreted two ways," says Banks of her role, "So that when you go back through the movie you can see that." David Strathairn
plays the concerned father of the two girls. Arielle Kebbel
plays Anna's older sister, Alex Ivers.
was composed by Christopher Young
, who recorded it with a 78-piece orchestra and 20-person choir. His score features a glass harmonica
, and the Yale Women's Slavic Chorus.
and Blu-ray
on April 28, 2009 in the U.S., and July 23, 2009 in Australia.
reported that 31% of critics (39 out of 124) gave favorable reviews, with the average score of 4.5/10, with the consensus "The Uninvited is moody and reasonably involving, but suffers from predictable plot twists." Metacritic
also score the film of 44/100 (mixed or average) from 22 reviews. Bloody Disgusting
gave the film 6/10 while on Yahoo!
Movies Critical Response, the average professional critical rating was a C according to 11 reviews.
However, it finally got $10,512,000 for its opening weekend, set on the third place, opened in 2,344 theaters with an average $4,485 per theatre.
The film spent nine weeks in U.S. cinemas, and finished with a total gross of $28,596,818. It did fairly moderate for a horror film in the US markets.
The film was released on March 26, 2009 in Australia, and the film opened at the fifth position, averaging $3,998 at 121 sites, for a gross of A$
483,714. The second week it dipped 29%.
Remake
A remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
of the 2003 South Korean horror film
K-Horror
Korean horror, sometimes referred to as K-Horror, is the term given to horror films made as part of the cinema of Korea. Korean horror features many of the same motifs, themes, and imagery as Japanese horror. Korean horror has been around since the early years of Korean cinema; however, it wasn't...
A Tale of Two Sisters
A Tale of Two Sisters
A Tale of Two Sisters is a 2003 South Korean psychological horror film written and directed by Kim Ji-woon...
. It is unrelated to another 2003 Korean horror film
The Uninvited (2003 film)
The Uninvited, also known as A Table for Four, is a 2003 South Korean psychological horror film directed by Lee Su-yeon.-Plot summary:...
and a 1944 American film
The Uninvited (1944 film)
The Uninvited is a 1944 American supernatural mystery/romance film directed by Lewis Allen. It is based on the Dorothy Macardle novel Uneasy Freehold.Charles Lang was nominated for a 1945 Academy Award for Best Black and White Cinematography.-Plot:...
, both of which have the same name.
Plot
Anna (Emily BrowningEmily Browning
Emily Jane Browning is an Australian film actress and fashion model, known for her roles as Violet Baudelaire in Brad Silberling's 2004 film Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, as Anna Ivers in the 2009 film The Uninvited, as Babydoll in Zack Snyder's 2011 action thriller Sucker...
) has been in a psychiatric institution for ten months, following her suicide attempt after her terminally-ill mother died in a boathouse fire. Now she is being discharged and has no memory of the fire, only dreams about it that involve three strange children. While packing, Anna is startled by a talkative patient. She is finally able to leave with her father, Steven (David Strathairn
David Strathairn
David Russell Strathairn is an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for portraying journalist Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck...
).
At home, Anna reunites with her sister Alex (Arielle Kebbel
Arielle Kebbel
Arielle Caroline Kebbel is an American model and actress. Arielle is perhaps best known for her roles in films such as American Pie Presents: Band Camp, John Tucker Must Die, Vampires Suck, and Aquamarine, as well as TV series including The Vampire Diaries, Gilmore Girls, and Life Unexpected, on...
). The sisters are very close, and they are united against Steven's girlfriend Rachel (Elizabeth Banks
Elizabeth Banks
Elizabeth Maresal Mitchell , known professionally as Elizabeth Banks, is an American actress. Banks had her film debut in the low-budget independent film Surrender Dorothy...
), who was their mother's live-in nurse. Alex criticizes Steven for sleeping with Rachel while the girls' mother was still alive, but he ignores her. Anna describes to Alex how scenes from her dreams have started happening while she is awake. The sisters become convinced that their mother is sending a message: the fire was murder, and Rachel is the killer.
Anna sees her old boyfriend Matt (Jesse Moss
Jesse Moss
-Life and career:Moss was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is best known for his roles of Jason Wise in Final Destination 3 and Quinn McKaye on Whistler, for which Moss won a Leo Award for Best Lead Performance by a Male in a Dramatic Series in 2007. Moss starred in the Dear Mr...
) and kisses him. He tells her that he saw everything at the fire and the two secretly plan to meet, but he doesn't show up. Later, she awakens from another dream to find him climbing into her window. He says she needs to know the truth; he had a warning from her mother. His body warps, his back breaking. Anna runs from the room and suddenly it is morning and Matt's dead body is pulled out of the water, his back broken just the way Anna saw it.
The sisters are unable to find a record of Rachel with the State Nursing Association. Finally they learn she is actually Mildred Kemp, a nanny who killed the three children from Anna's dreams because she was obsessed with their widowed father. They try to warn Steven but he gets upset and leaves for work. The girls try to gather evidence but they are confronted by Rachel who drugs Alex. Anna escapes and goes to the police. Skeptical, they call Rachel to sedate Anna and drive her home.
Rachel carries Anna to bed. Anna sees Alex in the doorway with a knife and passes out. Later, Anna wakes and finds a large blood trail leading to the dumpster and Rachel's body inside. Alex is nearby with the knife. The girls comfort each other, and Steven comes home. Anna explains that Rachel attacked them and Alex saved her. Confused, Steven says that Alex died in the fire. Anna sees she's not holding Alex's hand like she thought, but the bloody knife.
Anna finally remembers the fire. After catching her father and Rachel together, Anna filled a watering can from a large gasoline tank in the boathouse and carried it toward the house, intending to burn it down. She left a trail that ignited when a candle fell over; Alex and her mother were killed in the resulting explosion. She remembers meeting Matt as planned and killing him. Flashbacks reveal that whenever it appeared as if the two sisters were together, Anna had always been alone. Anna realizes that Steven was not ignoring Alex earlier; her sister was never there. She sees that she had the knife used to kill Rachel all along.
Steven tells the police that Rachel changed her name because of an abusive boyfriend as Anna is arrested and taken back to the institution. The police ask why Anna would make up the Mildred story but Steven has no answers. Anna is welcomed back by the patient that scared her earlier; the name plate on the door says "Mildred Kemp".
Cast
- Emily BrowningEmily BrowningEmily Jane Browning is an Australian film actress and fashion model, known for her roles as Violet Baudelaire in Brad Silberling's 2004 film Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, as Anna Ivers in the 2009 film The Uninvited, as Babydoll in Zack Snyder's 2011 action thriller Sucker...
as Anna - Arielle KebbelArielle KebbelArielle Caroline Kebbel is an American model and actress. Arielle is perhaps best known for her roles in films such as American Pie Presents: Band Camp, John Tucker Must Die, Vampires Suck, and Aquamarine, as well as TV series including The Vampire Diaries, Gilmore Girls, and Life Unexpected, on...
as Alex - Elizabeth BanksElizabeth BanksElizabeth Maresal Mitchell , known professionally as Elizabeth Banks, is an American actress. Banks had her film debut in the low-budget independent film Surrender Dorothy...
as Rachel - David StrathairnDavid StrathairnDavid Russell Strathairn is an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for portraying journalist Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck...
as Steven - Jesse MossJesse Moss-Life and career:Moss was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is best known for his roles of Jason Wise in Final Destination 3 and Quinn McKaye on Whistler, for which Moss won a Leo Award for Best Lead Performance by a Male in a Dramatic Series in 2007. Moss starred in the Dear Mr...
as Matt - Maya MassarMaya MassarMaya Massar is an American actress.-Personal life:Massar was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She is married to writer/director David Massar, and currently lives and works in both the US and Canada. Massar won a Leo award for 'Best Performance, Female' in the short film "Death's Dream"...
as Mom - Kevin McNultyKevin McNultyKevin McNulty is a Canadian actor.McNulty was born in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada. He has acted on three aviation movies: Falling from the Sky: Flight 174 with William Devane, Final Descent with Robert Urich and Snakes on a Plane with Samuel L. Jackson...
as Sheriff Emery - Lex Burnham as Iris
- Danny Bristol as Samuel
- Matthew Bristol as David
- Don S. DavisDon S. DavisDon Sinclair Davis PhD was an American character actor, theatre professor, painter and captain in the United States Army.-Career:He was perhaps best known for playing General George S...
as Mr. Henson - Heather DoerksenHeather DoerksenHeather Doerksen is a Canadian actress who has appeared on stage, and on screen alongside such actors as Kathy Bates, William H. Macy, Christopher Lloyd, and Jessica Alba...
as Mildred Kemp - Dean Paul Gibson as Dr. Silberling
Development
In 2002, producers Walter F. ParkesWalter F. Parkes
Walter F. Parkes is an American film producer, writer and former studio head.- Biography :Parkes has been associated with DreamWorks Pictures, which he ran from its inception in 1994 until 2005...
and Laurie MacDonald
Laurie MacDonald
Laurie MacDonald is a film producer. She is married to Walter F. Parkes and is a production executive of DreamWorks. Her credits include:*The Ring*The Terminal*Cloud Atlas *Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events...
produced the hit horror/thriller, The Ring
The Ring (2002 film)
The Ring is a 2002 American psychological horror film directed by Gore Verbinski and starring Naomi Watts and Martin Henderson. It is a remake of the 1998 Japanese horror film Ring....
, a remake of the Japanese film Ringu. They subsequently produced the film’s successful sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
The Ring Two
The Ring Two
The Ring Two is a 2005 American psychological horror film, and a sequel to the 2002 film The Ring, which was a remake of the 1998 Japanese film Ring...
in 2005. Since first starting this new cycle of Asian horror film adaptations, Parkes and MacDonald searched for a project they felt was as ingeniously conceived and executed as The Ring, and finally found it when producer Roy Lee brought the original Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
n hit movie on which The Uninvited is based to their attention.
As A Tale of Two Sisters
A Tale of Two Sisters
A Tale of Two Sisters is a 2003 South Korean psychological horror film written and directed by Kim Ji-woon...
was playing in US theaters, directors Tom and Charlie Guard acquired the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
remake rights. The Guard Brothers studied at Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
before launching careers as commercial and short film directors for such clients as Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
, Euro Disney, PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
, and Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
. The Korean remake is their first feature film. In June 2006, DreamWorks announced that a deal had been set up for the US version, A Tale of Two Sisters (advance press materials drop the “A” from the English title). The new film is a presentation of DreamWorks and Cold Spring Pictures (Disturbia
Disturbia (film)
Disturbia is a 2007 American thriller film directed by D. J. Caruso and executive produced by Ivan Reitman. It is an updated version of Alfred Hitchcock's classic film Rear Window...
), and is produced by Walter F. Parkes
Walter F. Parkes
Walter F. Parkes is an American film producer, writer and former studio head.- Biography :Parkes has been associated with DreamWorks Pictures, which he ran from its inception in 1994 until 2005...
and Laurie MacDonald
Laurie MacDonald
Laurie MacDonald is a film producer. She is married to Walter F. Parkes and is a production executive of DreamWorks. Her credits include:*The Ring*The Terminal*Cloud Atlas *Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events...
(The Ring
The Ring (2002 film)
The Ring is a 2002 American psychological horror film directed by Gore Verbinski and starring Naomi Watts and Martin Henderson. It is a remake of the 1998 Japanese horror film Ring....
, The Ring Two
The Ring Two
The Ring Two is a 2005 American psychological horror film, and a sequel to the 2002 film The Ring, which was a remake of the 1998 Japanese film Ring...
) and Roy Lee
Roy Lee
Roy Lee is an American film producer who regularly takes well known Asian films and remakes them for American audiences. Examples include The Ring, The Grudge and The Departed...
. The screenplay was written by Craig Rosenberg (After the Sunset
After the Sunset
After the Sunset is a 2004 action comedy film starring Pierce Brosnan as Max Burdett, a master thief caught in a cat-and-mouse game with FBI agent Stan Lloyd played by Woody Harrelson...
, Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
), Doug Miro
Doug Miro
Doug Miro is an American screenwriter based in Los Angeles. Miro studied screenwriting at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and graduated with a degree in English from Stanford University.- Life and career :...
and Carlo Bernard (The Great Raid
The Great Raid
The Great Raid is a 2005 war film about the Raid at Cabanatuan, adapted from William Breuer's book of the same name. It tells the story of the January 1945 liberation of the Cabanatuan Prison Camp on the Philippine island of Luzon during World War II. It is directed by John Dahl and stars Benjamin...
).
In early 2008, the title needed to be changed. The working title was originally A Tale of Two Sisters like its predecessor, but the final title was confirmed to be The Uninvited in an announcement made in March.
The film was released in North American and Canadian theaters on January 30, 2009.
Shooting location
The film was shot in VancouverVancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
. Most of the film was shot at one location, a waterfront property on British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
's Bowen Island
Bowen Island
Bowen Island, British Columbia, is an island municipality in Howe Sound, is part of the Greater Vancouver Regional District, and is an island included within the jurisdiction of the Islands Trust . Approximately 6 km wide by 12 km long, the island at its closest point is about 2 km...
, a short ferry ride west from mainland Vancouver."' 'Eighty percent of the story takes place at the house, so we couldn't make the movie without the right one,' said Walter F. Parkes
Walter F. Parkes
Walter F. Parkes is an American film producer, writer and former studio head.- Biography :Parkes has been associated with DreamWorks Pictures, which he ran from its inception in 1994 until 2005...
. It couldn't have been more important.' 'We Scouted Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, an environment which both beautiful and slightly threatening. We had two houses which were terrible compromises, but both of them fell through. We had a difficult time finding anything that had both the connection to the story and the right logistical possibilities.'"
"'But then we were lucky to find in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
a place that seemed as if it had been built for our movie,'" he continues. "'It was perfectly evocative and suggestive of a family that is both welcoming and forbidding. The fact that the house was within 30 miles of Vancouver was a greater plus than the minus of having to get everyone on boats to get them over there; water taxis and ferries are a way of life up there. In fact, I don’t remember ever having a more pleasant time on a location. Getting onto a boat and having a cup of coffee and then going up the little pier and the stairs we built, it focused us. We were isolated with one thing on our minds, which was making this movie. It was great.'" However, the film's location is set in Maine.
It is reported that a two-story boathouse in the film was built on the property overlooking the water just for several scenes. The cold water is rough and unappealing; it is a greenish-gray that crashes constantly and does not invite swimming.
Filming took place on Bowen Island
Bowen Island
Bowen Island, British Columbia, is an island municipality in Howe Sound, is part of the Greater Vancouver Regional District, and is an island included within the jurisdiction of the Islands Trust . Approximately 6 km wide by 12 km long, the island at its closest point is about 2 km...
. The house was for sale and recently sold for $6,950,000.
Casting
Emily BrowningEmily Browning
Emily Jane Browning is an Australian film actress and fashion model, known for her roles as Violet Baudelaire in Brad Silberling's 2004 film Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, as Anna Ivers in the 2009 film The Uninvited, as Babydoll in Zack Snyder's 2011 action thriller Sucker...
was hired to portray the lead Anna Ivers. She had originally auditioned for the role of Alex. The film is rated PG-13, and is less visually gory and bloody than the original film. Elizabeth Banks
Elizabeth Banks
Elizabeth Maresal Mitchell , known professionally as Elizabeth Banks, is an American actress. Banks had her film debut in the low-budget independent film Surrender Dorothy...
plays a new character, Rachel. Banks based her character Rachel on Rebecca De Mornay
Rebecca De Mornay
Rebecca De Mornay is an American film and television actress. Her breakthrough film role came in 1983, when she played Lana in Risky Business opposite Tom Cruise...
in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (film)
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle is a 1992 American thriller about a vengeful nanny out to destroy a naïve woman and steal her family. The film was directed by Curtis Hanson, starring Annabella Sciorra, Rebecca De Mornay, and Matt McCoy...
"It was very important to me that every line reading I gave could be interpreted two ways," says Banks of her role, "So that when you go back through the movie you can see that." David Strathairn
David Strathairn
David Russell Strathairn is an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for portraying journalist Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck...
plays the concerned father of the two girls. Arielle Kebbel
Arielle Kebbel
Arielle Caroline Kebbel is an American model and actress. Arielle is perhaps best known for her roles in films such as American Pie Presents: Band Camp, John Tucker Must Die, Vampires Suck, and Aquamarine, as well as TV series including The Vampire Diaries, Gilmore Girls, and Life Unexpected, on...
plays Anna's older sister, Alex Ivers.
Music
The original score for the filmFilm score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
was composed by Christopher Young
Christopher Young
Christopher Young is an American music composer for both film and television.Many of his music compositions are for horror films, including Hellraiser, Tales from the Hood, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, Urban Legend, and Drag Me to Hell...
, who recorded it with a 78-piece orchestra and 20-person choir. His score features a glass harmonica
Glass harmonica
The glass harmonica, also known as the glass armonica, bowl organ, hydrocrystalophone, or simply the armonica , is a type of musical instrument that uses a series of glass bowls or goblets graduated in size to produce musical tones by means of friction The glass harmonica, also known as the glass...
, and the Yale Women's Slavic Chorus.
Home media
The film was released on DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and Blu-ray
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
on April 28, 2009 in the U.S., and July 23, 2009 in Australia.
Critical reception
The film received generally mixed to negative reviews from critics; Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reported that 31% of critics (39 out of 124) gave favorable reviews, with the average score of 4.5/10, with the consensus "The Uninvited is moody and reasonably involving, but suffers from predictable plot twists." Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
also score the film of 44/100 (mixed or average) from 22 reviews. Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting is a website that covers horror movies with reviews, interviews and news. It is currently run by Brad Miska, and Tom Owen. According to one source, the site has 1.5 million unique visitors and 20 million page views each month. It is widely considered to be the "world's most...
gave the film 6/10 while on Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
Movies Critical Response, the average professional critical rating was a C according to 11 reviews.
Box office
On its opening day, the film grossed $4,335,000 and ranked #2 in the box office.However, it finally got $10,512,000 for its opening weekend, set on the third place, opened in 2,344 theaters with an average $4,485 per theatre.
The film spent nine weeks in U.S. cinemas, and finished with a total gross of $28,596,818. It did fairly moderate for a horror film in the US markets.
The film was released on March 26, 2009 in Australia, and the film opened at the fifth position, averaging $3,998 at 121 sites, for a gross of A$
Australian dollar
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
483,714. The second week it dipped 29%.
See also
The story has been adapted to film a number of times including:- Janghwa Hongryeon jeonJanghwa Hongryeon jeon (1924 film)Jang-hwa and Hong-ryeon is a 1924 Korean silent film. The film is based on a popular Korean fairy tale "Janghwa Hongryeon jeon" which had been adapted into film versions in 1924, 1936, 1956, 1962 and 1972....
(1924) directed by Kim Yeong-han - Janghwa Hongryeon jeonJanghwa Hongryeon jeon (1936 film)Story of Janghwa and Hongryeon is a 1936 Korean silent film. The film is based on a popular Korean fairy tale "Janghwa Hongryeon jeon" which had been adapted into film versions in 1924, 1936, 1956, 1962 and 1972.-Cast:*Su-il Mun*Ye-bong Mun...
(1936) directed by Hong Gae-myeong - Janghwa Heungryeon jeonJanghwa Hongryeon jeon (1956 film)Janghwa Hongryeonjeon is 1956 South Korean horror film. The film is based on a popular Korean fairy tale "Janghwa Hongryeon jeon" which had been adapted into film versions in 1924, 1936, 1956, 1962, 1972, 2003, and 2009.-Synopsis:Janghwa Hongreonjeon is film based on a popular Korean fairy tale...
(1956) directed by Jeong Chang-hwa - Dae Jang-hwa Hong-ryeon jeonDae Jang-hwa Hong-ryeon jeon(The Story of Jang-hwa and Hong-ryeon (Dae Jang-hwa Hong-ryeon jeon) is a 1962 South Korean film directed by Chung Chang-wha. The film is based on a Korean folklore story called Janghwa Hongryeon jeon which had been adapted into film versions in 1924, 1936, 1956, 1962, 1972, 2003, and...
(1962) directed by Jeong Chang-hwa - Janghwa Hongryeon jeonJanghwa Hongryeon jeon (1972 film)Janghwa Hongryeonjeon is 1972 South Korean Horror film. The film is based on a popular Korean fairy tale "Janghwa Hongryeon jeon" which had been adapted into film versions in 1924, 1936, 1956, 1962, 1972, 2003, and 2009.-Synopsis:Janghwa Hongreonjeon is film based on a popular Korean fairy tale...
(1972) directed by Lee Yu-seob - A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) directed by Kim Ji-woonKim Ji-WoonKim Ji-woon is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. Kim Ji-woon has a history of successfully tackling a wide range of film genres, garnering a cult following among Asian films fans all over the world.-Career:...