While no family member or relative is above meanness, treachery and/or abuse in real life, and villains in fiction can run the gamut of the same, the one that springs quickest to the minds of most is the evil stepmother. Of course, that stems from the portrayal of such characters that kids are exposed to growing up -- think of "Cinderella" and "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" -- but it certainly makes one wonder how such family members earned such a longstanding bad rap.
Did the purveyors of such stories back when they were verbally shared fairy tales have bad experiences with their own stepmothers? Or does all of that simply stem from the fear of losing a parent and having a stranger serve as their replacement? I'm guessing there have been studies and papers exploring just that over the years, but there's little doubt the stereotype still exists today, even when the number of said female family members has likely grown to its largest numbers, what with the prevalence of divorce and such.
Case in point is "The Uninvited," yet another American remake of an Asian horror film, this time Kim Jee-Woon's 2003 Korean flick "A Tale of Two Sisters." The new title not only refers to the soon-to-be stepmother character (played by Elizabeth Banks, currently one of Hollywood's busiest actresses spreading her wings a bit here into yet another genre), but also some pesky ghosts that keep popping up from time to time.
Yet, as is the new trend now in non-slasher horror films, their goal isn't to frighten Anna the protagonist (Emily Browning) - although they do just that, and might just raise some goose bumps in viewers thanks to the brotherly directing duo of Charles Guard and Thomas Guard staging some decent and effective scares -- but rather warn her that she might end up just like them if she doesn't take action.
In this case, they're referring to Banks' stepmother character who's segued from caring for Anna's ailing mom (Maya Massar) to becoming the younger lover to her dad (David Strathairn, slumming it here). Beyond that providing the usual "ick" factor for Anna and her sister Alex (Arielle Kebbel), the protagonist begins to wonder if perhaps the outsider-turned-insider might have been somehow responsible for her mom's death in a fire and explosion.
Anna's erstwhile boyfriend (Jess Moss) seems to know something about this, but she's blanked this out due to a mental breakdown that resulted in an apparent suicide attempt that left her institutionalized right up to the point where the film starts. Considering that her sanity is called into question, one would think -- not to mention expect -- that the Guards along with screenwriters Craig Rosenberg and Doug Miro & Carlo Bernard would have had some fun with that aspect.
Not as in making light of her condition, but applying that into any number of red herrings, gotcha moments and other scares that may or may not be real. Granted, a version of that appears late in the film that explains everything -- in the form of the big twist that I'll admit I didn't see coming -- but it's too little, too late in terms of making this a giddy and/or scary edge of your seat spook fest.
It is funny, however, in the wrong way thanks to the overbearing villainy that keeps building as the story progresses (both in terms of the way Banks is directed to act as well as some of the dialogue that comes from her mouth). Yes, that twist ends up explaining much of that (although I'm still not sure everything lines up after the revelation, but none of it's worth spending the time trying to determine if all of the dots connect) as well as the usual genre-based, dunderhead behavior on the part of those involved.
Yet, the progressively overwrought aura that permeates the proceedings up until that point often had our preview screening audience in stitches and thus ultimately deflates most of the scare factor. But let's face it, once you've seen one creaky and cracking corpse and/or ghost kid with a warning in an American remake of an Asian horror film, there's little need to see more of them.
Possessing a few decent scares but far more (unintentional) laughs, "The Uninvited" isn't as spooky as it should be and thus won't likely induce many later nightmares -- the true litmus test of a scary film. It rates as a 4 out of 10.
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