the uninvited

Horror films of the past decade fall into two camps: torture porn and Asian-inspired. Falling into the latter category, The Uninvited would be better named The Uninspired.

Adapted into English from a 2003 Korean horror movie, The Uninvited is a glorified wicked-stepmother story. Set in a picturesque, seaside Maine mansion, Anna (Emily Browning) makes a suicide attempt following her mother's death in a freak explosion. After a stay at an asylum, Anna returns home to find that her father has a new girlfriend named Rachel (Elizabeth Banks). Anna and her sister Alex (Arielle Kebbel) come to believe that Rachel is responsible for their mother's death, beginning a Boxcar Children-esque background check of their soon-to-be-stepmother.

Banks, the film's biggest asset, is the only cast member to endow her character with any real depth. The movie, however, doesn't leave much for the other actors to be anything more than mediocre.

The Uninvited uses extended, heavy-handed shots of empty hallways and flowing curtains, plus an ominous soundtrack, to mold itself into a horror flick-all tricks put to better use in 1999's The Sixth Sense. Undead children jump out at the movie's heroine, eliciting some screams. It's all standard fare used to good effect, but by 2009, it has become boring. The only real horror is the inane script.

The film throws an curveball at the end, hinting at narrative illusions-it's like Ishmael meets Dali. But the twist is too derivative, too unoriginal to make up for the rest of the picture.

The Uninvited is an unusual take on the wicked-stepmother story, but ingenuity is never any guarantee of quality. This movie doesn't argue otherwise.