The Uninvited parents guide

The Uninvited Parent Guide

This remake is flush with more than enough disturbing images, moral conundrums and unsettling revelations to push this guest onto the "Do Not Invite" list for most family viewers.

Overall C-

Anna Rydell (Emily Browning) has some problems. First, she loses her mother in a house fire and spends time in a mental hospital trying to recover. Then she return home to find her father (David Strathairn) has taken up with another woman (Elizabeth Banks). And now she is seeing ghostly apparitions. Are these disturbing visions a result of the Uninvited prospective step-mom?

Release date January 30, 2009

Violence D+
Sexual Content C-
Profanity D+
Substance Use D+

Why is The Uninvited rated PG-13? The MPAA rated The Uninvited PG-13 for violent and disturbing images, thematic material, sexual content, language and teen drinking.

Run Time: 87 minutes

Official Movie Site

Parent Movie Review

Stepmothers have never been popular in literature or film—- and they don’t fair any better in The Uninvited, even though the woman in the case is not yet an official member of the family.

After witnessing a horrific explosion that killed her terminally ill mother, Anna (Emily Browning), a young teen, ends up in the secure ward of a mental institution. But after 10 months of careful counseling with a psychiatrist (Dean Paul Gibson), she is finally ready to return to her family. When she arrives at their remote, palatial mountain property, she finds that her mother’s former nurse, Rachael (Elizabeth Banks), has moved into the house and is enjoying unmarried conjugal activities with her father.

Anna’s older sister, Alex (Arielle Kebbel), is well aware of the affair and is glad to finally have a confidant at home. Since the death of the girls’ mother (Maya Massar), she has also begun to suspect some sinister motives behind the accident. Anna’s friend, Matt (Jesse Moss), also hints that he knows what really happened on that fateful night.

However, when the sisters approach their father (David Strathairn) with their doubts about his new lover, they are met with a stern reproach. Still the girls’ misgivings about Rachael increase, especially after they find a carrying case full of syringes and tranquilizers hidden in her bedroom.

Their dubious discovery is only one of the ingredients folded into this classic horror genre recipe. Fluttering curtains, stormy nights, and scary music (even in a well-lit grocery store) are all hints that some creepy character is about to jump out of the shadows. And jump they do. The charred figure of the girls’ mother and the haunting faces of three siblings all make repeated visits to Anna, always with a foreboding warning about impending danger.

In addition to the eerie apparitions, the story, based on a Korean horror film, includes scenes of intoxicated teens and the depiction of sexual sounds and activities between teen and adult couples. Blood-splattered characters, carpets and corpses all up the gore level, along with the recurring sight of contorted, grappling figures. Though infrequent, the script also includes profanities and a strong, sexual expletive.

With all the usual elements of an under-age slasher flick, The Uninvited, rolls out a seemingly predictable plot. Yet a handful of twists, garnered from some of the genre’s best, bring an element of suspense to this otherwise typical teen horror film. Still, this remake is flush with more than enough disturbing images, moral conundrums and unsettling revelations to push this guest onto the “Do Not Invite” list for most family viewers.

Starring Emily Browning, Arielle Kebbel, Elizabeth Banks, David Strathairn.. Running time: 87 minutes. Theatrical release January 30, 2009. Updated

The Uninvited
Rating & Content Info

Why is The Uninvited rated PG-13? The Uninvited is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for violent and disturbing images, thematic material, sexual content, language and teen drinking.

p>All the usual suspects—jump scenes, eerie music and dark rooms—make their way into this horror flick. Blood-covered characters, carpets and kitchen knives, along with charred bodies, gruesome appendages and a dismembered ghoul are shown. A drowned body is pulled from a lake. Gore effects, like blood running from a keyhole and contorting bodies, also add to the effects. A huge explosion causes death. A girl’s scars from cutting herself are seen. A teen couple kisses passionately at a beach party. Glimpses and sounds of an unmarried adult couple engaged in sex are depicted, as well as several discussions about sexual activity. A medical nurse drugs teens with tranquilizers. Teens and adults engage in infrequent hand-to-hand fighting. Characters consume alcohol in a number of scenes and a teen is repeatedly portrayed as drunk. Profanities, scatological slang, terms of Deity and a strong, sexual expletive are used.

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The Uninvited Parents' Guide

Anna spends several months in a hospital after the death of her mother. What role can a traumatic event have in sparking mental distress?

How do tactics like a remote location, rocky shoreline and unsettled weather all add to the general feel of a horror movie? Why is it more likely for this kind of script to take place in such a location?

Home Video

The most recent home video release of The Uninvited movie is April 28, 2009. Here are some details…

Home Video Notes: The Uninvited

Release Date: 28 April 2009

The Uninvited releases to DVD with audio tracks recorded in Dolby Digital 5.1 (English). Subtitles are available in English, French and Spanish. Bonus materials include:

- Deleted Scenes

- Alternate Ending

- Featurette: Unlocking the Uninvited

The Uninvited also releases to Blu-ray with audio tracks recorded in Dolby TrueHD 5 (English). Subtitles are available in Portuguese, French, English and Spanish. Bonus materials include:

- Deleted Scenes

- Alternate Ending

- Featurette: Unlocking the Uninvited

Related home video titles:

Emily Browning takes on the role of a serious, thoughtful orphan in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Elizabeth Banks plays Laura Bush in the movie W. and the wife of a racehorse owner in Seabiscuit.