Anna returns home after spending time in a psychiatric facility following her mother's tragic death and discovers that her mother's former nurse, Rachel, has moved into their house and become engaged to her father. Soon after she learns this shocking news, Anna is visited by her mother's ghost, who warns her that Rachel has evil intentions.
The Uninvited is a mess of styles and stolen ideas, including a plot twist that would make M. Night Shyamalan roll his eyes and dialogue straight from a CW scene generator.
– Wesley Morris,
Boston Globe,
30 Jan 2009
rotten:
It's a slick, bloodless affair that's neither as suggestive as the classic general-audiences ghost stories of the past, nor as intense as a hard-R would allow it to be.
– Scott Tobias,
AV Club,
30 Jan 2009
rotten:
The Uninvited may strike even viewers who don't know the original as disarmingly familiar.
– Ben Kenigsberg,
Time Out New York,
4 Feb 2009
fresh:
As in the original, the film slyly manipulates the audience's perspective, and a brilliantly filmed climactic 'reveal' marks this British duo as a pair to watch.