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[HanCinema's Film Review] "The Uninvited"

Jung-won (played by Park Shin-yang) starts to receive visions after a random missed encounter with an event that, at the time, seemed rather irrelevant. Jung-won is not a particularly intelligent or reflective person, so his apparent delusions quickly begin to get worrisome. He pops in and out of nightmarish scenarios where no person or object is actually in motion, but mere presence alone is enough to get the heartbeat up to terrified proportions.

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And after all this we get an introduction to another completely different plot with a completely different character, and the relation of this person's story to Jung-won's is rather dubious. "The Uninvited" starts deciding it needs to explain on a literal level what Jung-won's visions mean and why he's getting them. Ironically, the closer the story veers into the fantastic with these odd explanations, the more boring the film gets as we don't actually get to see any of these amusing visions anymore. It's just interpersonal drama.

And not particularly effective interpersonal drama, either. Outside of this rather distant supernatural plot device, there is no real reason for Jung-won to interact with this other person. This extra story lacks the visceral element of fear that makes the opening segments so effective. It's just mysteries coupled with dry explanations. While the film's clearly trying to convince the audience that some deeper connection exists between the two plots, it's just not there. A lot of the movie just feels like forced interaction between two main characters from completely different horror films.

Perhaps I was feeling a bit let down by the title. "The Uninvited" conveys a sense of fear based on the idea of people or things forcing themselves into a person's life when they are unwanted. This emotion is excellently conveyed in the opening segments, and basically forgotten about when Jung-won himself begins engaging in uninvited intrusions.

The Korean title, too, is rather misleading. Roughly translated literally as "4 for Dinner", all we really see is the literal setpiece of a dinner table. It's used as effective horror in the beginning of the film, only to be almost completely forgotten about until right around the ending. Metaphorically I'm not really sure how to parse it. Maybe it's supposed to be reflective of the desire of the main characters- except we don't really get into what they actually want in any real detail. The only thing Jung-won clearly desires is for the visions to stop. There's comparatively little urgency in his numerous, rather dull dealings with friends and family.

There's good direction and design in this film as regards the horror elements, but the story is so terribly uninspiring that not much effective use is really made out of any of it. "The Uninvited" starts strong, then fritters away all this initial goodwill on ineffective plot points, stripping itself of its own power. This is a movie that would have benefitted quite a bit from a tighter, more relevant script that had some clear idea what it's about. In its current form, "The Uninvited" just really isn't worth watching.

Review by William Schwartz

"The Uninvited" is directed by Lee Soo-yeon and features Park Shin-yang, Jun Ji-hyun, Yoo Sun and Kim Yeo-jin.

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