CinemaClown Taking a leaflet out of Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca to permeate its frames with a disquieting chill, The Uninvited is a finely crafted horror mystery that manages to be captivating for the most part and implements the traditional horror aspects in an effective manner but the decision to give the picture a lighthearted touch every now n then isn't something that works out in its favour.The Uninvited tells the story of a brother & sister who move into an abandoned seaside mansion after purchasing it at an unusually low price. But their fascination with the house dissipates once they learn about its dark past and experience unnatural activities during the night. Compelled to solver the mystery, the two attempt to find a reasonable explanation behind the place's haunted nature.Directed by Lewis Allen in what's his directorial debut, the film opens with a brief monologue that acquaints the viewers with the place where most of its events unfold. All its characters have well- defined arcs, and a sense of foreboding is palpable in nearly every scene that takes place inside the mansion. Allen handles the horror aspect of the story with skill but is unable to juggle it well with elements of comedy.The mansion is gorgeously photographed and appears to have a life of its own, with both a dark past & concealed secrets. Cinematography is a highlight in itself, for the smooth manoeuvring of the camera, precision use of lighting n shadows & controlled zooms encapsulate the story with a Gothic, foreboding ambiance. Its 99 minutes runtime is finely paced, Editing is unable to properly balance its shifting tones while the background score adds subtle enhancements of its own.Coming to the performances, Ray Milland & Ruth Hussey play the siblings and their chemistry with each other has a familial feel to it, not to mention that their individual input is just as good. Gail Russell takes the role of Milland's love interest but her part plays a far more vital role in the final outcome, Alan Napier is in as the local doctor and performs with gentleman-like professionalism while Cornelia Otis Skinner almost steals the limelight from the rest and delivers an enigmatic performance.On an overall scale, The Uninvited is a well-made haunted house horror that utilises its resources quite well to keep the audience's interest alive but it's not scary, or maybe time has diminished its scare factor by a great deal. It's still creepy though, in bits n pieces, but its ill-timed humour really undermines its moments of horror, for you can picture an unsettling haunted house tale if only the film had toned down its melodramatic & lighthearted approach. Failing to match its reputation yet providing a sufficiently thrilling experience, The Uninvited is worth at least one shot.

GL84 Heading out to the countryside, a brother and sister find themselves moving into a mansion along the coastline which they learn about the ghosts inhabiting the area and try to find a way of appeasing the spirits within before they manage to harm their friends.There really isn't a whole lot here. Among the better parts here is the film's rather strong sense of atmosphere here, as there's points at the right moments where the house can be pretty creepy. The design, which is filled with a great arrangement of furniture and an especially well-placed twisting stairway in the middle of the house that manages to create a really effective atmosphere for the film, gets some great amount of suspense with the general design and with a lot of openness in the windows everywhere allowing a lot of light at times this one serves as a solid haunting-ready location. There's also an important factor in the design of the stairwell towards how the conclusion plays out, since it's the film's single best scene, with the ghost appearing to float down in a rather ethereal manner that only works because of how the staircase was a spiraling design rather than a traditional one. There's some solid work in building up the idea of ghost here with the music being played, the howling wind and floating voices that match the stories told about the house which match well with the creeping fog rolling across the cliff- tops, and a really creepy séance in the middle of the film that has an odd creep factor to it really selling this one rather well. The last positive here is that there's also a really great final twenty minutes here that always manages to get some action in the film, which are some of the best parts of the film generating the full extent of her connection to the past and letting some nice haunting scenes come about here with a solid resolution. These are it's main points of interest since this here has a lot of flaws present. One of the biggest issues is that the film takes a near eternity to get going. The beginning is mostly concerned with incredibly boring tripe about the families getting along, their moving in and meeting the neighbors and the utterly bland romance that feels so out-of- place in a film like this. The distrust here doesn't make the film any bit of entertaining due to it being so dull to sit through and takes time away from the ghost angle, which should be the main point with this one. Ignoring it by focusing it on a really lousy subplot about the family members being secretive about the reasons for a romance to be a bad thing isn't compelling viewing, and makes it seem all the more longer when the ghosts finally appear. They're just endless and really drag this one out intermittently. This is the film's most pressing problem, as there's nothing at all interesting going on in the beginning of the film. It's not really scary, and there is very little reason to get into the first half of this as the film simply seems concerned with useless jabbering on about elements that aren't interesting where it all results in a long period in the film before the ghosts actually show up. It's the one thing that really drags the film down.Today's Rating/PG: Mild Violence.

writers_reign Oddly referential entry, Rebecca in all but name - same locale, Cornwall, same centre of focus, a large house, same plot focus, the house is 'haunted' by its former mistress, same villainess figure, in one a housekeeper, in the other a nurse, both of whom contrive to drive the leading character to suicide, the only difference is that unlike Rebecca the heroine of this entry, Stella, was not married to the leading man. There are also several unanswered questions the main one being how come two people as attractive and charming as Ray Milland and Ruth Hussy have no partners in their lives and indeed for that matter, no friends or social life they can't abandon on a moments notice to move three hundred miles in a matter of weeks. As the film that gave us Victor Young's Stella By Starlight it can't be all bad and it's well performed by Milland, Hussy, Donald Crisp whilst Gail Russell is luminous but it's little more than mildly entertaining.

PimpinAinttEasy Not exactly a horror film. It starts off as a slightly mysterious and creepy romantic comedy. It is one of those films with strange and ambiguous relationships between the characters.A brother-sister duo (Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey) is impressed by a large mansion while on a trip to a seaside town. They are surprised when its owner agrees to sell it to them for a very cheap price. But once they move in, they realize that there is some sort of entity in the house. The strange behavior of the owner and his granddaughter also arouses suspicion.The two protagonists are unusual - they are a chummy brother sister duo who live together. The relationship between the mansion's owner and his granddaughter is also quite strange. He seems to be excessively possessive about her. There is another relationship which hints at lesbianism.The film begins with a great long shot of the turbulent sea that is almost monstrous. It was very affecting. The indoor scenes are characterized by a lot of shadows and candle light which gives a Gothic and at times even Noirish feel to the film. The séance scene was very interesting.Ray Miland's charming presence and his backslapping relationship with Ruth Hussey prevents this film from becoming a creepy horror film.You might enjoy it if you liked The Birds or Marnie. It is not a bad film for a rainy night. And Ruth Hussey is very nice to look at.(6/10)