I don't know about you, but I've grown weary of contemporary Asian horror. What was once a welcomed and refreshing change, bringing real atmospheric terror back to the forefront in a time of dull, rehashed sequels, has itself grown predictable and stale, not unlike other genre crazes such as the post-Exorcist possession boom or the myriads of holiday themed slashers of the 80s. The success of Japanese films like Ring and Ju-On: The Grudge has naturally inspired the release of countless amounts of imitators from seemingly every Asian country (as well as inferior American remakes), looking to cash in with plots so similar it's almost impossible to discern one movie from the next. Once again, yesterday's groundbreaking ideas have become today's industry standard. In fact, I've been so relentlessly inundated with tales of creepy ghost children with long black hair, taking revenge for their wrongful deaths by haunting us via television, internet, cell phone, or whatever other form of technology they find their way into, that I now expect that from modern Asian horror. That's exactly what I anticipated when I started watching The Uninvited, and for the first twenty or so minutes I was not incorrect in my assumptions. But after those few initial ghostly scares, I found, much to my surprise, that the film slowly started to become an altogether different sort of ghost story.

Jung-Won falls asleep on the subway on his way home from having a few drinks with a friend. When the announcement of the last stop on the line stirs him from his slumber, he's surprised to see the two children who were seated near him are still on the train. As the doors close and the car begins to roll away, he passes it off as odd and commences once again with his familiar daily routine. The next morning, however, he is shocked to hear that the same two little girls were found dead on the train, and even more shocked that evening when he sees them seated at his kitchen table. Needless to say, he's spooked, and decides to start staying out in the country at the church that his father runs until he can figure everything out. It's here that circumstance leads him to meet Yung-Jun, a mysterious girl he recognizes from the psychology clinic where he has been doing interior design work. While driving her home from service one night, she faints, and he is left with no choice but to bring her into his apartment until she recovers. That's when he learns she can see the children too. At that moment, Jung-Won knows he must learn more about this strange woman and the uncanny power she possesses or risk losing his sanity. Little does he know that in the process he will learn more about his own forgotten past than he could possibly imagine.

The Uninvited is a film which is somewhat deceptive in its marketing. Due to the fact that it blends elements from many different genres it becomes a film that is difficult to classify. It's not quite a horror film in the classic sense; it's much more of a supernatural thriller and often even ventures into straight forward drama that happens to have a paranormal backdrop. Think more along the lines of something like The Sixth Sense rather than The Ring. The ghostly manifestations and eerie psychic visions are never really there to jump out and scare you, but more to help connect and reveal the dark secrets hiding within the characters. The revelations of said secrets, unfortunately, don't really pan out into much of anything other than back story, and never add up to any kind of resolvable issue that the characters can face. We learn what has drawn Jung-Won and Yung-Jun together, but not what they can do about it. Add to that slow pacing and a fairly complicated plot filled with an abundance of supporting characters (everyone's spouse, parents, ex, or even parents-in-law are somehow involved), who often further complicate things by shifting the focus away from the main storyline with various subplots, and you end up with a pretty complex film. Rather than follow tradition and wrap everything up in a conveniently fixed, easy to follow package, The Uninvited chooses to spiral into a dark, depressing, and often challenging study of loss and how people deal with it. But if a departure from the jump-out-and-grab-you approach is what you're looking for, and perhaps something you'll have to devote a little time and thought to in order to have nightmares, than The Uninvited might just be the film for you.

Panik House has done a great job on the presentation and packaging of this release. The DVD case comes wrapped in a textured cardboard slipcover, which provides double the artwork and adds a nice little touch to offset it from some of the other stuff on the store shelves. Also included as a fun bonus is a full size sticker of the cover art, so you can slap it somewhere and show off your affinity for foreign horror movies to all your friends. The film itself looks excellent, digitally remastered for this "world definitive edition". There are several audio choices, all in the original Korean language, with subtitles available in English and Spanish, as well as audio commentaries and separate menus presented in both languages. As far as extras are concerned, Panik House has gone all out, offering up tons of supplemental material. Included are a behind-the-scenes featurette, interviews with the lead actors, an essay on Korean horror, a trailer, poster and still galleries, production notes, bios, and even an abridged version of the film, clocking in at 15 minutes and showing the most important and subsequently scary sequences. This is the first disc from Panik House that I've had the pleasure of reviewing and all I can say is keep up the good work. If this is what they have to offer for a regular release, I'd love to see what they do with a special edition, and I'd certainly love to see more companies take a cue from them and give films (and in turn the fans) the treatment they deserve.