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The Uninvited centres around wealthy couple Rose (Elizabeth Reaser), a middle-aged actress who’s now struggling to get the roles that go to younger women, and her film star agent husband, Sammy (Walton Goggins – American Ultra), with the pair hosting a lavish party for the evening.
In fact, they’ve spent so much money on it, unnecessarily, that it can even boast a Spirit Photographer (Michael Panes), taking pictures of everyone’s auras!
However, while Sammy manages established actors like Gerald (Rufus Sewell – Scoop), his endgame is to land the enigmatic Lucien (Pedro Pascal – The Last Of Us).
The Uninvited has some amusing moments in the first half, but by the second half, it’s becoming a chore to sit through. While originally, you feel like there’s a strong premise waiting to reveal itself, instead, you realise that the title is referencing Helen (Lois Smith – The Nice Guys), an elderly woman who’s lost her way, has parked outside and thinks she used to live there.
It did ring true that, despite a family party going on – and as I did at the time as a kid, Rose and Sammy’s son keeps getting out of bed to see what’s going on.
Alas, while the trailer had an air of everything getting ready to kick off in a major way, given that we had Pedro Pascal sneering, Rufus Sewell being smarmy, and Walton Goggins potentially being very Walton Goggins… No! There was not a jar of it!
As such, you just feel like you’re watching a half-baked play on the big screen, and a play that should’ve been shut down after its opening night, given how little sustenance there is to it.
And to think that after watching three Wes Anderson films in a row (the great Isle of Dogs, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou; but the yawnsome Fantastic Mr Fox), each of them being in the same screen, thus having 30 mins between the programme start times along with all the adverts, I then hung around another hour before THIS one started! It was either that or rushing home to suffer the Eurovision Semi Final and The Game.
As an aside, The Uninvited had a bizarre 4:3 BBFC title card at the start, that I hadn’t seen before. I wasn’t sure if that was a new thing, or was different to blend in with what I was expecting to be quite a weird film (and then was anything BUT weird).
As another aside, I’m not 100% sure what aspect ratio this film was shot in. From the trailer, it looks like the odd 2.11:1 ratio, the same as last year’s awful Never Let Go, and so I almost avoided it because Odeon treat such films as if it’s a 1.85:1 aspect ratio movie (and the studios send them out in that format), thus when it gets shown on a 2.39:1 screen (which make up the majority of them, there), the image is windowboxed on all sides, and looks terrible.
Thankfully, despite only having TWO screenings across the entire week (Sunday at 5pm, and Tuesday at 7.50pm), I was watching another film in the same corridor that came to an end while this one’s first screening aired. Hence, I popped in for a minute to check the projection, and saw it IS being shown like a traditional 2.39:1 film. So, while I have to presume that is the actual aspect ratio, it is possible that it was shot at 2.11:1, but the cinema version has been slightly cropped top and bottom for cinemas’ ease of use.
I know that was the case for the brilliant 2020 film, The Eight Hundred, where the 2.11:1 was exclusive to IMAX, and looked great for it. Such a shame that didn’t make the Blu-ray release.
Understandably, The Uninvited will not be gracing IMAX screens, but either way, once I have an update on this, I’ll update the review.
It’s also telling that there’s no official release for this film’s trailer online, so it could be that one badly-cropped trailer has been sent out, and then copy-pasted by everyone else.
NOTE: There are no mid- or post-credits scenes.
The Uninvited is in cinemas from May 14th 2025, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 97 minutes
Release date: May 19th 2025
Studio: Foton Pictures
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 (or 2.11:1?)
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 3/10
Director: Nadia Conners
Producers: Carlos Cuscó, Rosie Fellner, Ariel Taboada
Screenplay: Nadia Conners
Music: Eric Avery
Cast:
Rose: Elizabeth Reaser
Sammy: Walton Goggins
Helen: Lois Smith
Delia: Eva De Dominici
Gerald: Rufus Sewell
Lucien: Pedro Pascal
Wilder: Roland Rubio
Tracy: Kate Comer
Spirit Photographer: Michael Panes
Barbara: Annie Korzen
Bobby: Bobby Burkich
Kayla: Emma West
Hailey: Sohm Kapila
Chris: Rez Kempton
Frank: Todd Cattell
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.