The Uninvited doesn't know whether it wants to be a classic thriller or teenage crap. It is equal parts Hitchcock, The O.C., and The Boxcar Children, with a dash of M. Night Shyamalan at the end to leave a bad taste in your mouth. All these conflicting elements form a mélange of lameness, some kind of bad-movie casserole.

The film pits girl-child Emily Browning (Violet from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events), recently released from a mental hospital, against the curiously cast Elizabeth Banks (Miri from Zack and Miri Make a Porno), her wicked, usurping soon-to-be stepmother. Browning spends most of the film emoting, a bit being bewildered by her new goofy ghost pals (oh, did I mention she has goofy ghost pals?), and the rest of it trying to convince her doofus father that his new fiancé is evil. Dad is obviously a complete moron, as stepmom is not subtle in any way with her evil. She is an overtly creepy lady. Between the inappropriate cussing, shooting the evil eye constantly, and mock-choking her future stepdaughter with a strand of pearls, Banks is too over-the-top to scare anyone, her performance falling well into camp territory.

The rest of the movie suffers from similar problems. I had a hard time being scared by Browning's cavalcade of comical ghost friends, since most of them fall somewhere between ridiculous and confusing. Usually, after the initial spook, they elicited more laughter than fear from the audience. They, like the film itself, lack any kind of subtlety.

The Uninvited as a whole is a sad mess. Browning's and Banks's talent are both wasted as they match dull wits and fight for the love of the oblivious father. And despite their best efforts, it turns out to be just another stupid thriller. But that should have been obvious enough from the commercials anyway.