Edition: U.S. / Global

Lesson: Avoid Graves

Published: October 29, 1996

As the world slouches toward the millennium, television's selling of otherworldly phenomena accelerates. Extraterrestrials inhabit series like ''The X-Files'' and ''Dark Skies.'' Paranormal activity is the very stuff of ''Millennium'' and ''Profiler.'' Prime time seems determined to scare viewers silly.

''The Uninvited,'' tonight's movie on CBS, goes the poltergeist route. Showtime, for one, already has a supernatural series called ''Poltergeist: The Legacy.'' The Legacy is a secret ancient society described by the producers as ''humanity's final line of defense against the growing presence of evil.'' The concept was hatched by the creators of ''The Outer Limits.''

The manufactured horrors in ''The Uninvited'' are relatively modest. The movie opens with a woman gunning down her husband, who has just drowned their son in the bathtub. Jump 75 years, and we find Patti (Sharon Lawrence) and Charles (Beau Bridges) moving into their new suburban home, which just happens to be built near the graves of the murderous family. Patti is still recovering from having had a stillborn child six months earlier.

In no time at all, doors are mysteriously slamming shut and the faucets in the bathroom seem to go on and off by themselves. Patti is filled with dread, especially when she senses that the ''spirit'' is after her young son, Jonathan (Alex D. Linz). Charles, a bit of a dolt, is convinced that Patti is just having a lingering reaction to the stillbirth. He reluctantly commits her to a sanitarium where, of course, the psychiatrist and other people of science are profoundly uncomprehending.

Patti's only supporter is Delia, the local psychic, played by Shirley Knight in a rather startling black wig that makes her look like Cher gone to pot. Delia talks gravely about ''dead people not wanting to go into the light.'' As for the spirit threatening Patti's son, Delia advises, ''Show him a mother's strength is stronger.''

The child finally cries out, ''Don't let me go, Mommy!'' There's howling wind, lightning and thunder. The only thing missing is apple pie.

Getting to and beyond the millennium is going to be a trying time for television audiences everywhere.


CBS, tonight at 9

(Channel 2 in New York)

Thomas Carter, executive producer; Sheldon Pinchuk, co-executive producer; Larry Shaw, director; script by Karen Clark; produced by Ms. Clark and Lori-Etta Taub; Bryan England, director of photography; Anthony Tremblay, production designer. A production of Thomas Carter Productions.

WITH: Sharon Lawrence (Patti), Beau Bridges (Charles), Shirley Knight (Delia), Alex D. Linz (Jonathan), Lawrence Pressman (Winston), Emily Bridges (Molly), Kathleen Lloyd (Laurette), James Pickens Jr. (Cornelson) and Lesley Woods (Charlotte).