A few years ago I had a chance to see Ji-woon Kim’s fantastic A Tale of Two Sisters on the big screen. It was (surprise!) during VIFF, in a packed house at the Vogue. I walked out of that film sore from holding the seat so bloody hard. I saw it again a few years later and the movie didn’t have the same creep factor as the first time I saw it but it was still wholly enjoyable.
Sometime back it was announced that work was underway on an American remake. I was under the impression that the remake shared a title with the original but it looks like that’s not the case. The Uninvited is being directed by English brothers Charles and Thomas Guard and stars a surprisingly good cast including Elizabeth Banks and the fantastic David Strathairn. It’s not clear how much of the story is retained from the original film but it looks like the basic idea is the same: a girl returns home after a stint in a mental hospital.
I doubt that the Guard Brothers can build the tension and mood that made Jee-Woon Kim’s film so successfully creepy but it does look like they’ve gone ahead and taken entire sequences from the original film; sequences that they’ll never get just right.
The trailer looks like your run of the mill horror remake aimed at the teen market, but I have to admit I’m curious. I actually want to see Banks and Strathairn together, plus I’d like to see if any part of this film manages to be creepy (the fact that the film was shot locally also holds some mild appeal).
The Uninvited opens on January 30th.
I’ve tucked both the trailer for the original film and the upcoming remake, under the seat. Watch them both and then go out and rent the original. I doubt the remake will be anywhere near as good (though I’m always up for being surprised).
The Uninvited Trailer
Exactly. Go rent the original.
This looks terrible, and it most likely will be terrible, like most remakes of Asian horrors (except for The Ring, which I thought was better than the original. There, I said it). The thing is they’re not even actually remaking it as the story looks like it’s quite different. It seems to be focusing on the new girlfriend thing rather than the two sisters, which it is supposed to be about.
It just looks like another one of those generic horrors aimed at the teen demographic who can’t or don’t want to think when watching a film. And it looks like the scares are going to be sadly absent as well.
Having said that having Strathairn and Banks in your film doesn’t exactly hurt (they’re two of the most underrated people in Hollywood right now imo), they seem to be well cast for the roles they’re playing (having seen those roles in the original). Past remakes of this type have shown us that it hardly ever gets done right, and I am afraid I have to treat this no differently and just hope I’m proven otherwise.
(Btw – at the beginning of that trailer where it gives the warning of content it says the following, “Violent and disturbing images, thematic material, sexual content, language and teen drinking“)
Are we that sensitive as an audience that we need to be warned of something like that last part?:P
Strange in that you can see just how artless of a copy this is compared to the original. Gore Verbinski did actually bring a bit of novelty to the remake of the RING, each version has strengths and weaknesses (the best ‘version’ would be some strange combo of the two).
Because I’m an avid fan of the original, I’ll likely be giving this one a pass, it looks like it glossed up a solid flick that didn’t need any further glossing up. It also strangely sexualizes the teens which the original certainly did not.
I’ll agree with Ross that I do like Elizabeth Banks and David Strathairn (especially David Strathairn)…but yie. Paycheck. If you’ve already seen Kim Ji Woon’s A Tale of Two Sisters, it’s all downhill I suspect. Go see THE GOOD THE BAD THE WEIRD as a better way of doing a ‘remake’ or for that matter THE HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS (Takashi Miike remaking Ji-Woon’s THE QUIET FAMILY) or for that matter, John Sayles LIMBO which also has a great David Strathairn performance in a deserted environment.
Agree 100%, Kurt. Both versions of The Ring have their big strengths and weaknesses (Verbinski brought a sort of gritty, dirty feel to it making it feel strangly more real despite the plot and Nakata brought the scares). The American vesion develops the characters and story a hell of a lot better but the scares are not all that consistent, and with the original it’s the opposite. Yes, a strange mix of the two would make the best movie.
The original A Tale of Two Sisters is one of those Asian horrors that SHOULD be generic and something we’ve seen a million times before. But it manages to be one of the best of it’s type, having an emotional angle that most others in the genre don’t. The woman who plays the stepmother character is phenominal (she was in that serial killer film called ‘H’, did you happen to catch that one, Kurt?).
I am heavily anticipating The Good, The Bad and The Weird, although I sense it will be ages before it reaches my part of the world (if at all). Also I liked The Happiness of the Katakuris (didn’t realise that was Miike remaking anything), but it’s probably my least favourie Miike film that I’ve seen. I guess that’s not really a knock considering the level of quality his better films are (Audition and Ichi the Killer in particular), it’s one of the weirdest I’ve seen for sure (Miike is batshit, but that’s why I love him!:P).
Btw speaking of Miike did you happen to see Vistitor Q, Kurt? One of the toughest films to watch that I’ve ever seen. The filming of it in a kind of home video style made it all the tougher, as it made it seem real. Oh and have you seen Save The Green Planet? One of the most fantastically batshit crazy flms Asia has produced imo. (I could chat about Asian cinema all day…)
As with just about anyone, I’ve got holes in my Miike viewing. Visitor Q is a major one. Also, I’ve not seen any of his very recent stuff, Gods Puzzle, Crows O, etc. To say nothing of the vast amount of OVA’s and stuff he is behind. That guy is insanely prolific.
He is indeed. I think he makes like 3 or 4 films a year (with one always playing at TIFF I believe every single year). I too need to catch up on some of his recent work and just a lot of his work in general. In particular I need to catch his Triad trilogy and Agitator.
Oh COME ON, not again… weren’t they happy enough when they took One Missed Call or even Ju-on >.> I have a feeling this movie is going to make me sad as I loved A Tale of Two Sisters. And btw Ross, Miike is one of my favorite directors, Audition was just… it was awesome. I always knew I couldn’t trust the quiet ones.