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).
It’s a simple enough premise: Kristin Scott Thomas stars as Juliette, a woman who is reunited with her sister after being away for an extended period of time. The plot works as more of a skeleton since Claudel seems more interested in the intricacies of the relationships and the nuance of the acting to move the film along than in the story itself (though that’s not to say that the story is lacking either) and the result is a quietly powerful film about friendship, family and sisterhood.
Carl Laudan’s film shares the story of a mother and daughter dealing with the most recent round of abuse. Having seen enough, Josephine, the young girl, calls the police and the pair is taken to a women’s shelter where, over the course of what appears to be a few days, the two bond and make a life change. Worry not, this isn’t some sugar coated story instead, Katherine Schlemmer’s script keeps things moving along briskly and realistically and mixed into Josephine and her mother’s story are observations on society, friendship, the hardships facing women breaking the cycle of abuse (beyond simply walking away to begin with) and the issues of funding which plague social support groups. 
I was following a young couple into the theater (drats!), far enough behind to spot them coming in the door and standing at the tier of seats and looking on. A flash: this only happens when the theater is full; it’s the planning stage before attack. Just how full is this place? I turned the corner and took a look for myself. Thirty minutes before the scheduled movie start and the screening room was nearly full. And these didn’t look like cast offs from 
