ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - January 30th
"THE UNINVITED" released in 2009
Anna Ivers (Emily Browning) returns home to her sister Alex (Arielle
Kebbel) after a stint in a mental hospital, though her recovery is
jeopardized thanks to her cruel stepmother, Rachel (Elizabeth Banks), in
The Guard Brothers adaptation of the K-Horror chiller A Tale of Two
Sisters - The Uninvited!
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After the death of her ill mother in a fire, the young teenager Anna (Browning)tries to commit suicide and is sent to a mental institution for treatment. Ten months later, Anna still cannot remember what had happened on the night her mother died, but her psychiatric Dr. Silberling (Dean Paul Gibson), however, discharges her telling that she has resolved her issues. Her father and successful writer, Steven (David Strathairn), brings her back home in an isolated mansion nearby the coast. Anna finds that her mother's former nurse, Rachel Summers (Banks), is her stepmother now. Anna meets her beloved sister, Alex (Kebbel), swimming in the sea and later discovers that Steven has not delivered the letters and CDs that Alex had sent to her. As time moves on, Anna is haunted by ghosts and increasingly believes that Rachel killed her mother. Alex and Anna decide to look for evidence to prove that Rachel is the murderer and Anna discovers the truth about the fire in the boat house!
Anna: [going through Rachael's stuff] Geez when are they bringing in the stripper pole.
Alex: I know, she's like a crack-whore without the dignity.
Top: Anna and Alex's cruel new stepmother, Rachel (Elizabeth Banks);
Above: Sisters Alex (Arielle
Kebbel) and Anna (Emily Browning) slowly become convinced Rachel had something to do with their mother's death
Since first starting the cycle of Asian horror film adaptations, producers Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald searched for a project they felt was as ingeniously conceived and executed as The Ring - which they produced, along with it's sequel The Ring Two in 2005 - and finally found it when producer Roy Lee brought the Korean film A Tale of Two Sisters to their attention. By that time, A Tale of Two Sisters had been playing in US theaters and directors Tom and Charlie Guard had acquired the English language remake rights. By June 2006, DreamWorks announced that a deal had been set up for the US version of A Tale of Two Sisters, with Parkes, MacDonald and Lee producing, The Guard Brothers directing, with a script by Craig Rosenberg, Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard.
Emily Browning was hired to portray the lead Anna Ivers, after originally auditioning for the role of Alex (the role of Alex would eventually go to actress Arielle Kebbel, making this her second appearance in an Asian horror remake, after co-starring in The Grudge 2). David Strathairn plays the concerned father of the two girls, while Elizabeth Banks was cast as the cruel stepmother Rachel. Banks reportedly based her character Rachel on Rebecca De Mornay in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, stating, "It was very important to me that every line reading I gave could be interpreted two ways," says Banks of her role, "So that when you go back through the movie you can see that."
Emily Browning was hired to portray the lead Anna Ivers, after originally auditioning for the role of Alex (the role of Alex would eventually go to actress Arielle Kebbel, making this her second appearance in an Asian horror remake, after co-starring in The Grudge 2). David Strathairn plays the concerned father of the two girls, while Elizabeth Banks was cast as the cruel stepmother Rachel. Banks reportedly based her character Rachel on Rebecca De Mornay in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, stating, "It was very important to me that every line reading I gave could be interpreted two ways," says Banks of her role, "So that when you go back through the movie you can see that."
TRIVIA: A variation of clever camera angles and forced perspective helped maintain the illusion that Elizabeth Banks was several inches taller than Emily Browning, who, in reality, is only two inches shorter.
Top and Above: Anna starts to see horrifying visions of her dead mother (Maya Massar) as the very real body of her ex-boyfriend Matt (Jesse Moss) is found broken in half!
Although the film is set in Maine, it was shot in Vancouver, British Columbia with most of the film being shot at one location; a waterfront property on British Columbia's Bowen Island, a short ferry ride west from mainland Vancouver. Porucer Parkes later remarked on the shooting location, "We were lucky to find in Canada a place that seemed as if it had been built for our movie. It was perfectly evocative and suggestive of a family that is both welcoming and forbidding. The fact that the house was within 30 miles of Vancouver was a greater plus than the minus of having to get everyone on boats to get them over there; water taxis and ferries are a way of life up there. In fact, I don’t remember ever having a more pleasant time on a location. Getting onto a boat and having a cup of coffee and then going up the little pier and the stairs we built, it focused us. We were isolated with one thing on our minds, which was making this movie. It was great."
Released on January 30th, 2009, The Uninvited was a moderate hit, grossing over $40 million at the box office, but reviews were mostly negative. Critic Jason Di Rosso from ABC Radio National's Movietime wrote the film is "punctuated by a crescendo of unoriginal set pieces designed to make you jump in your seat, but more likely to leave you groaning", while Kim Newman from Empire Magazine reviewed it was a "Poor remake of the Korean thriller." There were some who were more positive in the reviews, such as Nigel Floyd of Time Out who wrote, "As in the original, the film slyly manipulates the audience's perspective, and a brilliantly filmed climactic 'reveal' marks this British duo as a pair to watch." and CinePassion's Fernando F. Croce summed up, "As far as PG-13 Americanizations of Asian shockers go, it's about 70 percent passable". Ali Gray (TheShiznit.co.uk) summed up, "It's not original, it's not especially clever and the twist won't make you want to watch it again, but hey - at least it wasn't The Unborn!"
Released on January 30th, 2009, The Uninvited was a moderate hit, grossing over $40 million at the box office, but reviews were mostly negative. Critic Jason Di Rosso from ABC Radio National's Movietime wrote the film is "punctuated by a crescendo of unoriginal set pieces designed to make you jump in your seat, but more likely to leave you groaning", while Kim Newman from Empire Magazine reviewed it was a "Poor remake of the Korean thriller." There were some who were more positive in the reviews, such as Nigel Floyd of Time Out who wrote, "As in the original, the film slyly manipulates the audience's perspective, and a brilliantly filmed climactic 'reveal' marks this British duo as a pair to watch." and CinePassion's Fernando F. Croce summed up, "As far as PG-13 Americanizations of Asian shockers go, it's about 70 percent passable". Ali Gray (TheShiznit.co.uk) summed up, "It's not original, it's not especially clever and the twist won't make you want to watch it again, but hey - at least it wasn't The Unborn!"
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 32%
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