The Uninvited

This American remake of South Korea’s A Tale of Two Sisters isn’t altogether horrible, but it does suffer from the Hollywood mainstream tendency to pull horror punches in order to retain the commercial box office-friendly PG-13 rating. Emily Browning stars as Anna, a troubled young woman dealing with the aftermath of her mother’s death, and the rapid addition of her father’s (David Strathairn) new girlfriend (Elizabeth Banks) to her family. With the help of her sister (Arielle Kebbel), the two look for explanations into the haunting images Anna sees, and the background of the new girlfriend. The ending delivers a big twist that is somewhat effective, but directing brothers Charles and Thomas Guard often resort to cheap parlor tricks for their scares. Browning is decent, and Banks does some interesting work with a tough role that sort of makes her look like a bad actress before the big reveal.