I freely admit that there may already be a thread for this movie, but I couldn’t find one with a Google search of the site, so meh. I’m torn on whether or not to see this. On the one hand, Ebert liked it, and he’s a tough sell when it comes to horror movies, I’ve found. On the other hand, it’s yet another gratuitous Hollywood remake of a classic Asian horror movie - in this case, A Tale of Two Sisters. (If you haven’t seen that one, rush out and see it RIGHT NOW. It is that good.) And the track record on those is abysmal. Especially if you’ve already seen the source material. Also, for some bizarre reason they took the title from an unrelated movie by the same director as the original. Go figure.
But it does sound like they’re making substantial alterations, and if the direction, acting, script, and so forth come together well, that would be worth seeing, unlike even the best shot-by-shot remake.
Unlike with many of the other movies they’ve remade (Grudge, Ring, etc), I actually like the source material, so I think I’ll see it. Seems more like Netflix fodder, though.
“A tale of two sisters” is a great, GREAT, GREAT (yeah, that’s right, I capitalized AND bolded it) movie, in my opinion one of the better to came out of the assian horror films.
This make me… dubious to watch The Uninvited, as I absolutely hated what they did to The Eye and to Kairo, remade as the insipid, stupid, idiotic Pulse.
That said, if Mr. Ebert liked it… well, he seems like a sound dude when it comes to movies so maybe I’ll give it a try. Anyone here already see both of them (orginal and remake) and care to comment? if it’s terribly, would much prefer to be spared the torture.
I checked Metacritic, incidentally. Ebert seems to be the most positive review so far, with many much less laudatory. I wound up seeing other things this weekend. But maybe next week.
The WashPo, which can be rough on films, actually rather liked it. Said it was nothing revolutionary or groundbreaking, just a very nicely and stylishly done horror flick.
I finally saw it. It wasn’t horrible on its own merits, although it wasn’t particularly scary either. They definitely made a bunch of changes to the original plotline, although preserved the central twist. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work nearly as well. The most egregious problem is that they made the sibling into a talkative, cranky older sister. While you can still tell if you’re paying attention that nobody else responds to that sister’s presence, it’s a much harder sell. There are also more characters and they dilute the scares in various ways, whereas the claustrophobic brokenness of the original’s household is pitch perfect.
I’ve seen both the original and the remake.
The original is AWESOME. Juan is not exaggerating with his double-repetition-with-capitals-and-bold.
The remake is… meh. Bland. About what I expected from a remake.
