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 tendency to pull horror punches in order to retain the 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 new girlfriend (Elizabeth Banks) to her family. With the help of her sister (Arielle Kebbel), the two look for explanations into haunting images Anna is seeing, and the background of the new girlfriend. The ending delivers a big twist that is somewhat effective, but directors the Guard brothers often resort to cheap parlor tricks for their scares. Browning is decent, and Banks does some interesting work with a tough role that makes her look like a bad actress before the big reveal.