Hollywood continues to save the planet by recycling successful Asian horror films with this drab English language of Kim Ji-woon’s 2003 supernatural horror, A Tale Of Two Sisters.

Directors Charles and Thomas Guard graduate awkwardly from award-winning shorts to this debut feature, which lingers on the fringes of reality and nightmare.

A climatic sleight of hand is flagged almost from the start and poorly disguised by the Guard brothers, working from a pedestrian screenplay by Craig Rosenberg, Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard.

The film opens with Anna Rydell (Emily Browning) and her boyfriend Matt (Jesse Moss) preparing to take their relationship to the next level at a beach party.

She flees the scene and returns home to her terminally ill mother, Lilian (Maya Massar), who has been consigned to the boathouse and has to ring a bell for assistance.

Strangely, Lilian has been left alone.

Moments later, the entire boathouse explodes.

Ten months pass and Anna emerges from a psychiatric facility where she has been recovering from a suicide attempt.

Her father Stephen (David Strathairn) is delighted to welcome his little girl home but the blissful family reunion is cut short when he reveals that he has a new girlfriend, Rachel (Elizabeth Banks), the mother’s former nurse.

Anna’s older sister Alex (Arielle Kebbel) still harbours resentment, complaining bitterly, ‘I was stuck here with these two while you went off and searched for your inner psycho!’ Thankfully the girls make up with a pinky pact, re-bonding over their shared dislike of the new woman in their old man’s life.

No sooner is Anna back in her childhood home than she begins to experience disturbing visions of her badly burnt mother trying to communicate something from beyond the grave.

The visitations become ever more ‘real’ and poor Anna finally deciphers what her mother is trying to say: the explosion was no accident and the perpetrator is closer than they think.

Determined to expose Rachel as a murderess before she can marry their father, Anna and Alex search for clues without raising the suspicions of their soon-to-be stepmother.

The Uninvited is generic horror hokum devoid of scares and originality, which hinges loosely on the enemy within the theme of The Hand That Rocks The Cradle.

Browning looks suitably perplexed as events unfold around her, often accompanied by mommie dearest crawling out of the darkness, while Banks plays against type as the former caregiver, who reacts angrily to Anna’s covert plans to sabotage her relationship with Stephen.

‘You won’t take this away from me.

I won’t allow it!’ warns Rachel.

The script plods but it’s impossible to discuss the ending or comparisons to a certain spooky blockbuster without ruining the twist, not that there is genuinely much to spoil here.

If The Uninvited requests the pleasure of your company for the night, say you’re washing your hair instead.

• Release Date: Friday 24 April 2009
• Certificate: 15
• Runtime: 87mins

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