(15) 87min

Kim Ji-woon’s Korean horror A Tale of Two Sisters undergoes the Hollywood treatment in this plush-but-empty DreamWorks remake, with Emily Browning and Arielle Kebbel cast as disturbed siblings Anna and Alex Ivers.

The two sisters are reunited when Anna leaves a state mental facility where she’s been coming to terms with her mother’s death in a fire. Soon Anna and Alex find themselves under threat from their father’s new girlfriend Rachel Summers (Elizabeth Banks), who used to be their mother’s nurse, leading the girls to suspect Rachel may actually be child killer Mildred Kemp. This theory is given credence in Anna’s mind by the intervention of a series of ghostly children, leading to a conclusion that mixes The Sixth Sense with The Turn of the Screw, but is unlikely to surprise anyone with more than a couple of J-horror films under their belt.

First time directors Charles and Thomas Guard’s take on the atmospheric Korean original translates into wicked-stepmother cliché, including the fatal error of modelling Rachel on Rebecca de Mornay’s killer nanny in The Hand That Rocked The Cradle, a cinematic affectation which unfortunately signals the direction of The Uninvited’s twist ending from the get go.

General release from Fri 24 Apr.