Overall Rating
  Awesome: 59.78%
Worth A Look: 22.83%
Average: 6.52%
Pretty Bad: 8.7%
Total Crap: 2.17%
5 reviews, 62 user ratings
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| Tale of Two Sisters, A |
by Jason Whyte
"'Spoooooky.....Spooooooooky!'"
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Here is proof that it's still cool to go see a good horror movie in a packed, wound up audience, the thrills hitting right where they should, the cinema patrons going completely bonkers. "A Tale Of Two Sisters", hailing from South Korea, is about two very very spooked sisters, and is simply so creepy, so beautifully well made and so cryptic that it deserves to become a cult classic...and probably never will. And the audience that I saw it with was wonderful.But more on that later. I had so much fun with "A Tale of Two Sisters" from its delightful creepy moments, to the horrific performances of the leads, right down to the atmospheric production design, which stands on a world of its own. The house that occupies "Two Sisters" is ominous; we never know what is RIGHT around that corner. Or that one. Or what is lurking under that fridge. (I'm getting goose bumps now just writing this.)
The setup involves two ailing sisters (Im Soo-Jung and Moon Geun-Young) returning from the hospital to their country home, only to be greeted by her eccentric stepmother Eunjoo (played by the lovely Yeomg Jeong-A, whose right eye always seems to be obscured by her hair). Of course, they don't get along, and their fighting and bickering eventually turns worse. Oh, and they are living in a Gothic house, and nothing is really what it is supposed to be.
Maybe a lot of this doesn't make sense, and there are plot contrivances abound, but so what: from the nighttime spooks that occur while the characters sleep, or the sequence where the wicked stepmother is slowly looking under the kitchen table for that hidden creeper, "A Tale of Two Sisters" feels fresh and inventive right until the end, conjuring up plentiful scares and twists that somehow, after every horror film I've seen, still work in 2003. To call this fun is a massive understatement: it's a blast. And, of course, the American rights have already been purchased for a remake, a'la "The Ring" (which I wasn't a fan of) and I'm more than positive that it will not hold a candle. Shocked?The audience was THRILLED by this movie, screaming at the sudden jolts and biting their nails in suspense in the quieter scenes, which are equal in atmosphere. I could feel a complete shiver come from the audience, and you know what? It was deserved. I normally don't mention audience experiences in my reviews, but it was a welcome pleasure. "A Tale of Two Sisters" may not be on my best of 2003 list, but it is certainly a memorable horror picture in a sea of too many PG-13 horror flicks.
 del.icio.us 
link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=8251&reviewer=350
originally posted: 10/08/03 16:29:27
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OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2003 Vancouver Film Festival. For more in the 2003 Vancouver Film Festival series, click here.
OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2004 Philadelphia Film Festival. For more in the 2004 Philadelphia Film Festival series, click here.
OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2004 Seattle Film Festival. For more in the 2004 Seattle Film Festival series, click here.
OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2004 Tribeca Film Festival. For more in the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival series, click here.
OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2004 Boston Fantastic Film Festival. For more in the 2004 Boston Fantastic Film Festival series, click here.
OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2004 Mill Valley Film Festival. For more in the 2004 Mill Valley Film Festival series, click here.
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USA
17-Dec-2004 (R)
DVD: 29-Mar-2005
UK
N/A
Australia
N/A
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