A Tale of Two Sisters

Kim Jee-woon's chilling Korean gothic tale puts a modern spin on some of the standard elements of classic horror stories. Set in an appropriately gloomy old house in which even the floral wallpaper seems to ooze menace, it even features a wicked stepmother. Young, icily beautiful Eun-joo (Yeom Jeong-ah) is hardly the cackling old hag of fairy tales, but she takes no less delight in torturing her stepdaughters. Kim effectively brings out the hidden terrors that children's imaginations can bring to ordinary domestic objects like wardrobes and sinks, only in his film, some of those terrors are more than figments. Like fellow contemporary horror masters Hideo Nakata (The Ring) and M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense), Kim gets the goose bumps going with a constant feeling of creeping dread and finishes with a satisfyingly macabre plot twist. A Tale of Two Sisters never deviates from the age-old conventions of horror movies, but it hits its marks exceedingly well. ~ Tom Vick, All Movie Guide