The Uninvited

SATAN HAS set aside a special corner of Hades for atrocious American remakes of Asian horror films. Indeed, the standard is so low that you feel like hooting for joy when one such beast turns out to be only averagely terrible.

The Uninvitedwas never likely to breathe the same air as Kim Ji-woon's outstanding A Tale of Two Sisters, but, unlike recent calamities such as Mirrorsor The Eye, it's not the type of film that drives the despairing viewer to drink battery acid. That's something.

Simplifying the story somewhat, the Guard brothers’ film details a dispute between two teenage girls and their new, potentially murderous stepmother.

Anna (the bee-sting-lipped Emily Browning) has just been released from a mental institution after dealing badly with her real mom’s death in an explosion. While she’s been away, Alex (the unmemorable Arielle Kebbel) has been watching the late matriarch’s former nurse inveigle her way into their father’s affections. Clattering about the world’s largest house, the girls seek to prove that mummy’s death was not what it seemed.

David Straithairn and Elizabeth Banks, playing dad and killer nurse, raise the tone by doing something that looks a little like acting. In contrast, Browning and Kebbel exhibit the declamatory skills of showroom dummies and the cinematic presence of condensation. Mind you, they are struggling with the feeblest attempt to cover up an obvious final twist since the Greeks put a bridle and stirrups on a big horse.

However, The Uninviteddoes have a clean, well- structured plot that clatters quite speedily to its heavily signposted destination, and there are at least two satisfactory moments of clench-the-armrest surprise. Given the usual standard of these things, we should thank heavens for those tiny mercies.

Directed by Thomas Guard and Charles Guard. Starring Elizabeth Banks, Emily Browning, Arielle Kebbel, David Strathairn 16 cert, gen release, 87 min