Last fall, Paramount Pictures invited iF Magazine and a handful of other reporters to visit the set of THE UNINVITED in Vancouver, Canada which is a remake of the Asian horror film A TALE OF TWO SISTERS.

The film focuses on Anna (Emily Browning) who has returned home after a stint in the psycho ward after the death of her mom only to find her mom’s evil nurse Rachel (Elizabeth Banks) has married her dad (David Strathairn). Along with her sister Alex (Arielle Kebbel), the two of them start piecing together a mystery that may reveal her mom’s death was not an accident. Along the way, there’s spooky little kids roaming around, a remote cabin, an integral mystery, and of course scares galore.To visit the set, we were taken by boat to an island in Vancouver, where the production had set up shop. After a tour of the very stylized looking house, several of the cast and crew spoke with the press about making the movie.

While the movie was shrouded in some mystery (we weren’t allowed to see any filming), we did get to talk to the film’s talent about making THE UNINVITED (which opens nationwide this Friday, January 30).

Next up is actresses Kebbel and Browning who were familiar with previous remakes of popular Asian films like THE RING and THE GRUDGE (Kebbel had starred in THE GRUDGE 2) and both made it a point to check out the original A TALE OF TWO SISTERS from which THE UNINVITED is based on.

“I watched it just after I read the original script ages ago and I really liked it,” says Browning. “It was beautifully shot and really cool, but so confusing. So I see why there’s room for a remake. But we’re trying to do it without dumbing it down too much, do you know what I mean? Even though with the first one, I don’t know who has seen the first one, it’s like, I have to actually take breaks from it and sort of just collect myself and figure out what was going on because it’s really confusing. So, I guess that’s why the remake is happening.”

Of course, they also wanted to keep some of the creepiness factor from the original, particularly the close relationship between the two sisters.

“I think we both agreed when we saw it that there was a lot of, like, touching between sisters and a certain, very cool intimacy that they had in their relationship,” says Kebbel. “And it was really important to both of us that we kept that in this in just sort of telling our story and small things that we did.”

Working with Guard Brothers as directors has also been a blast for the actresses, who note they’ve been very diligent about the rehearsal process to get the moments right. And for the actresses part, they’ve been finessing lines to make them sound more like real teenagers.

“’Cause I mean, no matter how good writers are, I always find that it’s really hard for a writer to write a teenage character realistically, and seem like they’re talking, like in a contemporary way,” notes Browning. “And I think they’ve kind of listened to us, because no matter how fantastic this scene is [or] how fantastic the whole storyline is, sometimes the teenage writing is a little bit off.”

As for the type of horror fans will expect to see in THE UNINVITED, Browning says there isn’t much gore.

“It’s more of a thriller – there’s not really any gore in there,” says Browning.Last fall, Paramount Pictures invited iF Magazine and a handful of other reporters to visit the set of THE UNINVITED in Vancouver, Canada which is a remake of the Asian horror film A TALE OF TWO SISTERS.

The film focuses on Anna (Emily Browning) who has returned home after a stint in the psycho ward after the death of her mom only to find her mom’s evil nurse Rachel (Elizabeth Banks) has married her dad (David Strathairn). Along with her sister Alex (Arielle Kebbel), the two of them start piecing together a mystery that may reveal her mom’s death was not an accident. Along the way, there’s spooky little kids roaming around, a remote cabin, an integral mystery, and of course scares galore.

To visit the set, we were taken by boat to an island in Vancouver, where the production had set up shop. After a tour of the very stylized looking house, several of the cast and crew spoke with the press about making the movie.

While the movie was shrouded in some mystery (we weren’t allowed to see any filming), we did get to talk to the film’s talent about making THE UNINVITED (which opens nationwide this Friday, January 30).

Next up is actresses Kebbel and Browning who were familiar with previous remakes of popular Asian films like THE RING and THE GRUDGE (Kebbel had starred in THE GRUDGE 2) and both made it a point to check out the original A TALE OF TWO SISTERS from which THE UNINVITED is based on.

“I watched it just after I read the original script ages ago and I really liked it,” says Browning. “It was beautifully shot and really cool, but so confusing. So I see why there’s room for a remake. But we’re trying to do it without dumbing it down too much, do you know what I mean? Even though with the first one, I don’t know who has seen the first one, it’s like, I have to actually take breaks from it and sort of just collect myself and figure out what was going on because it’s really confusing. So, I guess that’s why the remake is happening.”

Of course, they also wanted to keep some of the creepiness factor from the original, particularly the close relationship between the two sisters.

“I think we both agreed when we saw it that there was a lot of, like, touching between sisters and a certain, very cool intimacy that they had in their relationship,” says Kebbel. “And it was really important to both of us that we kept that in this in just sort of telling our story and small things that we did.”

Working with Guard Brothers as directors has also been a blast for the actresses, who note they’ve been very diligent about the rehearsal process to get the moments right. And for the actresses part, they’ve been finessing lines to make them sound more like real teenagers.

“’Cause I mean, no matter how good writers are, I always find that it’s really hard for a writer to write a teenage character realistically, and seem like they’re talking, like in a contemporary way,” notes Browning. “And I think they’ve kind of listened to us, because no matter how fantastic this scene is [or] how fantastic the whole storyline is, sometimes the teenage writing is a little bit off.”

As for the type of horror fans will expect to see in THE UNINVITED, Browning says there isn’t much gore.

“It’s more of a thriller – there’s not really any gore in there,” says Browning.

Kebbel adds, “the film looks beautiful and I think [the directors] have brought a certain elegance to the film and to the screen.”

Kebbel adds, “the film looks beautiful and I think [the directors] have brought a certain elegance to the film and to the screen.”

Source: IF Magazine