David Harley has sent in his official review for Paramount Home Entertainment’s Blu-ray release of The Uninvited, their remake of the Korean horror film A Tale of Two Sisters that’s available now at retailers everywhere. While the movie gets a mixed review, can the extra features and high def quality give the release more of a pop? Read on and find out.
After a second viewing, my thoughts on The Uninvited (review) haven’t changed a bit. It’s still one of the better Asian horror remakes, boasting solid performances and an old-school haunted house film atmosphere with a bizarre visual or two thrown in for good measure. It’s just a shame that it’s not as complex or involving as the original and never breaks away from its straight forward, formulaic approach to the source material.

Dreamworks’ Blu-Ray release has a very solid 1080p encode, although the outdoor scenes tend to be darker than they should with a slightly overcast appearance to them that wasn’t apparent in theatrical prints. The interior shots are extremely detailed and crisp looking, with floorboard splinters and furniture textures being noticeable and prominent. Colors look natural, especially flesh tones and blacks, and the transfer never tries to compensate for the limited color scheme of the film by boosting them up to overly pronounced levels. The TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack really plays off of the film’s atmosphere, delivering a great surround sound experience. There are a lot of low key, subtle sounds used in the film – creaking floorboards and a ringing bell – and the sound mix properly presents them without making them overpowering. It also uses the soft musical tones and loud, jarring pieces that accompany the few jump scares in even proportions on the front and rear speaker channels.

The biggest disappointment with the disc is the pointless and, well, rather uninteresting bonus features that Dreamworks decided to throw on at, presumably, the last minute. How about an analysis of the film from the directors’ perspective? The behind-the-scenes is a bunch of floating head interviews that don’t reveal anything really noteworthy, save for some on-set stories and some indication there was actual thought put into the changes between the original and remake, although they never get past saying the original is hard to comprehend and they needed to make it palatable for modern American audiences. The film isn’t dumb but they make it sound that way with their explanation.

Special Features

Unlocking The Uninvited (19:00) – A fairly standard behind-the-scenes segment, with the directors, writers and producers talking about their impressions of A Tale of Two Sisters and the approach they took in remaking it. Cast members are interviewed at great length and the differences between The Uninvited and ATOTS are briefly mentioned – again, I would have loved to hear a reason for the changes besides for, “The original was hard to follow.” Aside from a gratuitous amount of spoilers, this EPK is exactly what you’d expect it to be: a bunch of people sitting around and scratching each other’s backs.

Deleted Scenes (5:37) – The four scenes presented here don’t offer up anything revelatory, though they do explore the relationships between Anna, Alex and Rachael a bit more. And, if you’re into Emily Browning and Arielle Kebbel, there’s an extended scene here with them walking around in their bathing suits. So, there you go.

Alternate Ending (0:50) – It’s fifty-seconds long, so don’t expect anything mind-boggling. The main twist of the movie isn’t affected by this snippet and it’s hardly worth watching unless you felt the second and less impactful twist thrown in during the last few moments of the theatrical cut was a little too obvious and you’d prefer to see it presented a little more subtly.

Film: 3/5
Blu-Ray: 2.5/5