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Video Sewer now realizes what’s been missing from life - the Art-House Horror Film. This little genre seems to get the most massaging from France (In My Skin, Haute Tension etc.) but with the increasing popularity of Asian and other foreign horror we can now rest assured that in another 10 years or so Americans might try it again. Even though many of the latest and greatest from the Far East are mostly straight-ahead (if not extremely well done) horror movies, it comes as a pleasant surprise to scope A Tale of Two Sisters, a film firmly in the Art-House vein. This South Korean effort melds a traditional Korean fable with Ringu-style shivers to make something you won’t feel guilty or stupid to watch, but will still have you checking closets carefully before turning out the lights. Soo-mi arrives home from a recent stay in the loony-bin with her sister Soo-yeon in tow. Soo-mi immediately clashes with her new step-mother, finds little help from her distant father, and struggles in vain to protect her feeble sister from the machinations of their seemingly haunted house. Even step-mom Eun-joo quickly acknowledges that since the sisters arrived strange things have been happening. What’s a dysfunctional family to do with slime-covered girls cowering under the sink and an uninvited cleaning lady with a severe crick in her neck crawling around while futilely scrubbing the floor? Though the scares in Two Sisters aren’t as monolithic as those in Juon: The Curse (for instance) they’re still creepy enough to have you shivering with delight. And on the other hand you’re presented with a richly layered, nearly impenetrable plot of secrets, and the most sumptuous design of any horror movie of the last two decades. The frightening and richly detailed wallpapers (just one of many gorgeous set designs) echo the Byzantine plot, while elegantly framed shots and camera moves punch up the subtly burning performances of the cast. A Tale of Two Sisters is as much a study of the feelings of alienation and betrayal that adolescent girls endure on their path to adulthood as it is another lesson in the atmospheric scares that a talented director can get from a long-haired ghost with scoliosis. It’s highly recommended as one of those fright-flicks that goes the extra mile. DVD features: The Tartan Video Asia Extreme 2-disk set of A Tale of Two Sisters comes with more extras than you can shake a suddenly spasming hand at, so I won’t even bother to list them. Suffice it to say that if you like collecting these types of films, you can’t do much better than buying this set.
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