Review of A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) by Matt R — 12 May 2009

Welcome to "A Tale Of Two Sisters" which could accurately be described as one brain-fuck of a film. Of course, that only peaks my interest in the film and I picked this one up.

What "A Tale Of Two Sisters" does best is bring out the psychological horror of a dysfunctional family living in a 'haunted' house. By the end, you (and myself for that matter) wasn't sure 100% of what exactly was going on due to the fact that the filmmakers decided it was a necessity that viewers have to piece the haggard story together themselves without the handicap of the American film industry to dumb it down and straight up tell us. THANK YOU! That's what I loved about this one! You can interpret it a hundred different ways (who's the ghost? what did or did not happen to the step mother during the entire length of the film?) and the process of receiving all the clues and details is a joy ride.

Besides the A+ storytelling portion of "A Tale Of Two Sisters" we have some solid but not all that original performances from almost all the actors. Keeping the cast small helped a lot to focus on how they fit with the over-arching story and they did well enough to get the point across.

One of the things that might bother some viewers is that this film uses silence as a weapon. The counter-balance of almost no score or music through the entire film and the sudden bursts of sound effect or music builds a nice atmosphere for the creepiness of that house (with its insane wall paper scheme!) and the house itself almost becomes this dark thing within the film. Seriously, the indoor garden in the glass room was very creepy! So expect a lot of built tension instead of jump scares or heavy gore to get you to shit your pants.

It's a solid film and a definite for those who are more into alternative feeling films. It almost doesn't feel horror (despite the ghost elements) and more like a psychological thriller but it works nicely and the amazing story is a beauty to watch unfold. Like some demented brain-fuck butterfly.