#7. A Tale of Two Sisters | 2003 | South Korea

After spending time in a mental hospital, a girl is reunited with her sister and returns home, only to see some truly strange events start to happen.

A Tale of Two Sisters goes the furthest of any Asian horror film in proving that Asian horror films are the only horror films you really need to watch. As someone who has grown to love Asian chillers, and as someone who lives for those precious moments when a film actually surprises with a twist ending that I didn’t see coming, I was totally blindsided by this film’s intricate plotting.

Where Tale shines is its ability to subvert expectations and change directions. This film truly keeps you on your toes and keeps you guessing with every decision the film makes. I can totally see where anyone reviewing this film has to remain frustratingly vague in regard to its psychological underpinnings. It is so solid in its construction, so consistent in its tone and is so beautifully paranoid and disorienting in the atmosphere this film creates.

A Tale of Two Sisters is so much more than a film. It’s an artistic masterpiece. It is so masterful that the US even tried to recreate its magic with a film called The Uninvited. However, that film failed to capture the sheer tension and unease that this film crafts. At twenty years old, this Korean masterpiece is still spooky and unsettling in the most pleasant of ways. For those who love a great film that keeps you guessing, I cannot recommend this piece of art highly enough.