We all love a good scare, and some of us like a nice bucket of blood to go with it, but horror fans can't live on fright alone alone. Sometimes we just need a little something extra, something like... well, like two ridiculously beautiful girls menaced by an equally lovely, albeit wicked, stepmother! Don't believe us? Feast your eyes on the slideshow of stills we've concocted for you below from The Uninvited, due out in theaters on January 30th and starring the hot young actresses Emily Browning and Arielle Kebbel, along with Slither's Elizabeth Banks as their icy stepmom. And when you're done checking these images out, put your eyes back in your head and read on after the jump for our exclusive interview with Browning!

Call me a fetishist, but there's something about an Australian accent. Something about the way it possesses all the smarts and sophistication of a British brogue and slaps on a thick layer of down-home, down-under sauciness. Of course, the Aussie accent's always most appealing when it's coming from someone like Emily Browning, the gorgeous young star of such films as Ghost Ship, Darkness Falls, A Series of Unfortunate Events – and now this month's The Uninvited. A remake of the much-acclaimed Korean horror film A Tale of Two Sisters (itself based on an old folktale), the film, stars the twenty-year-old Browning as Anna, a young woman reunited with her sister Alex (played by the equally fetching Arielle Kebbel) after a stay in a mental hospital. Their reunion is threatened, however, by their wicked stepmother (played by Elizabeth Banks), and a ghost in their aloof father's (The Spiderwick Chronicles' David Strathairn) house. We recently chatted with Browning on the phone from her home in Australia, and she told us about her love of zombie films, her inexplicable fear of chickens, and her plans for the future. Unfortunately, they don't involve reading me ghost stories every night before I go to bed. Ah well, a guy can dream…

Like A Tale of Two Sisters, The Uninvited's a hard film to discuss without spoiling the surprises.

Yes indeed!

But how would you describe it for those unfamiliar with the story?

It's about Anna, played by myself, a girl who has come home from a stint at a mental institution that she was put into because she tried to commit suicide after the death of her mother. She comes home to kind of an awkward situation where her father is now dating her mother's old nurse, Rachael. And her sister's kind of angry at her for leaving. Her sister feels as though she went through more, having stayed home with her father, than Anna did in the institution. She was expecting a happy homecoming, but it's an awkward situation where her dad is really more focused on his relationship with Rachael than he is with her. It gets sort of spooky, and Anna feels like the ghost of her mother is trying to tell her something. From there it gets to the point where you can't really say that much [laughs] about it, because you don't want to give too much away.

Have you seen the original film on which this one is based?

Yeah, I have. I saw it a really long time ago. I saw it quite a bit before I did the film. I wanted to watch it again when we were doing the film, and the directors were sort of like, "Hmmm… maybe...don't watch it." I don't know why they didn't want me watching it. I think maybe because there's so many fans of the film, and a lot of people don't want you to do the remake. A lot of people want you to make it close to the original film, and I think maybe the directors thought that we would be freaking out if it was so different, and wanting to change so much. I haven't actually seen it for a very long time.

Again, without spoiling things, you have a rather unique role in this. What was the most challenging part for you as an actress?

The most challenging? It was really difficult. There's a lot I can't give away, but it was almost as though we were filming two different movies. You have to really concentrate on every little tiny thing said, and every thing that you've alluded to, because you have to film what's really happening in the movie, and then you have to film what you want the audience to think. Then, at the end, the audience has to go back and watch the film again and see that both movies really make sense. That was really difficult. Also pretty tricky was the horror….really, really emotional scenes. It was difficult having to run around in the forest and scream all the time. You're spending all this energy, physically and emotionally. It was pretty tough.

Having done this film and several others within this genre, do you consider yourself a horror fan?

It's weird. I am. I have some horror films that I'm a fan of. They're not necessarily my favorite sort of films, but for some reason I've been drawn to scripts of that nature, and I guess people feel it's something that I'm reasonably good at. I don't know. It's odd. It's sort of happened by accident. It's only been recently that I've been getting into horror films a little bit more. But I just sort of fell into that genre.

We have a question we like to ask everyone we speak with -- in real life, what's your greatest fear?

Oh dear. [Laughs.] I have sort of a legitimate fear and sort of a ridiculous fear. I'm terrified of needles, which I know is really, really common and boring. But to the point that the last time I got a blood test I had to be given sleeping pills, because I was freaking out so much. That's kind of an embarrassing fact. [Laughs.] And also, a sort of ridiculous fear—I'm absolutely terrified of chickens. That sounds like the stupidest thing in the world, but I see a chicken and I just freak out. I think they're the creepiest things I've ever seen in my life. [Laughs.] I don't know why, I'm just really, really terrified of them. There's two kinds of lame fears!

No, no. Too many people are afraid of obvious things like spiders.

Yeah, I know. Spiders don't really bother me. [Laughs.]

Getting back to the film – have you seen the final cut of The Uninvited yet?

I haven't. I haven't even seen it. I've been in Australia the whole time, and there's been no opportunity for a screening. I'm kind of hoping someone sends me a DVD or something, because it would kind of help in these interviews. I'd really like to see it. It was so long ago that we made the movie that it's sometimes tough to answer questions. No, I haven't seen the finished product yet.

Unlike a lot of popular Asian thrillers, A Tale of Two Sisters didn't generate a sequel, for reasons obvious to those who've seen it. Of course such obvious reasons haven't stopped horror filmmakers before. Do you think it's possible for this remake to spawn a sequel?

I think it would be too difficult, absolutely. I kind of don't mind that, because I've never really been a big fan of the idea of sequels to any film that I do. I kind of have a short attention span, and once I've done four or five months of one character, I kind of like to move away from it and then revisit it when I'm doing press for the film. Yeah, I've never really liked the idea of doing sequels. I just think it would be impossible. The only way they could make it is to make an absolutely ridiculous film. I really don't think it will be happening.

So no Tale of Three Sisters then? [Laughs.]

I don't think so. [Laughs.] Although we joked about that. Because there were two brothers directing the film, we also joked that the next film would be about them – A Tale of Two Brothers. [Laughs.] I don't think it will be happening.

What will be next for you? What are you working on now?

Well, I'm really not like most actors in general. I know a lot of people just want to be working back to back. I'm kind of in a transitional phase at the moment, where I'm really not sure what I want to be doing. I know I want to keep acting, but I have, like, a billion other things that I want to do. I really want to go to university. And I haven't really done anything [lately], and I'm not sure what to do next. I've been really picky. There's been a few other opportunities, but none of them have really grabbed me, and so I'm kind of waiting. I really want to do a film in Australia again, because I haven't done one in so long. But there's nothing really that's exciting. At the moment, I'm not really bothered. I would be absolutely fine if I did a movie every four years. I know it makes my agents crazy. [Laughs.] Yeah, it's not my number one love. I have a lot of other things that I enjoy doing.

It would be great to do a couple of films this year, because then I could really take a while off, and go to university full time. That's my dream. But for that to happen, it has to be a good enough film, do you know what I mean? It's bad that I'm being so picky, but I think it'll make me feel better in the end.

Definitely. Again, getting back to this film, do you have a favorite scary moment from it? Or a moment you think will audiences will especially enjoy?

I suppose it's kind of obvious, but, well, I suppose the twist. I don't even really know if it's good to say that there is a twist. But when everything sort of comes unraveled, I think, at the end, is my favorite moment. I think it looks pretty good. It's the only thing I've seen cut together even vaguely. So, yeah.

Can you talk a little bit about working with David Strathairn and Elizabeth Banks? What was that on-set dynamic like?

Yeah, sure. It was weird, I didn't really get to work with them as much as I would have liked to. There's many scenes where it was just me, but I really wished some of the other three cast members were there with me. Working with Arielle was amazing, because we just got along so well. David is just… I guess at first it's really intimidating, because he's really amazing. He's just really cool, and he's extremely dry. When you first meet people, you're trying to find out what they're like and trying to be a little bit funny. You feel a little bit insecure, and you try to make them laugh. And he's not the sort of person who will give you that. He's kind of really dry. It was a tough film to work on. But after a while… he offered myself and my boyfriend his car so we could get away for a weekend. He's one of the sweetest guys ever. It's always awesome to find that with someone that you really respect. And Elizabeth was awesome. She's hilarious. It's really cool that she's able to make a film like this, and then sort of snap out of her character and be just extremely funny and witty. We were really lucky with a cast like this, because there's only four of us, and we're working really closely. It was just kind of lucky that we got along. Because if we didn't like [each other] it would have really sucked.

How about your directors—Thomas and Charles Guard? Since they themselves are very close siblings, did this seem to be an especially personal story for them?

I think it definitely helped them to understand that it was really important to get that sibling dynamic and that sibling bond correct. I mean, it was really important that Arielle and I seemed exactly like sisters. We went out beforehand, and we had a million rehearsals, and we just got really close before the film. That was definitely something that was made better by the fact that they were brothers. Because they kind of understood that. But, as I said, it was kind of a draining film to work on, because we were doing so much. It was kind of good that there were two of them, because they pretty much always wanted the same thing. I never saw them fight. They wanted the same thing from us, but sometimes one of them would come up to talk and the other one would sit down and do everything else. I think it was really cool that there were two of them.

One last question: Earlier you remarked there are some horror films you're a fan of – what are they?

In terms of genre, I think I'm kind of attracted to zombie films. In terms of recent zombie films, I really like 28 Days Later. I really like Dawn of the Dead. I don't know if anyone else did, but I really liked it. My boyfriend's a film student, and so he's been studying Romero recently, so we watched Night of the Living Dead. I'm really interested in watching a few more of those old ones. And I studied Hitchcock when I was twelve.

You have excellent taste.

Thank you! [Laughs.] So yeah, I kind of enjoy all the horror films. Again – when you asked me what I'm afraid of – maybe again it's because I'm just a big wuss [laughs], but I don't know if I'm so much into the super gory. I feel like this film is not super-duper gory, it's more of a horror/thriller.

Thank you for your time, Emily.

You're welcome!