Writer: Sebastian Gutierrez (Screenplay) Yuet-Jan Hui, Oxide Chun Pang, Danny Pang (Original Screenplay)
Starring: Jessica Alba, Alessandro Nivola, Parker Posey, Rade Serbedzija, Fernanda Romero, Rachel Ticotin, Chloe Grace Moretz
Plot: A woman receives an eye transplant that allows her to see into the supernatural world.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Not as Bad as I Remember
Story: The Eye starts as we meet blind violinist Sydney Wells (Alba) who is about to get a cornea transplant giving her sight back for the first time since she was five. With the operation being a success, Sydney along with her sister Helen (Posey) must work together as the change takes effect with the vision taking time to return.
Sydney now must learn to see once again but with horrific visions make her start to question herself, she has a DR Paul Faulkner (Nivola) who comes along to help her with these new experiences but he can only help with the reality of seeing again, not the supernatural side of things.
As the nightmares and visions become more realistic Sydney finds herself walking the thin line between paranoia and reality as she finds herself investigating these visions to learn the truth about the eyes she has been inherited.
Thoughts on The Eye
Characters/Performance – Sydney is given the chance to see once again but dealing with the new eyes makes her question everything in her day as she is given the chance to witness the living being taken by the reaper. I have a lot of questions about this character because we never learn her job which must have been limited because of her blindness, there is an origin to why she is blind to which we don’t get to see either and I feel most of the development of this character is very poor. Dr Faulkner is an average forgettable doctor who doesn’t even fill the romantic love interest and the sister well why is she even in this movie?
The performances are fine Jessica Alba does well without shining but the rest of the cast just doesn’t seem to fit in the film enough.
Story – The idea that when you get a transplant your body could change has been proven so why not mix this up into a horror film, well the Chinese thought this would be a good story too. This is the remake of that story, so we know the story is very similar and interesting to see unfold because this film isn’t about a big body count like other horrors, it is the ghost mystery which is something I do always have a soft spot for and does keep you guessing along the way.
Horror/Mystery – The horror side of this movie is nearly all jump scares as the film doesn’t reach the true levels of the original, the mystery side of things is what keeps us going through to see where it all ends up going.
Settings – The settings just don’t work for this film, you can’t understand how Sydney is in the location she lives in without learning about her job.
Special Effects – Here is an iffy part of the film, the special effects which you can see being added with the CGI.
Final Thoughts – While I do think the original is scarier, this is a simple to follow and easy horror to watch for all that would be watching.
Overall: Remake which works but doesn’t reach the same levels.
Rating