Scan and Pan
Monday, February 11, 2008
The Eye
Violinist Sydney Wells (Jessica Alba) has been blind since a childhood accident. Now an adult, she undergoes a successful cornea implant operation and has to learn how to use her sense of sight all over again. She also begins to see things and people that no one else does. Is she losing her mind or do her new corneas allow her to peer into the world of the supernatural? With the help of sympathetic therapist Paul (Alessandro Nivola), she begins a journey to discover the source of her visions.
The original film, a Hong Kong-Singaporean-Thai co-production directed by the Pang Brothers, was a highly effective chiller. I watched it at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2003, and it's the only screening of a horror film I remember attending where someone in the audience bolted out of his seat, ran out of the cinema, and never returned.
This remake, directed by the team of David Moreau and Xavier Palud (Ils), is inferior in every way and lacks the sheer creepiness of the original, proving once again that there's more to remaking a scary film than having access to a larger budget and fancy CGI effects. It's not enough to make a technically proficient film, the filmmakers also have to remember to scare people, and scares are one thing wholly lacking here. While the screenplay by Sebastian Gutierrez (Gothika, Snakes on a Plane) is generally faithful to the original by Jojo Hui and the Pangs in the details, it just doesn't work very well. The characters are less developed and too many things are spelled out instead of leaving some ambiguity.
I recently re-watched two of my favorite Asian horror films, Shutter and A Tale of Two Sisters, and even though I knew exactly when the ghosts would appear and what they would do, both films were as terrifying to me as they were on first viewing. So it wasn't my familiarity with the original that made The Eye a poor viewing experience, it was how poorly executed the remake is.
The contributions of cinematographer Jeffrey Jur (Dirty Dancing, My Big Fat Greek Wedding) are polished and effectively allow the audience to experience the world the way the protagonist does as she regains her vision. The score by Marco Beltrami (Live Free or Die Hard, 3:10 to Yuma) is dead center average for a horror film.
The cast is uninspired at best verging on awful at times, including Alba as Sydney, Nivola as Paul, Parker Posey in a very disappointing turn as Sydney's sister, Rade Serbedzija as the conductor of the orchestra Sydney works for, Rachel Ticotin as a woman in Mexico who may have the answers Sydney needs, Obba Babatundé as the eye surgeon, Danny Mora as the doorman at the building Sydney lives in, and Tamlyn Tomita as Sydney's neighbor. It leads one to believe that poor direction is largely to blame for this state of affairs, because the actors I'm familiar with have done much better before.
The Eye is further evidence that Hollywood is unable to succeed with the kind of horror films that Asian filmmakers in particular seem to do so well. Other than The Ring, they've all been hugely disappointing. Don't bother with The Eye unless you want to be bored by what you see.
[1.5 out of 5 stars]
Dear Hollywood, please stop with the inferior remakes of Asian horror films already. Dear American filmgoers, please stop being afraid of good films because they have subtitles and just see the originals.
Violinist Sydney Wells (Jessica Alba) has been blind since a childhood accident. Now an adult, she undergoes a successful cornea implant operation and has to learn how to use her sense of sight all over again. She also begins to see things and people that no one else does. Is she losing her mind or do her new corneas allow her to peer into the world of the supernatural? With the help of sympathetic therapist Paul (Alessandro Nivola), she begins a journey to discover the source of her visions.
The original film, a Hong Kong-Singaporean-Thai co-production directed by the Pang Brothers, was a highly effective chiller. I watched it at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2003, and it's the only screening of a horror film I remember attending where someone in the audience bolted out of his seat, ran out of the cinema, and never returned.
This remake, directed by the team of David Moreau and Xavier Palud (Ils), is inferior in every way and lacks the sheer creepiness of the original, proving once again that there's more to remaking a scary film than having access to a larger budget and fancy CGI effects. It's not enough to make a technically proficient film, the filmmakers also have to remember to scare people, and scares are one thing wholly lacking here. While the screenplay by Sebastian Gutierrez (Gothika, Snakes on a Plane) is generally faithful to the original by Jojo Hui and the Pangs in the details, it just doesn't work very well. The characters are less developed and too many things are spelled out instead of leaving some ambiguity.
I recently re-watched two of my favorite Asian horror films, Shutter and A Tale of Two Sisters, and even though I knew exactly when the ghosts would appear and what they would do, both films were as terrifying to me as they were on first viewing. So it wasn't my familiarity with the original that made The Eye a poor viewing experience, it was how poorly executed the remake is.
The contributions of cinematographer Jeffrey Jur (Dirty Dancing, My Big Fat Greek Wedding) are polished and effectively allow the audience to experience the world the way the protagonist does as she regains her vision. The score by Marco Beltrami (Live Free or Die Hard, 3:10 to Yuma) is dead center average for a horror film.
The cast is uninspired at best verging on awful at times, including Alba as Sydney, Nivola as Paul, Parker Posey in a very disappointing turn as Sydney's sister, Rade Serbedzija as the conductor of the orchestra Sydney works for, Rachel Ticotin as a woman in Mexico who may have the answers Sydney needs, Obba Babatundé as the eye surgeon, Danny Mora as the doorman at the building Sydney lives in, and Tamlyn Tomita as Sydney's neighbor. It leads one to believe that poor direction is largely to blame for this state of affairs, because the actors I'm familiar with have done much better before.
The Eye is further evidence that Hollywood is unable to succeed with the kind of horror films that Asian filmmakers in particular seem to do so well. Other than The Ring, they've all been hugely disappointing. Don't bother with The Eye unless you want to be bored by what you see.
[1.5 out of 5 stars]
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