Friday 6 March 2015

The Eye (2008) - Creepy supernatural horror

Looking at the ratings this film receives across the web would certainly put you off watching this film. It is a really creepy film in my opinion filled with a massive ton of absolutely non-predictable jump-scares. When you think about it, how cool but also terrifying would it be to have an eye that allowed you to see supernatural things?
Anyway, the film has varying ratings across the web as you will see below :
  • IMDB - 5.4/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes - 22%
  • Meta Critic - 36%
For me, it is a half-decent film and is genuinely very creepy at numerous points. By the looks of it, it seems as though Rotten Tomatoes and Meta Critic have slaughtered it with their ratings, as I would give it a more appropriate score closer to the IMDB score.

It lasts approximately 98 minutes and is directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud. The violinist Sydney Wells (Jessica Alba) has been blind since she was five years old due to an accident. She submits to a surgery of cornea transplantation to recover her vision, and while recovering from the operation, she realizes that she's having strange visions. With the support of Dr. Paul Faulkner (Alessandro Nivola), Sidney finds who the donor of her eyes and begins a journey to find out the truth behind her visions.

I'm not usually a fan of Japanese/Chinese horrors at all with the exception of Shutter, although I was slightly interested in this film. It is a perfectly strong film in the supernatural thrillers sub-genre for me and contains a bunch of wicked jump-scares which completely caught me off guard. Seriously, I don't understand why there is such a negative glow across the web about this film. Alba in this film is very impressive as well - first class acting. One scene I remember well scared the hell out of me. It was completely unexpected for me and was very random. It occurred in the cafe shop scene near the beginning of the film. It was one of the scariest and most unpredictable moments in the film. Another really scary and creepy scene was the elevator scene. I'm pretty sure everyone that has seen this will know what I'm talking about. Without ruining anything, I must say the elevator scene terrified me.

The Eye is well known for it's numerous unpredictable jump scares, although the film does suffer in some aspects due to its disadvantages. Some scenes to me felt really pointless and made the plot feel weak. Another major limitation in the film is the camera action. Some of the camera angles and shots are very bad, and at some points it is recorded by the looks of someone recording with a camera. Although I previously said that the scares are unpredictable, I must admit that although they were unpredictable to occur at the time, it was very repetitive in that you knew after a few scenes that there was going to be a scare approaching.

Overall, The Eye has an equal amount of advantages and disadvantages in my opinion. Whilst it consists of many jump scares, eerie, and creepy moments, it simply has similar disadvantages. I would recommend this film for anyone who purely loves a 'jumpy' film full of scares. However if you're looking for a slasher or a concrete plot, then this is not for you.

Overall Rating - 5.8/10

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