The Eye (2008)

I must confess that I have not seen the original The Eye, the J-Horror film from 2002 that was written and directed by Danny and Oxide Pang, but I decided to role the dice on the 2008 remake, helmed by another duo, David Moreau and Xavier Palud. I was hesitant for two reasons. The first being that in recent times, the remakes of Asian horror films don’t translate too well with audiences, even if they are well crafted in tone and the surreal. For every Ring or Grudge there’s at least at least a hundred One Missed Calls, or so it would seem. The second is the new Eye film stars Jessica Alba.

For a long time I had been taking it easy when judging Jessica’s acting skills. For some of the time, she is alright, nothing great except in looks. For another half of her films she has done, she is horrible, except, of course, for her looks. I do admire her for her convictions, and even a bit of her pride. In recent years her acting in films has become nothing more less pleasing than hearing nails drag on a chalkboard; each film she does happens to be worse than the last. In those bad films, her acting is generally something that is singled out. That appears to have been the case with The Eyeand the problem with that is…she’s actually alright in the film. Nothing really great, nothing really bad. Her looks are fine.

The main problem of The Eye is that once the film establishes the creepy sometimes intentionally blurry images of angels of death escorting the recently departed, it quickly lets go of this concept, opting more for seeing dead spirits (and places!) overall. Then it switches yet again to premonitions and the more engaging concepts of “mirrored self-misidentification”. When it all sinks in, it feels unsatisfactory and underwhelming, despite many times being effective in the visual style. There are many unanswered questions, and questions answered that were never asked. The film doesn’t spend too much time identifying the spirits that torment Sydney Wells (Alba), or what their connection to the story is, save three (a young cancer patient, a victim of a car accident, a sick elderly woman), and all the other ghosts are simply just there to look creepy and give false starts and scares. Equally underused is the supporting cast, namely Parker Posey and Rade Serbedzija; while Alessandro Nivola’s character, therapist Paul Faulkner, is fine until the film’s third act where he is only used in an contrived manner.

For what does work in the film, it’s just enough to peak interest. But the film simply isn’t brave enough to really scare you, and lead Jessica isn’t brave enough to convince anyone her character was blind, let alone see dead people.

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The Eye (2008)
Directed by: David Moreau and Xavier Palud

Starring: Jessica Alba, Parker Posey, Alessandro Nivola, Fernanda Romero and Rade Serbedzija

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