DVD Release Date: June 3, 2008
Theatrical Release Date: February 1, 2008
Rating: PG-13 (for violence/terror and disturbing content)
Genre: Horror
Run Time: 97 min.
Director: David Moreau, Xavier Palud
Actors: Jessica Alba, Allesandro Nivola, Parker Posey, Chloe Moretz, Rachel Ticotin, Obba Babatunde
If it’s Super Bowl weekend, it must be time for another remake of an Asian horror film. Last year, Super Bowl weekend brought the release of The Messengers, a failed American remake of a Hong Kong film, minus the atmospheric chills. Now comes The Eye, a remake of a film directed by Danny and Oxide Pang, the filmmaking duo who came to America and made … The Messengers.
The Eye, directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud, makes the Pang brothers 0 for 2 in American films they directed or that were remade from their original work. It’s deadly dull—worse than the tepid Messengers—and should vanish quickly.
Jessica Alba stars as Sydney Wells, a blind violinist who undergoes a cornea transplant that allows her to see more than she expects. In addition to the blurry images of her doctor (Obba Babatunde), older sister (Parker Posey) and specialist (Allesandro Nivola), Sydney sees spiritual beings who scream and howl at her when noticed. They don’t want to be seen. They just want to do their job: escorting the spirit of the dead to their place in the afterlife.
Released from the hospital, Sydney tells her sister, who feels some responsibility for the loss of Sydney’s sight, that she wants to live on her own. But something won’t leave Sydney alone. At home, she’s tormented by images of people perishing in fires, and by the repeated sight of a frightened young boy who can’t find his report card. When people stop walking into her and begin walking through her, she realizes she can see dead people. What to do?
The spiritual “escorts” continue to torment Sydney, who can’t convince anyone that her visions are anything more than post-surgery artifacts, sure to pass as she continues to recover. The doctor overseeing her progress, who insists that Sydney’s visions are the result of her brain’s inability to process new visual stimuli, gradually becomes convinced that there’s more to the story. As Sydney’s desperation grows, he risks his medical license to travel to the Mexican village that was home to the donor of Sydney’s corneas. Had the donor been tormented during her life? Is she trying to tell Sydney about a traumatic event that took place in the village?