Jessica Alba stars as Sydney Wells in this remake of the Pang Brothers’ horror hit about a blind musician who receives a cornea transplant only to begin seeing ghosts. It’s up to Sydney and her doctor to find out who her donor was and why she is seeing these horrific images.
I hated the original film, so I was glad to see (no pun intended) that the team behind this remake had really taken their time developing the script. The story whilst similar seemed far more fleshed out than the original (as far as I can remember anyway). Sydney’s struggle to come to terms with her sight and the possibility that she may be making her visions up as a way of not coping made for an interesting and refreshing angle. I also enjoyed the use of other countries, cultures and languages in the film and the decision to make the donor Mexican was an obvious yet excellent choice logistically. This also created the opportunity for some new lore, which is always welcome in the genre in my book.
From an acting standpoint, Alba does well and is ably supported by Parker Posey and Alessandro Nivola. I didn’t warm to Rade Serbedzeja’s character however.
Technically, the film is again well thought out with wonderful colour schemes, unusual architecture, which makes us as unsure of the surroundings and unsteady as our protagonist, and excellent effects work (the practical FX and CGI are to a very high standard).
OVERALL SUMMARY
The Eye is a very well thought out, creepy, slow burning psychological chiller which demonstrates that a good story can be far more effective than blood, guts and jump scares every five minutes. What a pleasure it was to see a film without being deafened by pulsating scores and screeching violins (well, unless you didn’t rate Alba’s violin playing that is). It may be a little slow in places, but for older, more articulate, intelligent viewers, this is sure to chill you to the bone.
