You
would think that concrete knowledge of the afterlife would put many of a
person’s greatest fears to rest, but usually in movies where people discover a
new gift to see the dead, the ability invariably sends them into a tizzy. The
Pang Brothers’ The Eye is no exception to the long list of films that
uses this device as an pretext to stage a series of horrifying set pieces. Set
mainly in Hong Kong, The Eye starts as Mun (Angelica Lee), a woman in her
twenties, receives a corneal transplant that gives her the sight that she’s
lacked since birth, as well as bestowing upon her the aforementioned ghostly
clairvoyance, which also allows her to see the dreadful memories of their
tortured previous owner. The movie comes with a pretty basic setup really, and
the botched organ transplant film is a fairly hefty horror subgenre, but even
when you can guess exactly what’s going to happen in a given scene, the movie
manages to scare you anyhow.
Obvious
comparisons can be made between the nearly bloodless frights provided by The
Eye and M. Night Shyamalan’s monster hit The Sixth Sense, but pound
for pound, The Eye is a good deal scarier. Instead of utilizing a muted
cinematic language to create a mood where its fright effects can flourish, the
Pang Brothers use almost imperceptible computer effects (at least when seen
through the hazy gauze of Mun’s slowly recovering vision) so that one can
scarcely tell who is alive and who is dead at times. Its minimalist effects
don’t mean that the scares are minimal as well though. The jump scenes are
frequently doled out, making the end result a bit more disturbing than the
somewhat languidly paced The Sixth Sense. The Eye may not be a
technical powerhouse of a movie, but it’s far from inadequately made. There
seems to be far less artistry than attempted shock on display here, but since
the vast majority of those endeavors are successful, the end result is
satisfying. An unexpected twist of events near the one-hour mark shifts the
film’s focus from terror to redemption, but the movie doesn’t become syrupy
in the transformation, and surely enough, it slides back toward scares for a
surprisingly apocalyptic conclusion. The Eye is far from a masterful or
innovative film, but there’s no doubt that it’s a solid genre piece that’s
more than adept at evoking the thrills necessary to keep the audience on the
edge of their seats.
