The Eye

The Eye

America seems hell-bent on sucking the plentiful teat of the Asian horror market lately, something that comes as no surprise to anyone with even a passing knowledge of modern horror cinema these days. It's really a shame that America feels the need to remake these things instead of bringing them over and trusting people not to run scared when they have to read some subtitles, because in milking that nourishing market, they miss a lot of the wonderful aspects that make Asian horror cinema so powerful to begin with. Now that I'm done rambling like a pretentious film student, on with the review!

The Eye is the latest in a long line of Asian horror remakes. The American version isn't out as of this writing, but with the trend set by the likes of Pulse and One Missed Call, I'm not terribly optimistic, since I wonder if the American filmmakers are going to grasp that the Eye isn't a normal horror movie.

Set in Hong Kong, the movie is about Mun, a young woman blind since the age of two who recieves a cornea transplant that allows her to see into the world of the dead, both the already dead and the soon to be dead. As one can expect, there's some chilling scenes of ghosts leaping out at her unexpectedly and horrifying visions, but there's so much more to Mun's story that the movie works expertly into the terror, as she tries to adjust to not fitting in with the sighted world yet (she can't read or write or recognize objects based on sight) but is rejected by the blind community she has belonged to all of her life.

This is not the kind of horror movie most people are going to think of when they think "horror movie". It has more in common with the likes of the Sixth Sense than the Ring, a deeply psychological story of a woman who tries to build a normal life around the abnormal, the terrifying, and the heartbreaking. The pace is terrific, and although it seems a little fast sometimes, it's rarely hard to follow, jumping into the action early and rarely lagging. Exposition is worked in seamlessly throughout the film, and with the central theme of "understanding", the movie does a lot to help us understand Mun's plight and put us right there with her, as she is surrounded by characters who can never entirely understand what she's going through. It's rare that a horror movie can actually succeed in being sad at the same time, but there were a couple of definite tear-jerking moments. All of this leads up to an incredibly tense and heartbreaking ending that will leave you rattled for a long time to come.

If the American remake can take into account that this isn't the kind of horror film that's out to jump you out of your seat, but more the kind that sets out to get under your skin, making you think even as it chills you to your core and breaks your heart, then there might be hope for the genre in this country all together. But as I said, I'm not holding out much hope. Where it stands, the original Chinese version of the Eye is a wonderfully complex and unnerving little treat. It's not for everyone, to be sure, but if you want a movie that disturbs you on levels most horror movies don't even attempt to, mixed with excellent drama and a sympathetic heroine, I couldn't recommend this movie more highly.

- Jason Mclaughlin