The Eye

Another misjudged Hollywood re-make of a Hong Kong horror, this time from French co-directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud, makers of the overrated ‘home invasion’ shocker, ‘Them’.
Jessica Alba is beautiful but bland as Sydney Wells, a violinist who, after 20 years of blindness, is given two new corneas. But with her new eyes come floating figures, ghosts and visions, possibly connected to the donor.

Her surgeon (Alessandro Nivola) and guilt-ridden older sister, Helen (Parker Posey) think Sydney is losing her mind. Moreau and Palud’s over-stretched debut feature was a series of scary set-pieces strung together by a worthless storyline. This uninspired ‘re-invention’ of Danny and Oxide Pang’s 2002 supernatural thriller is the opposite. While paying close attention to the plotting, characterisation and emotional nuances, they not only fail to match the original’s creepy atmospherics, but also fluff nearly all of its spine-chilling set-pieces. One can’t turn a blind eye to such conspicuous failings.