Jessica Alba sees boring things in THE EYE(2008).
© Lionsgate Home Entertainment

Mania Grade: C-
DVD: The Eye
Rating: PG-13
Starring: Jessica Alba, Alessandro Nivola, Parker Posey
Written By: Sebastian Gutierrez
Directed By: David Moreau
Distributor: Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Original Year of Release: 2008
Extras: Four featurettes, deleted scenes, trailers, digital copy of the film

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DVD Review of The Eye

The Eye is the latest American remake of an Asian horror film, this time of the Hong Kong produced film of the same name. The general theme of nearly all of these Americanized remakes is stick with the original! I know…some of you don’t like to read subtitles but in the case of this film, the original is vastly better. Jessica Alba continues to get starring roles without demonstrating any particular skill at acting and she’s no better here. 

She plays a blind concert violinist named Sydney Wells who undergoes cornea transplant surgery to restore her sight. The operation proves to be successful but soon after, Syndey begins experiencing horrific visions. At first she thinks these are just nightmares and tries to pass them off but she soon becomes convinced that she’s seeing things that the cornea donor saw. Her Doctor (Nivola) thinks it’s merely stress from dealing with the new sensations of her restored sight.

Sydney continues to “see dead people” although why her eyes also allow her to HEAR dead people remains a mystery of the film. The visions are mostly those fleeting glimpses designed to make you jump in your seat although they never amount to any prolonged tension. Sydney is determined to find out who the donor is and what message they are trying to send with the visions. While she will learn that donor had a sort of precognitive power to see people’s deaths and attempt to prevent them. This, however, doesn’t explain why Sydney would see the ghost of a little boy in her building who is looking for his report card nor the ghost of the little girl in the hospital who died of cancer. It’s just one of the many senseless continuity gaffes in “The Eye”. Sydney is also able to see mysterious shadow creatures, which seemingly escort dead spirits off to wherever. These creatures appear to be evil so are they devils? They don’t like that Sydney can see them but that plot twist goes virtually untapped.

Alba is easy on the eyes (no pun intended) but she lacks any presence or charisma in this role. The only real strength of her performance was her emotions and struggles as a formerly blind person who is able to see for the first time in decades. As tedious as Alba was, her co-star Alessandro Nivola is even more boring. He defiantly tells Sydney that he could ruin his career if he reveals who the donor is…and then he goes and steals the file anyway.

The Eye freely borrows clichés from just about every other J-Horror film that’s been made in the last decade but none of them are exciting enough to save this film. Sydney may have had her eyes opened in the film but she’ll make ours close tightly.

 The Eye comes on two discs although the second disc features just a digital copy of the film that you can load on your PC or iPod. The first disc includes four featuettes:

There are also a few minutes of deleted scenes and a theatrical trailer.