All-Reviews.com Movie/Video Review
The Eye

Mun (Lee Sin-Je), an attractive, young Chinese woman, has a major problem in THE EYE (JIAN GUI). Having just gotten the gift of sight for the first time, thanks to a cornea donor, she finds that her new visions are just too much to bear since she sees dead people. And not just a few. The walking -- and floating -- dead people hound her like beggars in third world countries. Typical of these is a young, dead boy still looking for his report card. He committed suicide over the embarrassment of losing it.

Mun's dead visitors usually appear out of nowhere to the accompaniment of loud sounds in order to scare the audience. Any sudden blast will have you jumping, but THE EYE loses its effectiveness because of its repetition. Even if it's a well made horror movie, it is pretty predictable, save one nice ending twist.

Taking itself too seriously, it eschews even a minute of humor. Never does one of Mun's apparitions turn out to be anything other than dead. Why couldn't one of the supposedly dead bodies surprise us by turning out to be alive? Given the story's repetition, some lighter moments would have been appreciated as would a few more twists. If you're in the mood for a horror movie, the frequently cheesy WRONG TURN, now playing in theaters, is a lot more fun and frightening.

THE EYE runs 1:38. The film is in Cantonese, Mandarin and Thai with English subtitles. It is not rated but would be an R for horror and violence and would be acceptable for most teenagers.

Copyright © 2003 Steve Rhodes