The Eye

D-

Directed by Pang Brothers

Over the last few years I had been hearing from several sources that Thailand's vaunted sibling filmmaker duo the Pang Brothers had been, since the release of their breakthrough horror flick "The Eye," on a steady, unstoppable decline. After finally watching "The Eye," I must honestly say that it is the worst Pang Brothers film I've seen to date and I'm mystified how this film was considered the peak of their career.

"The Eye" opens with Angelica Lee's character (whose name I have since forgotten, unfortunately...) about to receive a cornea transplant to restore her eyesight which she lost as a child. Sounds like a pretty happy beginning but things go awry when Angelica (sorry, I'll have to call her that from now on...) begins to see dark, shadowy figures accompanying people right before their deaths. Could it be that Angelica can now FORESEE people's deaths before they happen? What is in these corneas anyways?
The film attempts to answer these questions and spook us out simultaneously, doing neither very well in the end. "The Eye" does succeed in keeping up a spooky-ish mood but it doesn't sustain it long enough to really give you the hibby-jibbies and the plausibility of the story is not strong enough to really convince the viewer that fear is in order. Most maddeningly of all, however, is that the Pang Brother's visual flair, which was often on display even in their weakest efforts, is nowhere to be seen in "The Eye" which has a strikingly generic presentation throughout.

The Hollywood ramake of this clunker is coming out sometime this year and for once there may be hope that the American remake of an Asian horror films rises above the film it is emulating. Wouldn't that be the day?