“The Eye”

By David DiCerto
Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- "The Eye" (Palm) is a well-crafted supernatural thriller about a young blind woman whose sight is restored after undergoing a corneal transplant -- but the gift comes at a terrifying price.

Avoiding buckets of blood and gory cheap thrills in favor of muted chills, Thai sibling filmmakers Oxide and Danny Pang's atmospheric foray into the paranormal offers some truly spine-tingling moments that make bigger-budgeted Hollywood hauntings seem about as spooky as Casper.

Wong Kar Mun (Lee Sin-Je) has been blind since age 2. Though well adjusted to her handicap, she opts for an experimental eye surgery. Early results prove promising, but her initial joy quickly turns to horror as she begins to witness strange visions of shadowy, wraithlike figures escorting terminal patients down hospital corridors -- patients she later finds out had died during the night.

The phantasmagorical sightings continue after she is released from the hospital. Tormented by these preternatural encounters with dead people and fearing for her sanity, she enlists the help of her psychotherapist, Dr. Wah (Lawrence Chou), who also happens to be related to the optical specialist (Edmund Chen) who performed her procedure. Wah coerces the surgeon to reveal confidential information about the cornea donor, a young woman from Thailand who committed suicide after experiencing similar apparitions -- and whose face Mun sees every time she looks in the mirror instead of her own reflection. Together with Wah, Mun travels to Thailand hoping to uncover the dead girl's secret and in doing so unlock the mystery of her own nightmarish visions.

Much of the film's effect is owed to the Pang brothers' astute understanding of less-is-more filmmaking -- a cinematic adage anathema to Tinseltown's more-is-more mentality. With the exception of a pyrotechnic finale which seems out of place, the film earns its shrieks the old fashioned way, by keeping audiences' anticipation high, massaging their paranoia and keeping their ice-cold sweat on a slow drip; two boos in the bush are scarier than one in hand.

American fans of the horror genre should not be put off by the subtitles since much of the suspense is generated through the film's eerie visuals and effective use of sound. Adding to the fear-factor is the filmmakers' ability to dispense with the chain-rattling, dark-stormy-night accoutrement of most frightfests and inject a heart-pounding, taut-nerve creepiness to the most innocuous settings -- a crowded restaurant at midday, a busy intersection or even an empty elevator.

Comparisons to the similarly premised "The Sixth Sense" seem unavoidable. Yet unlike the Bruce Willis chiller, which used its spectral ensemble as a plot device to set up its shaggy-dog ending, "The Eye" seems to treat the concepts of death and an afterlife more seriously, though viewed from a distinctly Eastern perspective. And while spiritual themes can be gleaned from both films, the Pangs' ghosts convey pathos absent in M. Night Shyamalan's work.

Unfortunately, the film's lost souls aren't the only things that can't rest in peace. Like "The Ring" -- a retooled, amped-up version of another Asian horror flick -- Hollywood grave robbers already have their shovels in the dirt. Tom Cruise's production company has snatched up the rights to "The Eye" and is planning a big-budget remake. Now that's scary.

Subtitles.

Due to scary scenes and some violence, as well as a suicide, the USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. Not rated by the Motion Picture Association of America.

* DiCerto is on the staff of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.