Jessica Alba discovers in The Eye that her new corneas are showing her the evil that killed their previous owner. This follows her role in Awake, a film about a man who remains conscious through his heart operation. Albas unspoken hope that distributors could throw the amputated-hand-horror Idle Hands on the pile and release the three DVDs as The Jessica Alba Botched Surgery Collection is inspired. But its no excuse for third-rate entertainment.
The Eye conforms to the norm of American remakes of Asian horror: Its hushed atmosphere and aggressive ambiguity are flavourless. The good idea behind the Pang Brothers Hong Kong original (which, in fairness, takes its premise from the US 1994 thriller, Blink), fits too comfortably into the conventional. Having Albas blind-violinist character Sydney witness demonic apparitions once she regains sight taps into the unreasonable fears that come with bettering ones life. Yet pale ghost-children and slow walks down apartment hallways towards unexplained horrors end up being the standard of all these movies. Directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud wont risk upsetting their audience and consequently they cant create a sense of empathy and isolation regarding Sydneys disability, unlike the traumatic connection created by Jennifer Jason Leigh—playing a blind and deaf teenager—in the 1981 slasher Eyes of a Stranger.
Alba has her good looks, but her limited talent cant sell some of the mood swings the script throws her way. None of The Eye invokes much dread. Put this one on the waiting list for a personality transplant—for a purported thriller, its barely even involving.
This article appears in Feb 7-13, 2008.