Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
I desperately want to believe. With each new horror film that I start to hear hype about, I allow myself... no, I ORDER myself... to believe that this could be the one. This could be that hair-on-the-back-of-the-neck, chills-up-and-down-the-spine horror film that I ache for every single time I’m in the theater.
Cruise/Wagner, who executive-produced the wonderful NARC, are currently attached to THE EYE as producers on an American remake. In the meantime, the original film is rolling out at film festivals around the world, including Sitges, where our own Grande Rojo just got a look at it. We’ll have to wait for his reaction, and in the meantime, here’s a reader who was deeply affected by what they saw...
Hi Harry,
I'm not sure whether this flick has been released over there in the states yet, but it's been given a limited release over here in London. In fact it's a such a limited release that no-one else I know has seen it and only a few mates of mine have even heard of it.
That kind of thing irritates me when I perfectly good film is given short runs at "selected" cinemas. This usually translates as the film being on for a single week, if you're lucky. Can't imagine you get the same kind of hassles over there in the U.S. Maybe I should get a visa and emigrate.
Anyway, the film...
The tagline being used on the posters is: What if the reflection you see is not yours? Sounds intriguing already, huh?
Sure, but this isn't really the basis of the film, more a kind of twist that comes out towards the end. The real plot centres around a young woman who is given the gift of sight for the first time in her life via an operation to replace her corneas.
The first scenes of her actually seeing are beautifully directed, with objects in the foreground and background coming in and out of focus in a number of P.O.V shots. The effect? To startle and disorientate the viewer in the same way that the character herself is being startled and disorientated.
Actually, speaking of startling, the print I saw seemed to get caught in the projector during the credit sequence and actually melted the frame it was stuck on. Never seen that happen in a cinema before. However, I can't tell if it was a part of the film (if so, v. cool effect) or if it was a genuine mistake. If it was genuine, I recommend that every projectionist who shows the film TRIES to make it happen every time. It was EXACTLY the kind of opening the film needed and set the tone for the rest that followed. Yeah, it's that kind of movie.
Things seem to be going okay for the woman until she begins to see and hear things others can't. Namely, dead people.
Now, okay, you're thinking 'hey, very Sixth Sense'. Maybe, but I think this works a hell of a lot better than the Shyamalan film. This is down to the fact that the visions and ghosts she sees are BLOODY SCARY. I admit it, and I don't admit it too often. I watch stuff like Zombie Creeping Flesh and Cannibal Ferox while I'm eating my lunch. No problem. But these ghouls are genuinely unnerving.
In fact I got so used to be freaked out that when, in the second act of the film, an albino hospital patient appears I almost jumped out of my skin. The guy wasn't even supposed to be a ghost!!! He was just a one scene character, but he adds to the cumulatative effect.
As the character sees more visions, she begins to investigate (like in RING), tracking down the donor, who, it transpires was a psychic, believed to be a witch.
The effects are SUPERB. Transparent ghosts running through characters. Ghosts licking windows with demonic tongues. The best two scenes concern the appearance of a deformed apparition floating in an elevator (the tension is truly unbelievable) and a room changing from a bedroom to a ghostly attic with changes in light from a swinging lampshade.
I'd say the film is a combo of RING, SIXTH SENSE and others (the ending reminds me a lot of THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES) and it WORKS. It really WORKS!
I haven't heard of the Pang Brothers as directors before, but I will check their stuff. In the meantime, go see. And then avoid hospital elevators forever.
Jim Lowe
Must see. Must see. Must see. MUST SEE! MUST SEE!!
"Moriarty" out.
