The Eye

The Eye (David Moreau & Xavier Palud, 2008) - C-

Moreau & Palud are clearly most comfortable with the mode of horror on display in the first half of the film, basically amounting to mysterious blurry figures appearing in the corneal transplant patient's nascent field of vision; this is much the same territory they explored in Them, their delightfully abstract debut. They also have a knack for creepy throwaway moments that suggests a strong preference for low-key, low-budget horror (spoiler warning): Alba suddenly asking "who's that" when shown a picture of herself (a good hour into the film); a stranger sensing Alba's connection to the spirit world and pleading, "that's my Tommy, isn't it?" just before the elevator doors close on her and the ghost of her son standing behind her. But more conventional set pieces are a no go, since Palud and Moreau are either disinterested in the big scares or just inept. Among other things, they use blatant visual cheats, e.g.: we see the protagonist in the foreground and something menacing/unnatural in the background; as the camera pans and the background object passes behind Alba, it disappears! A typical device, but for the fact that Alba is looking away from the camera and at the object the entire time, so that the way the film would have it, the object disappears before her very eyes. Normally when this tactic is used, the character would walk past a post, for example, and the object would vanish behind it, disappearing for her and for us simultaneously. The Eye ignores her perspective, and the result is just bizarre; this happens a couple of times. The movie also gets dumber as it gets less subtle, with a climax that furiously pitches boring exposition and a denoument that simply makes no sense. Bottom line: talented but disengaged filmmakers barely make a dent in a useless screenplay. Alba's presence has predictable effects.