I’m not much of a fan of horror movies, dislike remakes in general, and don’t consider Jessica Alba a must-see actress, so it seems a bit surprising that I would even watch the 2008 film The Eye, which originally saw the light of day as an East Asian production of the same name back in 2002. But I guess that’s what happens when I let other people be in charge of choosing movies for the night! I figured this movie would be pretty dumb, and in that respect, I guess it didn’t disappoint.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Sydney Wells (played by Alba) is a concert violinist who has been blind since the age of 5. Her sister Helen (Parker Posey) convinces her to get a cutting-edge cornea transplant, and slowly but surely, Sydney’s eyesight starts to return.

Instead of making everything easier, however, Sydney’s newly restored sight fills her life with unease, complications, and downright horrors. She begins seeing the ghosts of people who have recently died, as well as recurring visions of a young woman hanging herself. These hallucinations of course freak Sydney out, so she seeks help from her therapist Paul Faulkner (Alessandro Nivola).

Faulkner reluctantly agrees to reveal the donor’s name to Sydney. It turns out that the corneas came from a young Mexican woman named Ana Christina Martinez, so Sydney and Paul next hit the road to see Martinez’s mother. The mother tells them that the villagers believed Ana Christina to be a witch, and were essentially responsible for her early death because they wrongly thought she was the cause of a factory fire that resulted in many fatalities.

On the way back home, Sydney and Paul get stuck at the border crossing gate, and Sydney suddenly realizes this is a scene she’s been seeing in her many visions. She finally understands that Ana Christina has wanted her to see these things in order to prevent a bunch of deaths from an impending explosion and fire. Sydney jumps out of the car, tells everyone in the traffic jam to evacuate their cars, and saves their lives. She’s caught near the explosion, however, and shards of glass penetrate her new eyes — rendering her sightless once again.

My Reaction: I had so many problems with The Eye that I’d just like to get the one positive aspect of the film out of the way right at the beginning here. I thought some of the visions Sydney had were genuinely creepy, which is far more than I can say for other horror movies I’ve suffered through. For example, when the dead guy starts floating towards Sydney in the elevator, or when she checks herself in the mirror but sees Ana Christina’s reflection, I have to admit that I was a bit freaked out. Too bad some other scenes were ruined with typical horror flick style loud music, otherwise they would have been very scary as well.

That being said, I thought most of the film was utterly terrible. I was willing to buy the fact that a woman who had a cornea transplant could see things her dead donor used to see. That was actually a pretty cool premise. But the execution of the film and the god-awful acting by Alba made The Eye practically unwatchable. The script didn’t do itself any favors, either. You mean to tell me that Sydney didn’t bother letting anyone know about her visions until 45 minutes into the action? Ugh, that should have happened far earlier — but I guess there wouldn’t have been enough material left in Act 2 if the character had done the logical thing.

There were plenty of other parts of The Eye that I hated as well (such as Sydney running around her apartment smashing all her lamps and overhead lights or the fact that her doctor would risk his license to tell her the name of her donor), but don’t really want to bother with listing them all here. Suffice it to say that I was rolling my eyes more often than not while watching this garbage.

Overall, I thought The Eye was a waste of time. The original might have been riveting and scary, but the remake falls far short in nearly every respect. I give the film 3.5 stars out of 10 and recommend that you skip it!