Well, I finally saw the U.S. version of The Eye and I have to say, it was one hundred and fifty percent better than I thought it was going to be! I was all geared up to hate the film like I do with every other remake of an Asian horror film, but I was pleasantly surprised by this one! WARNING: HUGE SPOILERS BELOW!!!!

First of all, with very few exceptions they stayed very close to the original story, using America in place of China and Mexico in place of Thailand. This was a very good idea, and it turned out to be a great way to get the story to the screen in the west.

Their ghosts were fairly true to form, although they did make some of them ( including the Shadowmen aka The Claimers ) far to aggressive, adding scary faces and lion roars where there hadn’t been any previously. I don’t understand why they’d do that, since, in my opinion, the original Shadowmen were scary - not because of aggression - but because they would only show up when someone was about to die.

Another problem I had with the film was the fact that they cut the mother out of the process of saving her daughter from re-enacting her death by giving her a heart attack so that Sydney could save her, which is a mistake often made by American film makers - the mistake of Last Girl Standing where the heroine has to live and be responsible for anyone else who makes it through a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In fact, they Last Girl Standing’d up the climax of the film in which Sydney manages to save a stretch of road full of people who died in the first film, and while they did a decent job with it, that really took away from the original point of that part of the story - that gift is really a curse because you can’t save people destined to die, because no one believes you.

They also took out the whole arch where she is removed from her job in the orchistra because she’s not blind anymore, but I suppose that’s neither here or there.

They did add some great scenes though, which I’m shocked about. They did ruin one of my favorite scenes, the ‘you’re sitting in my chair’ scene but they did add a great element to the new version. All in all I was really happy with it, even if the love interest is a tool, lol. Alba did a fantastic job, everyone pulled their weight except the love interest guy, and it was thoroughly enjoyable! I’m gonna say, on a scale of 5 stars I’d definately give it a three and a half with the original being all 5.

Filed under: Reviews, Movies