The Ring put Japanese horror remakes on the map. It was a creepy, exciting and disturbing picture
that opened
up an entire subgenre. Soon, Japanese horror films were flowing into the States like never before, not with subtitles but as fully remade, American pictures. It wasn''t long before audiences realized that studios were taking advantage of them, converting questionable originals into quick, sloppy and generic horror films. Still, studios continue to pump this drivel out, and it''s quite tiring.
The latest remake is The Eye , the Jessica Alba-starring vehicle about a blind woman who, after undergoing an innovative procedure to restore her sight, begins to see dead people. Unfortunately, The Eye is not The Sixth Sense ; it''s a silly, forgettable and uninspiring movie. The concept shows some promise, but The Eye falls into a similar trap that so many of these movies suffer from - an unoriginal plot, lots of cheap scares and some really dumb moments.
After Alba, who, of course, looks absolutely great in the movie (I didn''t know blind people could keep themselves looking so hot), gets her eye transplant, she begins to see ghosts everywhere, from her apartment building to the coffee shop. As one might expect, the previous owner of her eyes was burned to death and has a story to tell. Alba, to conquer the demons that surround her, must figure out the truth. Puh-lease. First, this storyline has been doing so many times before in so many different movies. Everything from The Ring to Gothika and every Japanese remake in between has the exact same framework, and I am just done with it. Second, the directors and writers are so bold as to try to explain how Alba''s eyes are possessed through scientific methods. Stupid!