Sydney (Jessica Alba) is a blind classical violinist. She undergoes a cornea transplant in order to restore her sight. The surgery is a complete success with one main drawback: she begins to see things.... Oh, and dead people, she also begins to see dead people.
Very reliant on jump scares, but they're pulled off quite well with sufficient overuse of the looking-through-the-peephole technique. It's also quite reminiscent of "The Sixth Sense" in style, but is not on par with the quality of story telling becoming bogged down in a stale plot.
What annoyed me the most, aside from the fact that her doctor (Alessandro Nivola) is a patronising arse for most of the film, is that she never once utters the words 'Grim Reaper' despite the fact that:
a) that is essentially what she's seeing and
b) that is a well known terminology and would have explained a lot more to the doctor than her descriptions did! No wonder they thought she was nuts! Geese!
Why is it that film and TV script writers always have to pretend like the protagonists have never heard of anything supernatural before? It's just like in every zombie movie ever where nobody ever goes "Well, fuck! That's a zombie! Quick, shoot it in the head!".
Sorry, rant over.
I did enjoy that one of the first things she buys upon regaining her sight is a flatscreen TV and also that "The Dresden Files" was on when she flicked through the channels. Good one, Lionsgate!
All in all, I found Jessica Alba to be a competent lead, which I was admittedly not expecting, and despite a drawn out plot, the film is watch-able and makes good use of the jump-scares.
Asian horrors as a whole are generally creepier and more effective. However, while this film doesn't add anything new to the American Remake bundle, it's certainly a scary movie you could introduce horror-keen young teens to! Average, but it could be an excellent sleepover movie, I reckon.
[Image: Vertigo Entertainment]
Hani
