I'd heard good things about this film from fellow horror freaks and was pretty anxious to watch it once I was able to grab a hold of it and I was given what I expected. First off the Pang brothers manage to beautifully direct this often tense and taut horror film and supply some really good visuals and special effects for the audience to feast on including a lot of rather creepy ghosts that will most likely creep you out including a ghost that eats candles, and two ghosts that set the stage for two of the scariest scenes in the film. One in which Mun is lunged at by a growling ghost in a class room which beckons for her to get out of her seat, and, in possibly the most frightening scene in the film in which Mun is caught in a slow moving elevator with a ghost in back of her slowly revealing itself as she cries softly.

The Pang Brothers rely heavily on mood and atmosphere for a lot of the scenes in the story including Mun's first encounter with a ghost which is not only very grim but manages to pull off a shiver or two. There's plenty of creeps aboard this film and it's slowly paced but engrossing story. Some of the visuals were just breathtaking with Mun's room morphing into another room at random, and the climax which works on two levels, the stunning visual of death's messengers arriving on the scene, and the massive explosion that ravages the poor victims in their cars. I haven't seen an explosion scene that exciting since "Independence Day" and it worked. Aside from that the film manages to become a tragedy as we watch Mun experience her first bout with sight and depth perception but must witness horrifying sights that she's never witnessed before and her mind can barely fathom the horror she is faced with. The Pang brothers succeed in making the ghosts hard to distinguish from real people, case in point, Mun's friend Ying Ying which is a very good sub-plot that takes a rather unhappy ending.

The film can also be thought of as a tragic tale as well, because we have a girl inflicted with a disability, is granted a gift, and now must witness horrifying images, some she's never been able to fathom before. She's beginning to understand sight and gets a crash course with the horrifying images of the dead at every corner and she can do nothing about it. Angelica Lee is excellent as the heroine Mun who is faced with an extraordinary situation she can't possibly get out of. Lee is perfect in conveying the sheer tidal wave of emotions Mun must face during her conversion into madness viewing the dead. There's is a truly good scene in which she's faced with her friend Ying Ying who's just died and upon her realization begins crying aloud as the doctors break the news.

She's so good in laying her emotions on the screen with fright and anxiety and sheer raw emotions, a good example when she's in the elevator attempting not to mind the ghost behind her desperately waiting to get to her floor, and when she isolates herself in her room. She's a high point in the film and (at risk of sounding cliché) is utterly breathtaking, not to mention very beautiful. "The Eye" is involving, it's engrossing, and is a good film to kill time with.

"The Eye" is never sure what it wants to be. Is it a horror, a thriller, a tragedy, a disaster pic, or a romance? It's never really sure, but either way it limps along through various dips into different genres and often times is scrambled and confused. Though "The Eye" attempts to be genuinely scary, it never really is. Though the tension is there, there's never really anything to be frightened about. The plot regarding the eye replacements seeing the world through the eyes of its previous owner has been done, over and over again, and then this takes a page from "The Sixth Sense" when Mun is given the ability to see dead people who never really know they've died and don't move on until their unresolved family and life issues are solved, the only problem is Mun has no idea how to keep them away from her.

The character Dr. Wah gains an instant crush on Mun upon first glimpse of her, and it's not hard to believe because Angelica Lee is very beautiful and is one of the high points of the film, but we never really get to learn why he's so in love with her, nor do we ever get a lot of instances where we can get to know him and like him. He's simply a supporting character who likes her for no apparent reason. The film is in many ways a tragedy because of the contexts and the scenes that make it so, but it should stay a horror film but never does. It should also touch upon the obstacles a person would face after being blind for their whole life and must adapt to being able to see ala depth dimension, isolation, and the trouble and tribulations she should face with her hobbies she had as a blind person.

So her issues are resolved and they move on which is odd considering the character Mun alludes that she may have been born with the ability to see the dead but her blindness was fate to keep her from experiencing the horrors of her ability, then we're told that her eyes give her the ability to see the dead because of the previous owner. And how did the restaurant owner know that Mun was seeing the ghosts of the owners dead wife and child? What connection did she have? Plot hole. Confusing, especially the major plot twist in the end regarding a picture of Mun that took me a long time to figure out but inevitably it's an interesting take. The climax then takes a rather confusing change in story as Mun witnesses the death dealers gathering around cars during traffic and is frantically trying to warn people of a gas truck that is about to explode and it explodes with a very interesting but brutal scene that pretty much defines the purpose. But again, why add something so spectacular as an explosion and why add a plot development that seems lifted off a disaster film when this was first set-up like a horror film? If the directors and writers had kept this simple and low-key and tension filled, maybe this might have been a great film.

This film does have very genuinely scary moments and is very well acted by Angelica Lee who conveys brutal emotions in the tragedy of her character, but it's never really sure what it wants to be with a scattered, recycled, cliché plot, often confusing plot twists, and some frustrating plot holes.

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