The Eye is a Japanese horror film that blurs genres to the point of blindness. It is hard to tell exactly what genre it is, but it does have horror elements that are worth noting. A 20-year-old violinist, Mun, who has been blind since the age of two, undergoes an eye cornea transplant. Shortly thereafter she begins to see shadowy figures that foretell peoples' deaths. Just like any other conventional ghost movie, viewers can expect to see ghosts popping out around corners. In fact, this movie is very much like The Sixth Sense, but there are some key differences. Mun can foretell what is going to happen, but she doesn’t really have the ability to stop anything. This is depressing for the viewer and makes this horror movie sadder than a horror movie should really be.
Romance is also a major part of the film and pretty much overshadows everything at the end, which again takes away from the horror aspects of the film. Technical aspects of the film are impressive, including the first-person views that make the viewer feel one with Mun and completely disoriented. This makes you feel as if your world is falling apart, which is what I imagine Mun was feeling also. The viewer also becomes attached to Mun emotionally and you really want her to succeed in her quest for figuring out why she is seeing all these ghosts. Still, with the nifty camera work and some genuine scares, this movie doesn’t hold a horror fan's attention. I don’t necessarily need constant gruesome scenes and demons, but I also don’t want a horror film to play out more like a depressing thriller romance. If you add too many genres, sometimes it just depletes the impact of any one genre. There is also not a genuine villain in this film. There are shadowy figures meant to represent death, but this movie tells me death isn’t necessarily the bad guy and it is a necessary entity.
If we do imagine fate to be the bad guy, then horror island won’t necessarily receive a strong boost in the ghost category. If there is anything that horror has taught us, it’s that death or fate doesn’t apply sometimes. No matter how many times you stab or shoot something, they will get right back up.
If you liked The Eye, you might also like Ju-On: The Grudge and The Changeling.