Customer Reviews

My Little Eye

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I began groaning within minutes of starting director Marc Evans's low budget horror film "My Little Eye." Why, you ask? Well, it looked, sounded, and generally felt like one of those shot on video disasters routinely released by companies like Sub Rosa. If you have spent even a small amount of time plumbing the depths of zero budget horror films, you know what I am talking about. Sub Rosa distributes the absolute worst movies imaginable, films so terribly awful that any sane viewer of such dreck immediately feels like lobbying Washington for some sort of legalized ban on this sort of stuff. The only saving grace in this situation, and I mean the only one, is occasionally stumbling over something of quality. Such a diamond in the rough might still need some polishing, might not shine as brightly as the viewer would hope, but said diamond is still worth watching. "My Little Eye" constitutes such a bright spot. It is hopelessly low budget, painfully so, but all the elements come together in the end to deliver a truly frightening experience that studio films operating with better actors, bigger budgets, and better special effects cannot seem to muster. This one is a winner.

"My Little Eye" is a story about a group of young adults who sign up to take part in an Internet reality type show requiring them to live in a remote cabin for several months. If even one of them leaves before the year is up, no one wins the one million dollar prize. Lots of web cams adorn the walls and ceilings of the house so people can watch the contestants every move. The cameras can even capture images in the dark, which will come in handy when the scares start to flow. See why I started groaning? The idea of a horror movie based on the Internet evokes memories of "Feardotcom" and other bad films. It gets worse, at least initially. All of the characters are cliches: the promiscuous Charlie (Jennifer Sky), the overbearing jerk Rex (Kris Lemche), the sensitive girl Emma (Laura Regan), a guy named Danny (Stephen O'Reilly) whose crush on Emma knows no bounds, and the enigmatic Matt (Sean CW Johnson). If you aren't groaning just reading this, you haven't watched enough horror movies. But something wonderful is about to happen; it just takes awhile to get there. You have to wait patiently through all of the little quarrels, all of the little political games that go on between the various characters, before the horrors begin to emerge with frightening regularity. For example, how interesting is it to watch Rex hoarding cigarettes and other supplies underneath the floorboards in his room? Not very.

Don't worry, though, as things heat up in a hurry. Odd noises in the house start scaring the contestants, and objects left in beds and other places soon turn these individuals against one another. Most frightening of all, the person scaring everyone seems to know exactly how best to deliver the frights; he or she knows dark secrets about the contestants' pasts. By the time a clueless hiker named Travis (Bradley Cooper) shows up at the house, events take on a decidedly sinister tone. Travis claims to know all about computers yet has never heard anything about this particular reality show, a revelation that comes as a huge surprise to our contestants because they learned upon signing on that the game would receive a lot of publicity. Hmmm. One of the contestants soon figures out how to rig up a link to the Internet, and the news isn't good. Extensive searches reveal nothing about their particular game, except for one restricted site that gives a few ominous clues as to what is really going on. No spoilers here, but from this point forward "My Little Eye" turns into a bloodbath steeped in nihilism. Nothing is as it seems and no hope for salvation exists.

I can't remember the last time I saw a film this bleak, this utterly downbeat. Most horror films will always give the audience an "out" at some point, usually manifesting itself in some good triumphing over a horrible evil that lets us all go home happy campers. Don't expect to feel good when "My Little Eye" wraps up--unless you hate the film. I don't think most horror fans will dislike this one, though. It's downright creepy, due in large part to the numerous web cam shots spliced into the film. The nighttime views are especially eerie, with people's eyes looking like silver coins in the unnatural green lighting. As for the actors, they do a good job considering all of them are unrecognizable names. Most of the movie focuses on these people and how they interact with one another, so we come to know them and their quirks quite well--always a good thing in a horror movie. If you can't care about the characters, the viewer is unlikely to feel much of anything when they inevitably perish in horrible ways. There is certainly a time and a place for mindless slaughter in a gorefest, but it's nice to watch a horror movie from time to time that tries to elevate the characters above mere cannon fodder. "My Little Eye" accomplishes that.

Extras on the disc include a commentary with director Marc Evans, a commentary track that allows us to "eavesdrop" on the people running the game (called "The Company"), a making of featurette, lengthy (and wisely) deleted scenes, and cast auditions. It's low budget obviousness aside, "My Little Eye" is a scary film that hits all the right notes on the way to its horrible denouement. Even better, its effectiveness elevates it far above anything you are likely to see from the likes of Sub Rosa or the other schlock horror outlets. Give this one a shot.

After sampling a lot of high brow films in recent days, I decided to take another look at a film that had thoroughly entertained me (in a much different way) on first viewing. "My Little Eye" is a B-movie thriller that I discovered quite by accident a couple of years ago and went on to purchase. While I will make no claim that this film is great "art," it's creepy and effective--if not altogether logical. Most of the scenes are filmed through "Big Brother" type cameras and it's not always believable from a technological standpoint. But surrendering yourself to the experience, without over-thinking the setup, you might get caught up in a pretty suspenseful little film. Keep in mind, however, that this is a small movie that's more about dialogue and clever scripting to generate a tense mood--as opposed to big effects or thrills.

Five strangers are brought together to a desolate house for a 24/7 webcast. If they stay together for six months, with no one leaving, they will split a million dollar prize. Our young and attractive cast are eager to seek Internet fame and fortune and jump right into the experience. Most of the film takes place during the last week of their adventure as they ready themselves to leave. As supplies get sparse and mysterious things start to happen, the film really does a nice job of building a slow and believable suspense. The characters interact as real people would and their relationships start to sour as they (and we) try to figure out what is happening. This is a psychological set piece, really, but one that becomes more and more ominous as the film progresses. Let's only say that it won't be an easy week!

I enjoyed the way that this film was shot--much of the action takes place on night vision cameras which adds a genuine creepiness to even mundane actions. A lot of other viewers have criticized the actors--and while maybe they aren't all master thespians, I thought they were perfect for this film. Having watched way too many hours of reality TV, I think these kids exemplified the narcissism and selfishness rampant in the medium. It made the proceedings all the more believable, in my opinion.

By the end, we have some scary moments and the resolution is only vaguely defined--just enough to provide superficial closure (once again overlooking some of the technical logic). But I recommend this film, maybe because it was a "discovery". With no expectations, I found the film to be a rewarding experience. I've shown it to friends, as well, with no build up and they've all liked it. Rated on the B-movie scale, this is a 4 star entertainment. Give it a shot if you like this sort of thing, works really well too if you're a reality TV fan. KGHarris, 01/07.

Word of Caution: Do not read the 1 star review listed lower in the listing called "My Big Disappointment" because the reviewer spoils the entire movie in the first 3 sentences without first warning you of this.

OK, now as for this movie goes, I did not find it scary, but I did find that it was a great thriller movie.

5 people signed up online to live in a remote farmhouse for 6 months to win 6 million dollars from an unknown company that is doing a Big Brother spy camera type deal.

The movie takes place within the last week of their stay when things suddenly take a turn for the worse. The contestants believe they are on an Internet competition to stay in this farmhouse for the six months. However, what appears to be a straightforward competition might not be what it seems.

Subtle clues are left throughout this movie for you to figure out what the real point of this competition is.

What makes this movie so thrilling is that these 5 contestants have absolutely no clue where they are which gives a sense of total isolation. Based on the dialog, they were brought into this remote farmhouse by helicopter (probably blind folded). There is absolutely nothing around as far as the eye can see except for a freezing cold snow covered forest.

The gore (and yes there is some) is not too graphic which is fine as I view this movie as an intense thriller rather than a horror movie.

In spite of my 4 star rating, I do have some problems with this film though.

1) If the contestants decide they no longer wish to participate on the show, the first thing I would do is to destroy all the cameras throughout the home. Without the cameras, there is no show. No one does this.

2) Why do these 5 kids accept that this unknown company has the ability to pay them a million dollars? They never actually see any advertisements prior to leaving for the show because they were told the advertisements would begin once they are in the house. The kids accept that this company is loaded because of the money spent of the farmhouse, the food brought in, and the helicopter used to deliver the kids to the farmhouse. But these are sort of after the fact. I think I would expect anyone to do more due diligence prior to embarking on such an adventure.

3) If they suspect something is wrong, then why not apply the principle of safety in numbers. Common sense would imply that all kids would keep close together at all times in one room but this doesn't happen.

4) Once one person realized what he might be involved in while gaining temporary Internet access, why not summon for assistance while he had the opportunity rather than waste valuable time showing the other people what this may or may not be about.

5) Where are the family and friends of these kids? Surely, they would be concerned about what is happening if they see their children or loved ones frightened while watching the web broadcast or worse, afraid if they did not see them on the web broadcast at all.

Despite these 5 short comings, the film is extremely enjoyable.

Although this little straight to video ditty doesn't look like much based upon its plot and cover design (which is actually a little silly), its quite a bit better than you'd expect...

The plot (5 young people living in a house for an online "Big Brother" type reality show) seems all too familiar, and almost like a rip-off of films like "The Blair Witch Project," but it's actually very enjoyable when it gets going. So, these 5 kids are house bound in this ultra-creepy house in the middle of nowhere and are promised large sums of money if they can live in the house for a set amount of time (5 months maybe?) and no one leaves. The film begins during their last week in the house when things start to go "bump" in the night and get a little creepy. Are the creators trying to scare them out of the house so they can keep their money? Or is something truly sinister going on?

The film's first 2/3s are genuinely chilling...but a little slow pased. If you are expecting a quick moving slasher pick, then this is not the film for you. Patient viewers will be rewarded in full in the films last 1/3. The mysteries that arise throughout the film are revealed and the payoff is quite grand and scary. It's "Blair Witch" with better video quality and a much more literal (and on-screen) climax.

My main complaint with the film is its big "twist" ending. Its a little far-fetched and unrealistic. It COULD happen, but its kind of unlikely. Still, a true (and patient) horror fan will surely appreciate this sly little film. In the end, it delivers...and it'll knock your socks off.

There is something entrancing about Marc Evans' film "My Little Eye". However, it's not the story. While I do enjoy its predictable plot twists to the same degree I enjoy watching the same film over and over again (though I know what's about to happen -I'd like to watch them go through it), I find myself caring more about the way it looks than what's going on.

The concept of having the entire film seen through these tiny web-cams was executed beautifully. No big steadicam shots, no traditional coverage; we can only see what their cameras see at their pace. So, the reaction shot will be off-time, but that's the fun of seeing it. The video quality is entrancing and you're watching these people as you would watch an actual webcast -and you don't get to know them... you simply just want to see them interact and there is the reality TV aspect of it: where you want to see them get mad, have sex, freak out and know you're so completely detached from what's going on that you don't feel threatened. Hence, my non-affiliation with any of the principal players. Though Kris Lemche's performance is great to watch and once the hacking scene comes in, he begins to steal the film, acting-wise.

It's a slow starting film and it doesn't get really hands-to-the-armrest-engaging until the last (very eerie) twenty minutes. Sure, it's re-exploring the stomping ground of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and the ending's blueprint ripped straight from the school of "Blair Witch", but in the sake of way their concept is being frighteningly carried out through these security cameras -it is still engaging. By no means in the way that it provides a pseudo-realism because it's on video -more the fact, that it's hyper-stylized and we are so separated from what's going on that we're perversely wanting to see them get killed off one by one.

I don't applaud it as a completed work; I applaud as a bold experiment that got half of its hypothesis right and the other half wrong. With the right performances and right structure inside of said visual concept -it could've been a fantastic horror film. But it's simply eye-candy, and that isn't wrong -it's just what it is.

My Little Eye is yet another take on the horror of reality television. The webcast show has simple rules: Five contestants must live in a house for six months to win one million dollars. If anyone leaves, the group collectively loses. The five contestants are all stereotypes: Good girl Emma (Laura Regan), awkward Dannny (Stephen O'Reilly), sarcastic loner Rex (Kris Lemche), strong and silent Matt (Sean CW Johnson), and hot chick Charlie (Jennifer Sky). Horror movie fans will be able to pick out the villain right away. This review contains spoilers!

As time progresses the stakes get higher. The heating system dies in the middle of winter. Strange noises wake the contestants up in the middle of the night. Packages that would normally contain food instead contain bricks, alcohol, and weapons. The Company running the show begins doing its level best to lure the contestants away from the house, all under the watchful eye of cameras that are everywhere - in the bedroom, in the bathroom, inside phones, flashlights, and even pens.

What makes My Little Eye so interesting is that the viewer is part of the experience. Every scene is shot from one of the video cameras monitoring the show within the movie, so if you see a contestant in the film, that's actually a camera. The intrusive all-seeing shots we take for granted in movies become a creepy means of menacing the protagonists. By watching the death spiral on the show, the audience becomes a passive participant in what amounts to a snuff film.

My Little Eye makes a feint at being a traditional horror movie, complete with a tale of revenge reaching far back into one contestant's history. Jaded horror fans will be pleased by My Little Eye's take on such campfire tales: the old "someone from my past wants to kill me" is as more about the teller's ego. Real evil, the film reinforces, is from an uncaring world.

My Little Eye has plenty of flaws. It is as much soft core porn as it is horror, filled with lame jump cuts, random shrieks, and wooden characters. Fortunately, it's saved by the nihilistic conclusion when our self-absorbed heroes discover they're not nearly as popular they hoped. There's no happy ending here the contestants, but then My Little Eye is more about the audience than its subjects.

Basic flick about a bunch of 20-somethings who agree to participate in a reality-internet show with the goal to stay in a house for 6 months and win a prize. Not surprisingly, the seeming innocuousness turns to sadistic/voyeuristic side of human nature quickly. All in all, the movie is at best average. The concept isn't all that creative, and the production values are subpar (but this is partly due to the footage that is supposed to be from webcams). The acting is ok though, and the character development is surprisingly decent. I just didn't find the story to be particularly compelling or interest-maintaining.

Considering how woefully misconceived his follow-up Trauma was, it's a surprise to find that Marc Evans' debut, My Little Eye, is actually a pretty good and considerable less self-indulgent little horror that puts a relatively new spin on the Old Dark House/Ten Little Indians genre without doing too much new with it. A slasher movie with a Big Brother spin, the first half-hour is almost as tediously underwhelming as any 'reality' show: while it doesn't entirely convince us that these characters have spent nearly six months living on each other's nerves, it does threaten to try our patience. Yet it gradually becomes more interesting as a series of incidents make the ill-matched housemates wonder whether the internet show's producers are trying to scare them out of a million dollar prize or if there's something much more sinister behind the almost impossible to find and curiously unadvertised website... Around the 70-minute mark there are no real surprises, merely efficient execution, and there is one truly insulting moment of oh-there-may-be-a-killer-in-the-house but-I-think-I'll-sit-down-and-play-this-video-game that's-been-conveniently-left-on with-my-back-turned-to-the-whole-room stupidity that lets it down, but even if the ending is predictable it's just a little bit nastier than expected.

Several years from now, once we look back on this generation (years 2000-2005) many of us will cringe at the phenomenon of reality TV. Shows that inexplicably draw top ratings on the basis of absurd concepts and gullible viewership; shows about boring dysfunctional families,manufactured pop stars and plastic surgery makeovers. Has network television, in all its history, ever stooped so low? Many people are finally becoming hip to this and are spoofing the whole reality TV phenomenon and its impact on today's culture. Even better, horror movies like "My little eye" are now being made about the potentially devastating effects of taking the reality phenomenon a step too far.

"My Little Eye" opens with an advertisement posted on a website:
<WANTED: 5 Contestants for reality webcast. Spend 6 months in a house for $1 million. If anyone leaves everyone loses!>
The setting is then fast forwarded to 5 months and 3 weeks later. The contestants now have only one week left to go before hitting their jackpot. The last 5 and a half months seemed to have gone pretty smoothly however in this last week all hell breaks loose. The contents of the bi-weekly package deliveries are now becoming increasingly gruesome in nature. Worse, some of the contents in the packages are exposing flaws to each character that were previously unknown to anyone else. Someone outside the house is playing sick pranks; or is it one of the 5 contestants? Some of the contestants want to leave but the others won't allow it. After all there's a million bucks on the line...

The plot sounds like one of so many straight-to-vid teenie slashers but this movie is not like that. It's an indie film shot in Canada that relies on clever dialogue and plot development to make up for its limited budget. If I had to compare it to another film, I would point to "Cube", another fantastic Canadian horror film. It has a similar mood and atmosphere. The frights begin right away; from the very first moment one of the contestants screams her head off you know you're in for an intense ride. The house feels warm, serene and has all the amenities of a regular home such as TV, Nintendo, etc. but the weather and the setting lends a certain amount of claustrophobia to the film. The last week of the contest takes place in the middle of a winter storm. It's so cold outside that nobody wants to step outside, not even onto the back porch.

One of the more effective scenes takes place around the dinner table when one of the contestants utters a chilling line; "Statistically you're a lot less likely to be killed by a stranger than by someone you know". From then on the viewer is put on alert to not trust any of the central characters. The only thing that bothered me about this film was the gullibility of the 5 contestants in entering this game. Shouldn't they have done more research on the legitimacy of this web company? Had it not ever crossed their mind that this game could have been set up by one of literally thousands of web creeps out there? I was not bothered however by the sometimes pedestrian nature of the film. Sure it's sometimes slow and overly talkative but that's the point; it's about a reality show with people sitting around a house, waiting for time to pass and with not much more to do with their time than to discuss what they'll do once they have a million dollars. This is not meant to be a roller-coaster paced film; it's slowed down so that when the chills come, they're that much more effective. Although this is not a film that I see standing well to repeat viewings, it is certainly worth a rental for those looking for a refreshing horror experience.

Take a little of "The Blair Witch Project" and "The Last Exorcism", throw in any number of 'prolonged stay in a haunted house' movies, a scene from "Silence of the Lambs" and probably scenes from other movies I can't bring to mind and you get "My Little Eye."

Here's the scoop. Five people answer an ad to be part of a reality pod cast where they need to spend 6 months in a remote house in the northeast (Delaware?) and they collect one million bucks. But it's all or nothing. If one person walks, they all forfeit the dough. Of course, near the end of their stay, things start going south and all are in peril.

The writing is decent though some of the key scenes could have been more heated. The actors all have a serious number of TV credits under their belts. I've seen Kris Lemche in other projects and Brad Cooper is becoming a household name, but they all do a decent job. The cinematography is interesting. Some shots are from the pod caster's cameras (some of those are in night vision mode) while others are straight up like a regular movie. Some scenes have a genuinely creepy look/feel to them. The scenes unfold at an accelerating pace. Clues are divulged and tension builds. Then more and more and faster and faster until things are ready to pop. Not too much attention is paid to the house itself which is a shame as it looks really cool from the outside. All the other production values are competent.

The point of its nature being highly derivative certainly detracts some from its credibility. One can see the producers trying to derive a formula from the various sources to come up with this amalgam, but the results are, at the very least watchable. I did find myself trying to figure out where things were going and how they would be played. It held my interest and, at the end of the day, that counts for something. With a running time of 1 hour and 39 minutes it stays just long enough to not wear out its welcome.

If you're into this sort of mystery thriller, you could do a lot worse. Order up a pizza, crack open a beer and have at it.