The Child's Eye

The Child's Eye may be Asia's first 3D horror film but it sorely lacked a compelling storyline. The acting further degraded the horror genre.

With the vast amount of information available online, encounter of another kind in Thailand is not a fresh idea to us. Having watched "Shutter" and "The Coffin", I was full of hope that I will be thrilled inside out again. Sadly, The Child's Eye did anything but that.

I am not even going to waste my time breaking apart the plot of the film. Let me just summarize it. A young group of friends were holidaying in Bangkok and found themselves caught in the midst of the political riots. Not being able to fly out of the country, they had to put up at a budget hotel where strange things began to happen. As more strange events occured, it revealed a story of a mother who died in grief and a hybrid child.

The Child's Eye gave me a feeling of a low-budget film even though the 3D title was publicised widely. It is no surprise to me that Genevieve Loh slapped on a "Frightfully Boring" title on it. But, who bothers to watch a 3D film with little regards for the storyline? That said, this production is better off as a 3D museum show piece than a commercially viable movie.

What's so disappointing about the film was how various scenes just didn't link up to one another. The group of friends ventured out into the rioting crowd, then, they saw something. A ghostly figure among the crowd and a sudden grasp by a ghostly hand while the crowd continue to scream their chants. For a while, I was almost a lost navigator in Indian Ocean and we weren't even 30 minutes into the film yet.

What about the possession of a friend and the mysterious disappearances of the characters? They were sleepy and in less than 2 minutes... poof, they're gone. Out of sight, out of mind. There was also little elaboration on other characters planted into the film. For example, the front desk auntie could have added on to the mystery with simple gestures without affecting the script. There could have been much more to the three kids and a ghost-sighting dog instead of walking in and out of the film with no real purpose. Except, to make the dog available of course.

The props and filming seemed to be under-coordinated too. While the hotel and rooms were naturally dusty and worn out, some other parts were spanking clean like a 5-star resort would be like. Baffling? You bet.

There were reports on Rainie Yang maturing in this film. Simply, they read like some blind marketing obligations for God knows why. If you need a good case-study of maturing celebrities, I recommend that you glance over to Ayumi Hamasaki (many of her fans still cannot get over the loss of cutie Ayu), Kate Winslet (try watching both Titanic and The Reader, then tell me what you think) or perhaps, Jolin Tsai on her multiple transformation and music style (even though she did no films). I just don't see how Rainie has matured with this film. Moving from a childhood love-hate relationship to a horror flick isn't exactly a good benchmark to gauge the maturity of a celebrity's career.

Also, the acting of the other characters were at best, amateurish.

While the movie did rely heavily on darkened scenes and sound effects to bring about the scary aspects, the visuals and flow of the story let it down grossly. Hey, which horror flick doesn't come with dark spots as part of the standard package? I can't seem to remember any.

As the film drew towards the end, the truth was finally revealed. The truth (the pain and grief of the dead mother) was anything but touching. I got the Pang brothers idea of horror at least for this time. A ghost must always be a ghost and must always look ghostly, even if there's a sob story to be told. That little sight-seeing trip in her paper world, I wonder which interior design film the Pang brothers worked with. Honest, no pun intended.

Just when you thought everything was over when mother ghost decided to give up her hatred for a better after-life (except the gross preservation of her physical body), suddenly the group dies in an accident. Or, did they not? Seriously, I don't know.

What I do know though, even if there's a Part Two to it, I'll gladly sleep over it. Please don't hurt my eyes.