Two Eyes Staring - Der Tod ist kein Kinderspiel

The Dutch haven't made many horror films. When asked to list the ones he knew of, director Elbert van Strien said there were only five, although he could only recall the names of two of them. In other words, Holland is not well represented in this genre. The only other significant film in this area was the 1988 film The Vanishing; although not a bona fide horror film, it certainly was disturbing enough. Two Eyes Staring is, however, an unashamed horror film, seeing as its subject matter concerns ghosts and malevolent secrets from the past. And although it may not contain anything that exactly breaks the mould, it does succeed in providing some very effective and memorable scare scenes.

The story is basically about a couple and their little girl, Lisa, who move into a large house left by a recently deceased grandmother. The said grandparent was decidedly distant from her daughter and once in the stately home all manner of dark secrets begin to surface via Lisa, who continually sees a ghost of a tragic little girl. These events lead to a serious breakdown in the family with tragic consequences.

Elbert van Strien has put together a very good ghost story here. He is helped ably by a small but good cast of actors. Especially fine were Isabelle Stokkel as Lisa, who puts in a great performance for such a young actress, but Hadewych Minis possibly steals the show as Christine, the mother; the two standout fright scenes in the film directly involve her. The first one sees Lisa awake in the night to see her mother staring down at her in a highly sinister way, while the second, and best, standout scene has Lisa witness her mother in the dead of night rabidly destroying her own artwork with a large kitchen knife, she then turns on her daughter with an extremely malevolent look on her face and attacks. In both of these simple but very well-executed sequences Hadewych Minis is truly terrifying. Alongside these well-crafted scenes, Two Eyes Staring also has a number of definite jump moments and the overall atmosphere is decidedly off-kilter. Although this is a ghost story it is also as much as anything about psychologically damaged people. This of course means that it is disturbing on two levels.

This is a fine blend of both supernatural and psychological horror. As I said earlier, it doesn't really deliver anything especially new to the genre. Nevertheless, it actually works as a horror film in that it frightens and occasionally surprises. And this is much more than most films of its type achieve. Apparently, but sadly unsurprisingly, this Dutch movie is going to be remade in America, despite not even having been released beyond the festival circuit yet, so all I can say is see it before this happens.

A mixture of del Toro like film material, not very original when i saw this one at the international premiere at the Edinburgh International film festival 2010.

A film worth seeing but nothing new if you are accustomed to films like the Devils backbone and the orphanage, (but not as good as either) Not bad from a country not known for horror/thriller films.

There's even talk of a Hollywood remake with an 'A' list star. The director wouldn't say who but that wont be as good as this original as with most Hollywood remakes it will be over the top and most likely rubbish.

Well...

I still don't know what to say. The movie start out pretty cool with a few very good shock effects, "creepy little kid galore", and then... Well... It doesn't built tension, it releases it. In my opinion, the movie gets lamer with every minute...

What you get, though, is descent camera work and music. The actors look like they know what they do, although I really can't recommend the German dub, this plain sucks. Yes, I watches it German, and the voices sound stupid most of the time. And with stupid, I mean REALLY stupid. Tried a bit of the movie in it's original language, and it sounded better, although I didn't understand very much, the voices seemed much more believable.

If you ask me, the movies biggest flaw is that it starts REALLY creepy and after maybe half of the movie, it tries to develop into some sort of drama. And for the whole second half of the movie, it doesn't what what it wants to be: horror movie or drama.

And yes, with this being a "new age" horror movie, you will (of course) get a major plot twist towards the end. Which doesn't save the movie from being boring, except for the first 15 or 20 minutes or so.

Don't buy it! Go rent it out instead. If you wanna see creepy little kids, then you're right, but turn the player off after 60 minutes. Or go for "The Orphanage".

Even if the movie was OK as in an good production, good camera work, OK actors, the story heads to a point that you will not believe. I mean whoever wrote the script either gave up or simply had a deadline that clearly he could never hit properly so the last pages were written just for a "full" script.

This is my main complaint about the movie and whoever saw it, will understand, I mean what where they thinking?!? How could they move on with such a plot, a story used by so many before only this one ending like a train wreck. Anyway, there are far more better European horrors out there, go take a look, especially in the North. You'll find something worth your while.

Cheers!

Though the trailer of 'Two eyes staring' made the movie seem scary and interesting to me, I was gravely disappointed after watching it. The storyline had a lot of potential, but unfortunately it was underdeveloped and unexplained. Thinking of movies like 'The others' with the same principles, make this movie look like a movie for kids. There wasn't a single scene in the movie that scared me. Actress Hadewych Minis might be the only thing about the movie that deserves a lot of praise. Her acting made the movie worthwhile. It wasn't horrible, but it just wasn't living up to my expectations. If you want to watch an simple movie for a relaxing night and you're done with the romantic comedies, this one might please you.Six out of ten for effort.