Tung ngan

Given My penchant for Asian horror films, I watched this film with high expectations. I was left disappointed, perplexed and a little angry. There are many shortcomings in the quality and production of this movie that were perpetually disagreeable.

Supposedly this film was released in 3D and I can see how that would be effective in entertaining audiences given a handful of scenes that seem to jump out at you. Yet, there's no point behind it if the plot fails and the acting isn't up to par. The overall quality of the scenes, story and acting made Me think that this for a low-budget made-for-TV mini-series in Asia.

Like many Asian Show-It-To-Americans movies, it has been completely dubbed in English, and it is some of the most horrendous dubbing vocals imaginable! For an example, imagine a scene where a speeding truck is careening towards your unsuspecting friend in the street...so you belt out "QUICK! LOOK BEHIND YOU!". Later it's dubbed and then sounds like you lazily asking for a chai latte at the cafe instead. I wonder if the dubbing vocalists even looking at the movie. The voices don't even match the appearances of the actors they dub, and there's not the slightest hint of an accent for these young Chinese vacationers either...really? Yes, really. They sound like they're from L.A.

The setting is creepy enough. It's frequently mentioned that the hotel is very big yet there's no indication of such from the outside nor inside of the hotel set, in fact it seems small and uncomfortably cramped.

Pretty much every sign posted and every person speaking in Thailand (in which the movie is set and filmed) is in English. I'm no jet-setting international traveler but this seems really fictitious to Me.

The acting is largely sub-par, even if I'd seen it in it's original language it's clear that the acting isn't believable. I blame poor dubbing first of course, followed closely by inexperienced amateur actors, and inappropriate directing equally.

An initially promising storyline quickly stumbles into the type of absurdity that leaves the viewer confused and dismissive. There's no character development, nor a clear picture of who these people are and why we should be interested in them. There's an interesting plot of riots, civil unrest, and demonstrations where they are vacationing which leads them to take shelter at the hotel (and which they stupidly wander outside to witness firsthand) but that's as far as this idea plays into the film.

There's a rude yet mysterious staff at this creepy hotel, a group of strange children roaming about the hotel who are referred to as orphans, and hints that a ghost is stalking their party. All that is good and understood. Then the audience is sent for an insensible loop for the rest of the film, becoming more detached to the story as the events become more unintelligible.

I enjoy being sent for a loop in a film, but I like to come out of it feeling like I know what I just witnessed and understand it. That's not to be found here, so frustrating.

The film does manage a few successful creep-out moments, and initially a promising storyline. Yet it fails miserably a so many other points there's no point in discussing all the REST of them.

I'd suggest to skip this one (I rarely say that!). It's more bothersome than it's worth.

I usually like the Pang Brothers so gave this a shot. It was better than a lot of works that get over here, but not exceptional. The story was not that convoluted that it could not be followed. It was a straight-forward ghost story with some redemption - nothing surprising for fans of The Eye.

Originally this was done in 3-D and you can tell some of the scenes were designed to take advantage of that, but it was not too over-the-top about it. It works quite well in 2D.

Some of the acting feels a little weak, but it is not bad enough to be distracting. A few tense moments where they don't go for an obvious scare, even after a large build-up. Refreshing that not everything is predictable.

I found this movie to be relatively entertaining but not fantastic. This movie revolves around a really dark hotel. This movie is rather unique as it has the elements of comedy, horror and fantasy. The idea used in this movie about this dog-human hybridisation was very original and interesting. This idea was not used in other horror movies before. The dark and tense atmosphere used in this movie was great. There were a few jumpy scenes. This movie has its mystery elements and has a rather decent storyline. The acting in this movie was quite good, although the acting of the creepy girl in the movie was very poor. The fantasy land used in this movie was quite interesting and original. I love the scary scene where one of the main characters vomited white gory stuff, followed by blood, and then his tongue. He seemed to be possessed. I thought this scene was done very well and was really scary. However, there are also flaws in this movie as well. This movie does not build terror and fear very effectively. It gets less and less scary towards the end of the movie. The ending for this movie requires a whole lot of explanation as it was just so confusing.The movie was too fast paced to be scary. There were many scary scenes in this movie. Some of the scenes were very memorable. I would prefer this movie to build tension and fear around the beginning of the movie with some scary scenes, and let it get scarier and scarier towards the end of the movie.This movie did not manage to build terror and fear towards the end of the movie. This movie should have its scariest scenes towards the end ofthe movie and not end the movie with some very touching stuff. This movie tries to be touching towards the end but did not manage to do so. This movie does not have any suspenseful moments. Hence, this movie did not manage to be as well made as ringu, Ju-on or One Missed Call. Overall, I found this to be an average movie with some entertaining scenes. Recommended. Score:7.7/10

After the disappointing films of The Eye 2 & The Eye 3, The Child's Eye is a step back to the excellent first film (although not as good) and some of the elements that made The Eye so enjoyable were evident in this fourth installment of the film series. Thankfully, unlike the third film, there's no comedy scenes here...it was back to being serious like the first two movies, and the creep factor also returns and it returns big style.

Now, the story for this installment is a pretty strange one, especially for the last 30 minutes or so, but at least it's imaginative. It's not that big on character development, though. I mean, we're given the basics really and that's about it. In fact, we get to know more about the wee dog in the film than we do with some of the main characters, so I guess that aspect of the film is a bit disappointing. In saying that, however, this isn't some sort of boring, deep & meaningful drama. This is Asian horror, and while I'm not saying Asian horror films can't have decent character depth, sometimes you just have to take the film for what it's supposed to be.

What really makes this film is the atmosphere, the suspense, and the creepiness, and you can tell that The Pang Brothers went all out to achieve this when watching the film. And they succeed because the tension & uneasiness created through different scenes was nothing short of excellent. This is mainly why I gave it the rating I did, and I know that with such a weak development for the characters in the story, if there was very little in the way of atmosphere then The Child's Eye would have bombed for me.

In my opinion, The Child's Eye has been unfairly panned by a lot of critics. Why? Maybe certain people are too used to seeing run-of-the-mill "jump scare" American style horrors where everything is spelled out for them. Who knows, but this is definitely not as bad as some people would have you believe.

It's not as good as the first but it's still worth a watch.

The most beautiful part about horror movies, the very essence is whether you've experienced that eerie feeling on a brink of "I just can't see it any further" and of course shivers. To summarize, this one delivers both. Couple of scenes are real, real creepy.

New words to the genre? Yes - I'm following horrors quite closely and still have found new tricks. Visual candy - yes, I've liked a lot the way camera played about dimensions, 3D-oriented scenes were also likable. Derivative to The Eye, Insidious and Re-cycle - also yes, quite unfortunately. But! I'd l-love to see more derivatives to Insidious.

Well, one can complain also about full-straightforward story, which is not so to say. So-so direction - here I can agree, but did you ever see stronger performance from teens in Asian horrors? (Pals, this is not a J-horror, it is from Thailand/Hong Kong) Not likely, so why complain too much?

I can mumble a while around longish scenes, but I can also cease it on the fact that this is quite typical for pan-Asian movie school and well, this is not a Transformers franchise anyway.

All in all this is a solid, quite creative 6/10 effort well worth watching for those who seek for new tricks on the horror arena. Give it a shot - at least to your exploratory agenda.