Evil Eye

What I really liked was that the movie never gets boring. It is always suspenseful and you keep focussed. The movie has a good and suitable atmosphere.

Also the music is great. It is not dominant but still noticeable and always suitable to the corresponding scene.

The scaring effects where almost always predictable but still good and still scaring - at least in the cinema.

The story was good even if I expected most of the "plot twists".

I also liked the design of the creatures and other stuff.

Overall I would say it is a quite classic movie. Don't expect too much nee stuff or things you have never Seen.

We all know the story behind The Evil Eye. Actually, many stories- and in most countries those stories are taken quite seriously. Mexico is one. It's been said that just a strong glance can cast a spell on those most vulnerable- babies and small children- resulting in illness or even death. The Aztec and Mayan Cultures date this phenomenon back as early as 1300 BC. Even today, almost all countries have bracelets designed to either repel or absorb this "negative energy".

Now, take the truly original imagination of one of Mexico's most gifted young filmmakers- and you may have something really special.

This story revolves around a family of 4 - William & Rebecca, and their two young daughters- Nala (played by promising Paola Miguel) and Luna- who is ill. The movie begins with her hospitalization. She has organ failure and there is nothing more they can do. In desperation, Rebecca turns to her estranged mother- played brilliantly by Ofelia Medina. She has not seen her mother in years, and the family have never met her. Ezban creates immediate sustained tension between all 3 women. Parents go away for a few days, leaving both kids alone with Grandma and her Maid - Abigail. Right off the bat, Nala and Grandma are at each other's throats. Their angst grows while little Luna's life hangs in the balance.

One night, Abigail tells both kids a scary tale about Triplets. In the story, an evil Witch pays them a visit at night to suck a child's blood in order to steal their youth. One girl got so sick, that the other 2 sisters in the story sought help from a Sorcerer and struck a deal- She taught the girls how to make a "Baca"- a Caribbean mythical being who grants wishes but in turn- brings evil. The stage is set.

What fascinates me with Witchcraft are the details. For example, they remove their skin - when they fly- only to "reskin" themselves later, and Salt proves deadly. Ezban creates this horrifying creature with little to no CGI. This film is a battle to the end between Grandma and Nala until reaching its shocking, conclusion.

Shout out to the amazing Production Design by Adelle Achar- Her work was brilliant in "El Incidente" as well. Her imagination and attention to detail perfectly complements Ezban's unique vision. Solid 8/10.

Mal de Ojo starts with an interesting premise if you are fans of folk horror. Sisters Nala and Luna are sent to her grandmother while their mother searches for alternative healing methods for Luna's strange sickness. But Nala suspects their grandmother might be an evil witch.

Now, for once, I need to be pick about the title: Evil Eye. I really did not notice any correlation between the title and the movie's story. I wonder what was the Director thinking.

Nala is a neglected teen. Her parents only have eyes for her dying sister - understandable, but Nala's flaw is exactly this: she wants attention, she is tired of being left aside. As the story progresses, we see minor themes like parenthood neglect and submission in place, but these themes don't have a toll on the story's arc. The arc is about the folklore surrounding witchcraft and the likelihood that their grandmother is a witch.

The character Nala is a bit off with current kids, I don't know. I even asked my 11-year-old: "would you be that naïve?" She denied. I tend to believe kids nowadays are not that stupid or gullible; Nala does look like a smart kid, but she keeps struggling to act for no apparent reason other then being submissive to Josefa's demands. I doubt someone so "I do my own" as she seemed to be wouldn't try something different faster. I guess only Stephen King knows how to truly depict children.

Some facts in the movie are obvious, but what keeps the movie strong is Paola Miguel's and Ofelia Medina's acting. Their on-going clash builds momentum as the story becomes darker, building their characters and leading us to the climax.

A climax that derails the movie a bit.

Up to this point, Mal de Ojo, whatever that means, is keeping us hooked enough for the ending revelation. The story does add a bit of exposition "just because", which detracts the entertaining factor. For example, the scope of the witchcraft's influences seems to affect more than just the grandmother's house, but the story explains nothing about this situation.

To wrap up the story, a twist leaves the overall arc too dark. The final scene keeps the story with folk roots, which dissatisfies the audience, as we'd expect a stronger arc ending for Nala.

Mal de Ojo doesn't stand out as one-of-a-kind, neither reinvents the wheel. This movie keeps to its folk-horror genre, delivering a promising story that builds itself strong, but the ending might throw some people off.

The Story: Parents ("Rebecca" and "Guillermo") desperate to save the life of their youngest daughter ("Luna") take Luna and her older sister ("Nala") to the countryside to visit the maternal grandmother ("Josefa") at her crumbling manorial estate. As the parental search for the cure requires more travel, they drop off Luna and Nala with Josefa while they continue their journey alone.

We quickly learn that the imperious and demanding Josefa has little patience for the outbursts of Nala. And Josefa's dismissive attitude toward her pre-teen granddaughter, while also dotting endlessly on Luna, bring Josefa and Nala to loggerheads at several points in the film. (Let's just say an iPhone pays a heavy price at a key moment in the film.) With Josefa at her neck, Nala quickly turns to the hired-help, "Pedro" and "Abigail," for assistance. With mixed results.

What follows is a rather well-done, but also rather conventional, story that feels closer to a Guillermo del Toro offering than Ezban's surprisingly off-beat and wonderfully surreal "The Incident" and "The Similars." The sets and lighting in "Evil Eye" are top notch, bathed in filtered light and the olive, hunter green, slate gray and yellowed color schemes that have become so familiar in the horror genre for the last twenty years or so. Yet at the heart of "Evil Eye" is a familiar folktale or parable: That a request for supernatural intervention in the present will require even greater sacrifices down the road. It was simply Nala's fate to be caught up in a transaction that was undertaken years ago, but now requires the debt to be repaid.

Indeed, it is one of Abigail's rural legends involving witchcraft that convince Nala at an early point in the movie that grandma really is a bruja. After enduring Josefa's dismissive and (frankly) cruel behavior, Nala attempts to leave the property with Luna several times, to no avail. Nala is convinced that grandma is literally draining the life out of Luna for her own "restorative" benefit. And as time passes, the old woman does indeed disappear into a mass of bandages that make her look less like an old woman than Claude Rains or a plastic surgery graduate. Nonetheless, it is this transformation, increasingly hidden from the viewer, that is the key to the last part of the film.

I can't say I was "let down" by "Evil Eye." It is a very good movie with a few neat twists, including the ending that I suspect many viewers will see coming before it arrives. But I do think Ezban, confronted with a much larger budget, was playing it very safe here. Despite the narrative frame at the beginning and end of the film, the narrative here is linear in a way that his other offerings to date have not been. And it is that loss of "quirkiness" that I perhaps miss the most. If Ezban was a sort of cinematic Jorge Luis Borges up to "Evil Eye," here he really is much more of a del Toro. That's not bad. It's just not what differentiated his work from the rest of the pack.

The Good Stuff:

• I just love when horror movies uses practical effects. There's a scene that reminded me of a Xenomorph from Aliens. I just loved it.

• Coco gave the world a view about mexican culture in a "cute" way. But this movie will teach you things about the witchcraft in Mexico.

• Almost every scene in the movie is a great scene to watch. All the colors fit and they used some nice effects for lights.

The Bad Stuff:

• The biggest problem I found watching this movie is maybe because I saw it in a bad place. But there's every now and then a hight pitch noise that just hurt hearing it.

• The ending seems to me like it was added in the last moment so no one will be "confused"

Overall: Great movie, maybe no the best. But way more interesting than your typicall slasher film.

It is a great movie to learn more about the "dark" side of Mexican culture. If you like practical effects, Mexico and witchcraft.