My Little Eye

Five strangers are brought together to take part in a reality web cast, the rules are simple; they must stay in an isolated house together for 6 months to receive the prize of $1 Million, if anyone of them leaves early they all lose.

When strange things begin to occur in the house, the group suspect that someone is trying to scare them out of the house; but perhaps there is more to it than meets the eye.

Marc Evans Directs a cast of relative unknowns through this quite fresh feeling chiller, and he manages to create a dark and creepy atmosphere that helps to build and sustain the tension in preparation for a fine climax.

OK, so its a fairly trashy and a little easy to predict at times; but My Little Eye still prevails as a pretty original piece of work, that provides a few shocks.

7/10

Funnily enough, before the film they showed a trailer for the new HALLOWEEN flick (out in the UK in time for, well, you know ...); I heard a few people muttering that this seemed to have exactly the same plot as the film we were about to see (we'll gloss over KOLOBOS and BIG BROTHER.COM - THE MOVIE, shall we?).

MY LITTLE EYE has had some blistering reviews, and, unlike most genre efforts, has had a TV ad blitz, which is probably why the Sunday night screening I saw was way over 3/4 full.

As often seems to happen with these things I had invited a few friends who don't mind a few horror-lite morsels but would rather not step into the darkside. They thought they were in for fluff; as the movie progressed, and became darker and darker in tone, I realised I had made something of a mistake inviting them. "Whoops!", I thought, trying to avoid their ashen faces in the flickering light.

I don't want to give anything away, really, lest to say that the two movies that this reminded me of most were THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and SESSION 9: they were all shot on video, and they all had an unrelenting bleakness and

an innate power to unnerve which distinguished them from the popcorn horrors of, say, SCREAM and the modern crop of audience pleasers (which I having nothing against, by the way).

The makers of MY LITTLE EYE use a dizzying array of discordant camera angles and white noise (and loud jarring sonic shards to unnerve its audience); it's the most inventive low budget genre film making I've seen since THE EVIL DEAD, and it doesn't seem overly contrived, or forced; the subject matter and set-up (the Big Brother'esque all seeing cameras constantly whirring, slipping in and out of focus) lend itself to it perfectly.



As the majority of reviews point out, this *is* scary stuff. It's unnerving; getting under your skin like THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE did. There is no comic relief what-so-ever. The film's all-pervading nihlism spreads - relentlessly - like an ever increasing black ink blot. To say it won't end well is not spoiling anything, really; it's clear from the opening scenes that we're on a one way journey downwards.

Essentially, stripped of all it's visual trickery and clever manipulation, it's a teen horror flick at core (a teen slasher movie at that), but it's a million miles away from genre films like URBAN LEGEND, and it's ilk.



MY LITTLE EYE (a British film made in Canada with American actors) is a gruelling hour and a half; it's endurance test horror. It's the kind of 'entertainment' (and I don't mean the inverted commas in a derogatory way, I just find it hard to equate this powerfully morbid film with that notion) which I never thought I'd see in the cinema again in this country. Judging by the total silence in the cinema, as the harrowing final shots faded, I doubt anyone else did either.

Real fans of the genre miss it at your peril!

My Little Eye is directed by Marc Evans, it's about five adults who agree to spend six months together in an isolated mansion in the hope of winning the $1million prize. The twist being that it's all being filmed for the internet and if just one of the house mates leaves? Then the task has failed. Pretty soon the house mates' resolve is tested as the mysterious "company" starts doing all they can to make the group implode…….

Riding in on the wave of Big Brother style reality shows and low budget documentary type films such as Blair Witch, My Little Eye is an unsettling and claustrophobic horror piece. The set up is perfect, an old dark house setting filled with darkened rooms and the whirring of cameras. Five unlikable characters (a reality TV staple it seems). And then there's us, the viewers. Observing as these five beings (three boys-two girls) are steadily tortured psychologically. We be voyeurs to edgy emotion as the group start to crack under duress, things from their pasts are used against them. And of course nothing is quite what it seems. Given the truly creepy first hour, the piece is not as scary as a whole as it could have been. But Evans utilises the cleverly conceived premise for a series of shocks and unease inducing sequences. The sound effects are jolting and the night time green tint moments are hugely effective. The cast are standard fare, but that's most likely the point of it all, in that we need wannabe stars instead of stars, and the finale has a nice bent to it that lifts it away from the film's it has took influence from. Good and creepy horror piece that has a terrific DVD release that further implicates us in the story. 7/10

Why all the bad comments? I don't understand it. True, most low budget thrillers are terrible. Serial killer knock offs without big name movie stars usually depend on gore effects, not characters, to keep us interested in what's going to happen next. This movie, though, is a tightly wound little scare piece that takes its time developing the characters and building suspense. The actors are terrific, the camera work unique and unsettling, and the direction always seems on target. The movie's main gimmick reads like it's going to be glib and possibly stupid, but the actors, and the director's ability to maintain a mood of foreboding, quickly dismisses any possible derision. I bought it and recommend it to anyone looking for a good, creepy thriller.

What a great idea: shooting a film using only web cams. I usually like to watch movies that aren't mainstream, and the concept of My Little Eye sure stands out.

The plot isn't that complicated; it focuses on five people trying to live in an old house in the middle of a forest. If they manage to stay there for six months without contacting the outside world, each of them wins 1.000.000$. If someone breaks the rules, everyone loses their million. The movie takes place in the final week of the competition, and suddenly, weird things start to happen. It seems that the contestants' pasts have come back haunting them. But as it usually is, some things aren't what they seem to be...

The cast of My Little Eye is great, since all of the few actors/actresses are pretty much 'non-famous' (for me at least), helping to create an illusion of an Big Brother-type of game, where ordinary people do stuff for money.

There is this certain tension throughout the movie, creating a disturbing feeling that 'something isn't right'. However, in my opinion this movie wasn't scary. I'd rather call this movie a thriller-, than a horror-movie.

Don't get me wrong, but the movie disappointed me a little. Everything in this movie was a bit pale. I admit, that the night-vision scenes were cool, but at the end of the movie you've definitely had enough of web cams.

Anyways... There are lots of much crappier movies than this, so if you consider yourself a voyeur or if you like Big Brother, you should give this movie a shot.