Don't Open Your Eyes

I'm the kind of person who likes things everyone else scoffs at and abhors the popular so it's not surprising to find myself enjoy this movie. Then again, the main character reminded me so much of a former friend of mine, I was a bit more patient with it than others who've reviewed this.

Yes, it's a cheap, low budget movie that is very clearly someone's pet project. The kind of schlock I love.

So, we have a male nurse who takes a job as a home hospice carer to save money for his wedding, frequently pulling out the engagement ring to remind himself of why he's putting up with the needs of this sour, foul tempered old lady whose suffering appears to be caused by her one instance of showing a hint of joy.

But the old lady is a practicing occultist and has prolonged her own life at the expense of victims, who continue to prowl about and go "boo!" after the old lady's death. Our boy is stuck in the house after the adopted daughter of the biddy just straight up leaves him there with the dead lady in the most blatant construction of the isolation trope you may ever find. He's left to stumble about in the dark with a spooketty tape recorder and come to terms with the failings of faith and traditions while being harassed by spoopies and ghoulies who come out at night to be creepy.

There are a couple points of the movie lacking in any logic or reasoning. Less as plot holes and more a lazy cop-out of "ghosts did it! deal with it!" The soundtrack is nonsense.

It could have been streets better. Still, it's not so worthy of trashing. Not really. Or I'm just being nice because the guy reminds me of someone I knew. One or the other.

After watching the trailer I was excited to see this movie. First I have to say I thought the actors did a great job! So when you see these reviews please don't blame yourselves, you guys are the only reason this thing stayed a float as long as it did. As for the writer, I think it was a creative and cool "concept" you had but the over all story line just got tedious as dialog in the movie became nothing more than random sputtering making no sense at all. Very hard to understand and I don't mean because of an actors accent, I mean the lines given to her were just meaningless utter nonsense leaving the viewer in complete confusion. To make matters worse, the ending made absolutely no sense what so ever. What even happen to john? What was the little boys ghost role in the movie? I mean so many things that were not really planned out when making the movie. The shooting of the movie, editing, scenery were all good too. Again, story line was sorely lacking and if anything left viewers frustrated asking questions.

This is a slow burn without much story. The tale is actually in the old woman, her aging, her pain and her vindictiveness, and she presents it well. Other than that it's mostly a waiting game, waiting for the scary stuff and it comes, thank heaven. She blossoms into a truly frightening boogie-lady. I'm always about the scares but it's barely enough to carry this flick. A home nurse is left alone with his moribund patient in an old summer-home in isolation on a lake. She hates him and treats him like dirt. He is professional and caring until she destroys the charity he originally had for her. Either way, she gets so scary by the end that she sends him running for the safe circle every night. Tee hee.

I really liked the cinematography which was atmospheric and reminded me of classic horrors such as The Omen and The Exorcist, with wintry outside shots slightly blue grey.

For the most part the visuals in the film were excellent - moody with interesting shot choices that really kept visual interest.

As for the story. It was an interesting concept that fell far short in delivery.

In the end this film became tedious to watch. Long dialogues that were difficult to understand and make out through the thick accent of the main actress -Gergana Mellin - and her portrayal of the character. No doubt she is a good actress and her theatre experience showed through, but something went very wrong in the volley of scenes where she relays important information about the story that just get lost. Perhaps it was a technical issue - either way, it just ended up being boring to try and figure out.

I also think there was a severe lack of build-up to some of the pivotal parts in the film. They just seemed to happen without any drama associated with them, and were gone as soon as they arrived. This led to a linear experience watching this film. There was nothing to get excited about, scared at, or have any particular emotional response to.

The ending also left a lot to be desired. Again, there was no build up or anticipation and it just happened fairly much as expected.

There are other points that detract from the enjoyment of watching this film, but I can't be bothered going in to them.

It is a shame. There were brilliant aspects such as the visuals, then the abysmal application of story telling. This is not a film I would want to watch again, which it could have been with a little more thought going in to telling the story.

I downloaded and watched this low budget pos yesterday. Saturday afternoon, nice day, relaxing on my day off, it's the weekend, I feel like watching some horror, what the hell. When I say this was just slow awful and stupid, I'm being very nice. Don't open your eyes to this crap is a better title or don't even bother, would be more suitable, this was just awful. Avoid this three cast F upped class horror..ble film. A portion of my day off ruined.